Friday, July 30, 2010

Hightower on the Sherrod business

I've admired Jim Hightower for a long time now and so I was happy this morning to see that he's weighed in on the disgusting racist story of the hour. The article is entitled "Why Is No One Talking About the Real Tragedy Behind the Shirley Sherrod Fiasco?" and here's the lead:

The Shirley Sherrod fiasco didn't just expose ugliness on the part of Breitbart, Fox News and Obama. It also overshadowed another, truly racist act.

Here's the part of the article that really, really, really got my attention:

Ugly Number Three is the Barack Obama White House, which swallowed the Breitbart-Fox false story whole and immediately dismissed Sherrod from her federal job. They literally tracked her down in her car and forced her to phone in her resignation, without letting her tell the true story!

To me, the Obama ugliness is the worst, for it reveals a shameful lack of loyalty, fairness and feistiness. Like ACORN and Van Jones before, Sherrod was under vicious and false attack from Obama's enemies -- but the Obamites are so afraid of right-wing smear artists that they instantly run from them, cravenly abandoning their friends. Hello -- if you don't stand for your friends, who'll stand for you?

I did not know that bit about Ms Sherrod being tracked down in her car. That is absolutely despicable.

And I agree that it is utterly reprehesible that President Obama is so afraid of being seen to favor African Americans that he'll turn on them without even the semblance of a proper investigation. Hasn't he figured out by now that the right-wing smear machine has absolutely no compunction when it comes to the dirtiest of dirty tricks?
~~~

1 comment:

  1. It is election time. No matter what you think, Obama is not black. Not black in the sense that he did not grow up in a ghetto, he was raised by white people in a state that is multi-cultural (Hawaii) where his race was probably beside the point. I like Obama very much, but I can understand that he is very sensitive about being seen to be pro-black rather than just pro-American.

    Therefore, when this situation came to light, I didn't blame him or his administration for reacting right away. Obama is seen by many as being too contemplative, as spending too much time thinking things over -- however, it seems that when he acts too quickly or without the "whole story," it invariably leads to a mistake... Instead of expecting a quick response we should allow him the time to investigate and to gather all the facts so that he is not taken by surprise by those right-wingers who would love to embarass him. Give him a break, please. Ms. Sherrod has accepted his apology -- so should we.

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