Op-Ed: The Truth About Shirley Sherrod, Big Government and the NAACP

Was Shirley Sherrod's video clip an indication of racism within the federal government? Hardly, if you learn the whole story. Big Government and the NAACP got it wrong.

Given the recent controversy surrounding the Tea Party and the NAACP’s charges of racism within its elements, there’s no surprise that supporters of both factions are looking long and hard to find certifiable proof that someone’s pot is calling the kettle black. And Andrew Breitbart thought he found it in Shirley Sherrod. But, as expected in politics, the whole story wasn’t told. Breitbart's Big Government website features a YouTube clip showing Sherrod, now former USDA Director of Rural Development in Georgia, speaking at an NAACP Freedom Fund dinner in March, telling a story about how she didn’t fully help a white farmer when he asked for help saving his farm. Sherrod goes on to say that she thought the farmer talked as if he was superior to her and that Sherrod decided to not give him the “full force” of her help, thinking that the new bankruptcy laws and taking him to a white lawyer would end up saving him anyway. He would eventually get help by “his own kind”. The firestorm ensues. Cries of a double standard are sent through the internet, blogospheres and Twitterverse. How can the NAACP call another organization racist when they have racism within their own, especially when it involves a federally appointed official? The problem is that Shirley Sherrod’s story wasn’t complete. The rest of the story, as she tells it, goes like this: It happened in 1986, long before she was in a federally appointed position. Sherrod was working for a non-profit group. She did, indeed, withhold the help she could have given the farmer. But when she learned that he was not getting the help he needed from anyone, Sherrod changed her mind and gave him more assistance.

"I was telling the story of how working with him helped me to see the issue is not about race. It's about those who have versus those who do not have."

That assistance eventually helped save his farm. Says who? Eloise Spooner, husband of Roger Spooner, the farmer in question. Eloise saw the story on the news and turned to her husband, Roger and said she couldn’t believe what they were doing to his “friend”. So she made contact with CNN and told her side.

She treated us really good and got us all we could," said Eloise Spooner, of Iron City, Georgia. Spooner said she remembered that Sherrod helped find an attorney to help her husband, Roger.

She added she doesn't believe Sherrod is being treated fairly.

You could see Sherrod wiping away tears as Eloise told the Spooner’s side. Breitbart isn’t the only person who didn’t get all the facts before posting. The NAACP made the same mistake. They quickly condemned the clip and actually put a statement on their website.

“We would hope all who share our outrage at Sherrod’s statements would join us in pushing for these cases to be remedied.”

They’ve since removed it but (by no surprise) you can still find it on Breitbart’s Big Government website as of press time. Sherrod says they never contacted her to find out the whole story.

“That hurts, if you look at my history…I’ve done more to advance civil rights in this area than some of those sitting in positions there.”

Sherrod went on to say she never used race as a factor since that event, to include here tenure with the USDA. I guess Big Government can’t be trusted after all. And if the NAACP wants to make charges of racism against anyone, they needn't worry about the pot calling the kettle black. They just need to look before they leap.