The More Important Segment Of The Shirley Sherrod Video That Few People Are Talking About

Note - this is a clip of the original video, begging at approx the 21:40 mark



When I made my earlier post about how Shirley Sherrod, a Black woman in America who suffered through the murder of a parent does not place her into special company - some people accused me of being shameful in my proclamation. I was not focusing on Shirely Sherrod but instead upon those who selectively assign value to a Black person who has been victimized by a White while remaining strangely silent when it comes to Blacks who are attacked and murdered by other Blacks.

I stand by my observation and my choice to lift up the Black killer of Black people to a status of equal contempt as is a White killer of Blacks. If we are searching for equality why not start here and begin to treat them as such?

I just viewed the entire run of the speech by Shirely Sherrod. I agree with many of the macro-level points that she has made regarding her suggestions to the young people to be conscious about the opportunities that are out there that are going begging for someone to come along and take them. There is no debate about the correctness of these points.

The problem that I have with Mrs Sherrod's message is that she, like Barack Obama, is able to tell a narrative about her enemies but is unwilling to connect the dots as to the sins of her "friends".

Certainly the thought of having a Black woman in the past having to dawn a shotgun in order to scare off racist White men who set foot on her property to burn a cross to intimidate her and her family is quite unsettling. Mrs Sherrod is unwilling to update her story for 2010 to make note that today these Black women in question more frequently have guns pointed at them. The "man" with the gun trained upon her is less frequently WHITE. Despite the fact that RACISM is not this modern man's motivation the spirit which does have him motivated proves to be as deadly and intimidating.

The video clip listed above highlights the portion of the speech were Mrs Sherrod felt compelled to call out her enemies, tell of the common enemy of the poor and then suggest that a class based progressive movement be made for the interests of all of these aggrieved people.

I would love to ask Mrs Sherrod if she believes that these fellow "Poor Whites" have any ideological and political views that they should retain or must they drop their "foolish" ideas and come up under her tent - as Rev Joseph Lowery has so frequently indicated in his numerous "we need to come together under one tent" speeches.  With poor Whites sticking to their Republican roots and poor Blacks going for the Democrats - can either Sherrod or Lowery see that their continued impoverishment is pointing to something other than party loyalty as the grand elixir toward a fix.   In fact, Mrs Sherrod never does hit upon what "it" is.

I could not help bot notice that when Mrs Sherrod talked about "health care" she framed it as an issue of WEALTH PROTECTION by the "haves". This does not stand up to the scrutiny of inspection.

Today more than any other time in our history - with more control over our schools, the economic wherewithal of our communities and, most of all - the control over our "labor and human resources" - there has never been a more opportune time for the Black community (and the poor Whites) to align all of the institutions and resources that are at their disposal to provide for these social entitlements that at present - Mrs Sherrod, Barack Obama and many Progressive-Fundamentalists can only see delivered by nationalized, confiscatory policies.

These points of disconnection ultimately doom an otherwise coherent speech by Mrs Sherrod. She never seems to grasp the irony of how so much of the funding available from her own government organization goes unclaimed that so too is the in ability for these aggrieved groups to identify a need for a higher standard of living via health care, the elimination of "food deserts" and economic development by engaging the maximum number of beings that need to have their skills applied in the region at hand.

Indeed cities like Augusta Georgia are crime plagued. We can go around to any number of towns around the South, around the nation and say the same thing.

The common denominator in all of these places have to do with the benign neglect which has allowed those who should otherwise be pillars in their community to morph into Street Pirates and other assailants of the community's soul and equilibrium. These forces draw upon the community's resources rather than contribute. Many of those "Police Abuse" claims that are so popularly talked about in Progressive circles stem from the painful fact that these unmanaged human resources are also the forces that are attracting the external police forces to enforce the law, thus standing in the breach between civility and chaos.

In summary - Mrs Sherrod never makes the strong linkage between - the DEMAND for - DIRECTED OUTCOMES where it is said:

IF........you want this standard of living in your community........
THEN.........you must do these things that I have laid out for you
ELSE.........you have to be content because you have done everything necessary to end up where you presently reside.


My final plea with all of you reading this.  Make note of MY perspective and analysis of Ms Sherrod's video - regardless of how negative and critical you might think I am...........................and now go to the hundreds of other BLOGS and OPINION COLUMNS and find ONE which ever moves away from the "Racist Republican Operatives" subplot and instead keys in on the connections that I have observed.

I have no implicit hatred for Mrs Sherrod or the NAACP or Progressives.
It is simply my opinion that when it comes to the most pressing issues that translate to a MANAGED FIX for the Black Community - they are not of the consciousness and temperament to lead this effort.   They are too easily distracted by that which they have built their movement upon.   I don't even need to type the word.