Shirley Sherrod's Sacrifice

As I sit here writing this blog, I am watching Countdown on MSNBC. The topic: Shirley Sherrod. I have to admit I haven't really been following this issue these last few days. But as I watch her story play out, something very interesting comes to mind: Shirley Sherrod's forced resignation from the USDA may have actually been the best outcome from this manufactured brouhaha.

First, if you aren't up to speed yet, here's a short update.

On July 19th, Washington Post commentator Andrew Breitbart posted a YouTube video of USDA director Sherrod speaking at an NAACP conference seemingly making questionable comments about her own biases against white people. Under fire, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack essentially forced her to resign. In defense of Sherrod, a few days later, the NAACP released the entire video of her speech wherein she commented how she had overcome her own biases and began to trust and help people of different races despite the years of discrimination she experienced growing up black in the South during the Civil Rights Movement. It wasn't much later that Tom Vilsack realized that she was unduly punished and offered her a job back at the USDA.

Okay -- and now my commentary...

Imagine if Tom Vilsack and the Obama administration defended her outright rather than asked for her resignation. Andrew Breitbart had essentially owned the tone of the public message ("Shirley Sherrod is denying government services to poor white farmers because she is racist"). If Visack and the Obama administration publicly sided with Sherrod they would appear to be siding with racism or supporting a double-standard. That would have been a major win for Breitbart and those who stand to benefit from this brouhaha (and apparently those who don't care about facts).

But look what actually happened. Sherrod gets fired, and the when the truth comes out that she was actually telling an important story about overcoming racial bias, Fox News had to issue a retraction of their stories regarding Sherrod's termination, and Breitbart is left looking like the idiot quote-miner that he is. Sherrod is now going to sue Breitbart for libel and will likely win as his very public quote-mining lost her her job.

So in a strange way, firing Sherrod may actually have been the best outcome as far as us liberals are concerned. Fox News has it's tail tucked between its legs and Breitbart is now shitting in his pants. And furthermore now we are all talking about racial reconciliation in the evening news. Win, win and win.