There is so much that could be written about the Shirley Sherrod firing. The Obama regime let itself be panicked into firing her. This is their method of operation. Any attack from the right and the corporations and they run for cover. What a bunch of capitalist boot licking cowards.
This woman was fired after the right ring racists in the Tea Baggers took a few sentences of hers out of context and made her appear to be a racist. The truth is this woman's speech was the best I have ever seen on the US media. And I have to say better than most of the speeches and articles you get from the US left also.
She explained how she had been dealing with a white farmer in Georgia in the 1980's when she worked with the Federation of Southern Collectives/Land Assistance Fund. During this she realized that she was not giving her all to his struggle to save his land and this made her think about her own attitudes and to change. This white farmer has now said she helped save his land and been unconditionally supportive of her.See the video of the farmer and his wife here.
Shirley Sherrod then went on to say and this is where she is head and shoulders above most of the US left, she went to say that in the 1700's and early 1800's there were black and white and Latino indentured servants, basically slaves. These people began to marry and live together and have families. The people with the money who ruled the country got very worried at this unity and decided to take action to stop it. They passed laws making it illegal for people from different races to marry, with this and other laws they drove racism into society. They consciously and with violence divided the working people amongst racial lines.
As we have always argued on this blog racism is a result of the conscious policies of the minority ruling class to divide the working class people and so allow the minority ruling class to continue to rule and exploit. After all how can a tiny minority rule a large majority unless the majority are divided against each other.
Shirley Sherrod continued and explained that it was the rich who were behind racism and how this had to be got out of peoples heads. She said that from her experience with the white farmer she concluded that she had to work for all poor people not just black people, to work for all people who did not have access to the wealth that the rich had. The dirty racist right wing broadcasters and Tea Bag baggers took this excerpt from her speech and made out that she was racist rather than show how she had come to examine her own views and grow and develop and learn to all working people.
Now there is much that is left out of what Shirley Sherrod says. For example as Malcolm X said you cannot have capitalism without racism, as Martin Luther Kind said that the US had to move towards some kind of Democratic Socialism, as so many of the old time US labor leaders such as Debs and Haywood said we have to organize the unorganized, however in spite of this Sherrod's speech approached racism from a class point of view. This is what so much of the left do not. They are stuck in a middle class liberal approach to racism which gets no echo amongst the black working class and turns off the white and latino and native american working class. As a result it helps the bosses and their system strengthen their divide and rule policies and deepens the racial divide in society. Their approach increases the division amongst the working class and strengthens the capitalist class and the employers. They strengthen divide and rule.
Shirley Sherrod's approach to racism seeks to start from a class point of view. This is an example to be followed.
2 comments:
Point blank: She said racial remarks. She could have "done more", but chose not to. She brought race into the issue, so maybe this is the first right thing the administration has done. If I at my work would have said or construed anything racist, I would be fired. Fact I am a white male of English and Russian decent, therefore, I would be placed in a catagory due to fear of racism and punished. If you want to believe in equality then would should be treated as equals for our actions.
Have you listened to her complete remarks? What the woman spoke of was her own failings, how she thought a certain way and changed. She was being self critical.
The racists that thought they had her are too stupid to have delved further. Obama and company refused to take on the racists and reacted accordingly, a bit like you have but we'll see.
I saw her on CNN and, to be honest, she was a breath of fresh air. If you haven't heard more than the clip in question you should check it out.
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