Mrs. Shirley Sherrod: Old school Black
When my family and small circle of Black friends speak of “old school Black”, we are speaking of older Blacks to whom the word “racist” has endless pain and multiple stories associated with each letter in the word. Associations with stories from slave houses to jail houses, from ocean voyages to sea to shining sea, we have intense emotional associations with the word “racist”.
Other such words are “segregation” and “cracker”. And there are names like, “Bull Connor”, “George Wallace” and “Massah”. (I actually had a Black female student named Massah)
So it is, when Ms. Sherrod was speaking at her press conference yesterday articulating why she would ‘not at this time’ accept a re-hire position offered by U.S. Department of Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack, she said “You must understand what happened”. In other words, you must understand what he did to me!
He was like an old slave master who, after dragging her out of the house and stripping her of her clothing in front of her man, her children and grandchildren and the rest of the people on the plantation, did unmercifully thrash her because “someone” said she had broken a tea cup.
Ms. Sherrod knows as well as the rest of us residing in old school Black that while offering her a re-hire position and the friction it would garner in the department, Mr. Vilsack has not changed. He can not change. Our society will not allow him to change and especially at his age. Mr. vilsack may want to change but a lot of us want to do things we can not do and changing lifelong beliefs of your friends and family is not one of them; its that ‘birds of a feather’ thing. Ms. Sherrod and her husband may know that of white folk better them a whole bunch of us.
When an angry white man says “You’re fired!” to a Black person, the words take on un-imaginable historical dimensions, dimensions whites would never understand and I note Jewish communities refusal to render parallels.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors, God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
REJECTED! Why Shirley Sherrod Won't Be Going Back to USDA (Anytime Soon)
Carl Franzen Contributor
AOL News Surge Desk
Other such words are “segregation” and “cracker”. And there are names like, “Bull Connor”, “George Wallace” and “Massah”. (I actually had a Black female student named Massah)
So it is, when Ms. Sherrod was speaking at her press conference yesterday articulating why she would ‘not at this time’ accept a re-hire position offered by U.S. Department of Agriculture Sec. Tom Vilsack, she said “You must understand what happened”. In other words, you must understand what he did to me!
He was like an old slave master who, after dragging her out of the house and stripping her of her clothing in front of her man, her children and grandchildren and the rest of the people on the plantation, did unmercifully thrash her because “someone” said she had broken a tea cup.
Ms. Sherrod knows as well as the rest of us residing in old school Black that while offering her a re-hire position and the friction it would garner in the department, Mr. Vilsack has not changed. He can not change. Our society will not allow him to change and especially at his age. Mr. vilsack may want to change but a lot of us want to do things we can not do and changing lifelong beliefs of your friends and family is not one of them; its that ‘birds of a feather’ thing. Ms. Sherrod and her husband may know that of white folk better them a whole bunch of us.
When an angry white man says “You’re fired!” to a Black person, the words take on un-imaginable historical dimensions, dimensions whites would never understand and I note Jewish communities refusal to render parallels.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors, God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-SPAN and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
REJECTED! Why Shirley Sherrod Won't Be Going Back to USDA (Anytime Soon)
Carl Franzen Contributor
AOL News Surge Desk
Excerpt:
Now, it appears that the USDA's effort to undo some of it by offering her a new, better job has also fallen flat. Just why is Sherrod declining the offer? As The Associated Press put it: She told reporters she did not think she could say yes to a job "at this point, with all that has happened." Bloggers, however, are peering deeper, offering their own, more specific interpretations (some more serious than others) about what might be motivating Sherrod at this juncture.
Read more at:
http://www.aolnews.com/surge-desk/article/shirley-sherrod-declines-agriculture-department-job-offer-4-theories-why/19606155
posted by BB at 4:20 AM
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