Ethicalego Speaks

Ethicalego (Kenneth Brooks) discusses current events from a critical thinking perspective rarely expressed elsewhere

The public should hold Shirley Sherrod’s accusers accountable.

Sherrod may forgive her accusers, but the public should hold them accountable for unconscionable acts of opportunism. At minimum, they should have contacted the NAACP chapter that hosted the event to confirm the completeness of the video Sherrod's accuser posted on the internet. Being humans subject to error, they may not have discover all the relevant facts nor made suitable conclusions from them. Nevertheless, they are high profile pundits who influence what many Americans think and believe. Therefore, duty and professional ethics required more from them than an opinion based only on information posted by a blogger on the internet. Their lack of professionalism should alarm people who rely on them for information and direction even if they care nothing about Sherrod.

President Obama should fire administration officials who advised such a high profile and drastic action against Sherrod based on unexamined information. They also had a duty to him and the public to check the completeness and accuracy of the charges against Sherrod before forcing her resignation. President Obama acknowledged this omission. Nevertheless, he needs to do more and fire them. The public understands that he is one person who bases his decisions on information and advice from many staff members. They will mistrust his decisions if they mistrust the competency of his advisers.

Remarks against Sherrod by National NAACP CEO and President Jealous are most troublesome. As CEO, he had a duty to investigate charges of racism against Sherrod who spoke as a guest speaker at a NAACP event before he confirmed those charges in a public statement. He did not do this. Worse, he issued a retraction claiming that he was "snookered" by Fox News and by a conservative blogger's deceptive reporting about racism at the NAACP event. In other words, he admits that he accepted without question the truthfulness of racism charges against the NAACP and guest speaker made by people he believed hostile to his organization.

Jealous was so eager to prove the NAACP's new image as an organization for all ethnic groups he threw Sherrod and the local chapter's reputation under the bus. He should resign his office or the NAACP should force his resignation to preserve what integrity it has left.

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tramky   |July.31.2010 There is nothing in the complete video that suggests Shirley Sherrod is anything other than a racist bigot of the first order, a racist bomb-thrower who declared that, for her, race ALWAYS matters in her decision-making. And back in the 1990s, Ross Perot was castigated for addressing another NAACP audience and using the term 'you people'. At least he referred to them as people. Shirley Sherrod deflected the white farmer she was being paid by taxpayers, including white taxpayers, to a white lawyer so he could be taken care of 'by his kind'. What kind is that, Shirley? The white kind? The bad kind? The evil kind? Or just THAT kind? The fact that Barack Hussein Obama has offered his personal apology to Sherrod reveals yet again the agenda of his administration--it is a racist, divisive agenda. A hateful agenda. It will be defeated.

Anonymous   |July.31.2010 Glad to hear she decided to sue Breitbart. I hope she gets millions and millions. Not that she deserves that much money, but what has already been said -- gotta hurt that jerk in the pocketbook - probably the only pain he feels. He could care less that he was caught. I also completely agree with you regarding the comments of Jealous. The people at USDA need to be reprimanded as well. Bad behavior all around. Except that of Ms Sherrod -- I was also heartened that the white farmer in question came out publicy on her behalf. And-dare I say-Bill O Reilly for apologizing. That was a surprize.

A Voice In the Wilderness   |July.30.2010 Can you imagine the 5 inch thick binder of regulations that probably exists at the Department of Agriculture in relation to hiring and firing procedures for it's employees? The days of diversity and sensitivity training for department of agriculture employees paid for by our tax dollars ? You can blame others but look first at the hypocritical Democrats who throw their own under the bus at the first spot of trouble. Perhaps she can sue others for libel but being fired without a hearing is just a big of a sin.

Will Not Stand   |July.30.2010 Unless and until reprehensible weasels like Andrew Breitbart are sued (financial penalty being possibly the only disincentive) and not allowed to be considered a legitimate source for ANYTHING, we will continue to have hateful and misleading slime campaigns such as this and the ACORN debacle. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/29/shirley-sherrod-to-sue-an_n_663656.html Go get 'em Shirley!

Someone Else   |July.30.2010 Anon, I heard people cheering at a rally this morning when the speaker call illegal imigrants "third world peasants". You can't completely ignore the context - Sharrod was speaking to those cheering people to give up what hatred they had. They were willing to listen to her, which is more than I can say for you.

Anonymous   |July.30.2010 The point of the video was to show the racial prejudice within the rank and file of the NAACP. Shirley Sherrod was not the point. In the short video clip from Shirley's full talk, the members of the NAACP can be heard cheering as Shirley described her prejudicial treatment of the white farmer. The left is so fixated on ginning up a controversy about the Tea Party they missed the entire point from Shirley which is a good one. The social class lines will no longer be drawn along the black and white dividing line. The people who work for local, state and federal government will be the "haves" on one side and those people forced to be productive and work for private industry will be the "have nots" on the other side.

John K   |July.30.2010 Looks like Sherrod's accusers are unable to defend their bad behavior. They can make excuses and apologize, but a sincere apology would include falling on their swords. Good writing by Mr. Brooks.

VallejoGuy   |July.29.2010 Agreed.

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