Shirley Sherrod: A Cautionary Tale for Business Owners

The Back-story

A month ago, you never heard of any such person as Shirley Sherrod.  And indeed, at that time she was only one of the many people who work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, people whose names are known only to their family, friends, and the public they assist on a daily basis.  Certainly most of them will never have their name splashed across the internet and the nightly news.  But that’s exactly what happened to Sherrod.  It all began with a speech she made for the NAACP.  Sometime during the 43 minutes that she spoke, she told a story about how she once had to help a farmer keep his property despite the fact that he treated her as though she were inferior (because she is black and the man was white).  She spoke about how she struggled with the knowledge that she could punish him for his attitude by offering him less help than she could actually give.  Ultimately, it was a parable about how she had to rise above racism and help others regardless of her personal feelings.  Sounds pretty heartwarming, doesn’t it?  Unfortunately, a small excerpt from her speech was taken out of context and posted online, portraying her as using her position to treat white farmers unfairly (by right-wing blogger Andrew Breitbart).  The video made the rounds with the media at which point Sherrod was publicly lambasted by the NAACP and asked by the USDA to resign her position.  That was where the trouble began.

Sherrod’s Happy Ending

Luckily, this tale had a happy ending for Sherrod, who was not only offered a better position (which she is considering), but also received a personal phone call from Barack Obama, who expressed regret about the events.  Things didn’t go so well for everyone else.  USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, in particular, ended up with a lot of egg on his face due to the fact that he released a statement subsequent to Sherrod’s forced resignation in which he declared, “…we have been working to turn the page on the sordid civil rights record at USDA and this controversy could make it more difficult to move forward on correcting injustices.”  Little did he know that he was involved in this sort of injustice himself.  He eventually released a statement apologizing to Sherrod, as did several news pundits (including Bill O’Reilly) who had aired the clip and called for her resignation.  The only one to not apologize was Breitbart, the man who started it all and felt that he had no fault in the events that transpired, stating that he had been looking to attack the NAACP, not her.

What Businesses can Take Away From This Debacle

There are several ways in which this debacle can serve as an example of what not to do for businesses.  For starters, a business faced with such a serious claim as racism pertaining to one of their employees should make every effort to verify the claim before they take any drastic actions like forcing them to resign.  The USDA was clearly in the wrong in this situation and she could easily sue them for wrongful termination (an action which she does not seem to have any intention of pursuing).  And while she probably won’t take legal action against any media outlets that spun the story (although their coverage was libelous and they clearly didn’t confirm before airing, they did not do so with malice), she is considering a suit against Breitbart and would like to see his website, Big Government, shut down.  So this should also serve as a warning to those who publish information on the internet.  Many bloggers are lax about fact-checking, but it is clear that people in the media are paying attention and picking up news items that appear online.  While this video could just as easily have gone unnoticed, leaving Breitbart to continue his unethical journalistic practices, it instead made front-page level news, highlighting a very serious issue occurring in modern media: that of libel and dishonest journalism.  It is cases like this that lead people to question the validity of “factual” information garnered from the internet, as well as call for governing bodies to police this sort of activity.  Sadly, it only takes a few idiots to ruin it for everyone.

Shirley Simpson is a writer for Yard Sale Search where you can find garage sales in your area.