Shirley Sherrod - A Modern Day 'Mockingbird'?

I've often said that in society and in politics, women get thrown under the bus. If we were to do a demographic study of those women most frequently sacrificed, it would be African American women hands down. No question about it.

No doubt this post will enrage some readers. But it's sadly ironic that just days after this nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the publication of the moving and powerful novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a real-life story about truth, lies, integrity, and unbridled evil makes headlines. In many ways, it's a modern day Mockingbird with the gender roles reversed. Instead of an honest black man slandered and destroyed by the lies of a white woman, it's an honest black woman who's the target of a white man who twisted the facts to frame her for something she'd never done.

I'm talking about the humiliation of Shirley Sherrod, who was forced to resign from the US Department of Agriculture by the Obama administration because of the deliberate hatchet job conservative internet publisher Andrew Breitbart did on her. Sherrod was made to appear racist in a video Breitbart blasted across the internet which lifted statements made by her 24 years ago and played them out of context.

If you're unfamiliar with the story, others tell it better at Huffington Post, Salon, and the Washington Post. But ultimately, an innocent woman was intentionally vilified by an unscrupulous man to "settle a score" he had with the NAACP.

In covering the Sherrod story, the Post observes:

...it is hard to remember another episode that so vividly reveals how Washington's political culture is driven these days by impulse and self interest, rather than judgment.

There's a lot of finger-pointing as to who wanted Sherrod gone -- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack or President Obama -- when the video first surfaced and non one knew the facts. Sherrod herself says that she was told the White House pushed for her ouster, although they deny it. Whether or not Vilsack or Obama or his staff hefted the foot that kicked Sherrod out the door, it's clear that the White House did nothing to stop it.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, the unfairly accused individual is defended by lawyer Atticus Finch, a man respected and loved by most of the citizens (both black and white) of the town of Maycomb, Mississippi. Although it is made clear to nearly everyone in the courtroom that Finch's client is innocent, he is found guilty because of racial politics.

In the True Story of Shirley Sherrod, no one in the Obama administration seems willing to take on the Atticus Finch role and defend her. In Washington politics, self-interest rules, and President Obama is no exception. (I'm sure Shirley Chisholm is rolling over in her grave. She would have had the guts and integrity to stand up and fight.)

Another black woman thrown under the bus. At least this time, many of us are screaming.