Pages: 1 2 |
|
 Print This Post
|
A fair hearing of the NAACP conference confirms that, not only was Ms. Sherrod not promoting a disdain for white people or the idea that black people are persecuted by white people, but the complete opposite. She does speak of “those who have power and those who are rich,” but she doesn’t identify them as white people as such, to oppose white and black people. She expresses a found sense of solidarity, of sameness based on social status, not on race.
The audience audibly approved when Ms. Sherrod spoke of the necessity of building communities on racial cooperation. This is hardly compatible with the idea of a crowd cheering for her persecuting “whitey.”
The most important lesson of the Sherrod-Breitbart incident is that of intellectual honesty. Trying to spin it as anything other than the failure of a journalist to initially exercise due diligence in verifying information, and subsequently refusing to admit error, is disingenuous.
As of this posting, even though the tape proves the audience was very aware that they were listening to a “transformation” story, no rectification has been forthcoming from either Mr. Hannity or Mr. Breitbart. Supporting this lack of integrity does great harm to the credibility of the cause espoused by both men and of any who do not hold them accountable.
Disappointment with Mr. Brietbart has driven some to try to shift attention to the fact that Sherrod is a Marxist. This is crucially important, but the issues are separate. It is to be deplored that, at the moment Ms. Sherrod sought the way to effect real social reform, she encountered revolutionaries instead of the Freedom Writers.
As thinkers, as writers, as Americans, nothing should be more precious than rectitude of thought and just treatment of others, even when they espouse erroneous and dangerous ideologies we oppose. Whether we are fighting real racism or Marxism, we can only overcome evil with goodness and truth, assenting to what really is. Otherwise, we become the very thing we wish to defeat.
