A little about patriarchy - and some, about the hypocrisy of 'Civilized' white women

Okay - so the horse isn't dead yet. 

I was "talking" about this with The Fabulous Kitty Glendower of AROOO in the comments on Thursday.  And with that razor-sharp clarity for which these ladies are known, she said:

"And I don't care if Ms. Sherrod wants a beer summit or not, I don't appreciate how it has already been concluded that she does not deserve a beer summit."

That pretty much sums up the Keystone Cops-esque whirlwind surrounding the firing of Shirley Sherrod.  Far from thinking "beer summit," these fellas had pretty much drawn, and quartered Mrs. Sherrod, tossing her parts to the side, like offal in a slaughterhouse.  Such is the patriarchal caste system operating in these United States - STILL.  And make no mistake, it is a caste system - with the incredible "nothingness of whiteness" leading the color hierarchy of sexism and misogyny.

She later said something I found intriguing:

"I read somewhere that it is her husband that many racists are afraid of. Something to explore."

I replied:

"Having been a member of SNCC, I don't doubt they're scared of him - unless of course, he's become John Lewis in his old age."

Since I couldn't find any kind of, "I'll-kill-your-family," Angry Black Man militancy about him on the web, I have to conclude that their "chickens coming home to roost" fears are indeed rooted in his unassailable, I'm-not-afraid-to-be jailed-or-die-for-my-people, SNCC membership about which many Black folk are already well aware (my heart still swells with pride in memory of THAT John Lewis!).

I did find WaPo's, Despite adversity, Shirley Sherrod has history of civil service interesting though.  Mainly because it detailed the Sherrods' own, "faithful, strategic, victorious and free," USDA-losing-their-farm story.  The article hardly mentioned him (And rightfully so -  none of this crazy, character assassination was about him in the first place!):

Julian Bond, a civil rights leader and former NAACP chairman, said Charles was "good, brave and courageous," going into rural counties outside of Albany. Friends say Shirley was right there with him.

The last sentence sounds a little like an afterthought doesn't it?  It made me think about all the other strong, courageous, committed Black women who were also "right there" (often amid the same kind of patriarchy to which Mrs.Sherrod was subjected), making history by forcing change during Freedom Summer.  Two of my Sheroes immediately came to mind:  Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer.  But we hear little about them - except during Black History Month.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell gives a great synopsis of the ways in which Black women have been (and still are) so readily targeted by all elements of the patriarchal caste system:



Harris-Lacewell has been an Obama supporter since day one (she took Tavis Smiley and Friends to task in her,  Commentary: Don't hold Obama to race agenda last year ).  But, given her reputation for speaking up, out and about Black women, I really didn't expect her to give him such a pass on this one.

Taking young Ben to the damned woodshed was certainly fitting.  But deflecting Obama's culpability in this fiasco hints at some internalized, patriarchal feelings of her own where he is concerned, IMHO.  The ignorance of young Ben, who has no power, kept her up all night, when the first, society-identified, Black man who supposedly does have some power, did not?

This appears to be a concerted effort on her part, to downplay the Changeling's dearth of Black experience.  It was not successful.  If anything, it put the spotlight right on it.  And THAT - not his having a white mother - is what those people, vilified for saying he wasn't Black enough, were talking about.  Why anybody would believe he'd fight for something about which he knows nothing, nor to which he is committed is a mystery to me.  Hell, even Mrs. Sherrod said she'd like to school his ass (in a nicer way):

Former Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she wants to discuss racial issues with President Obama, who's "not someone who has experienced some of the things I've experienced in life."

But she also said on morning news shows she feels there is no need for Obama to apologize for her wretched week...

Yes, it seems easier for her to accept his patriarchy as well.  Either that, or she just thinks he doesn't know any better - both of which still lets him off the hook.

Then, here comes this Joan Walsh piece - The civil rights heroism of Charles Sherrod (who didn't get fired last week).  Joan apparently would like to be seen as one of those people who "care about civil rights and racial reconciliation."  And maybe she is.  I don't know the woman.  What is apparent since the Changeling's selection however, is how little she really knows about the Civil Rights Movement or, what  true reconciliation will require.  How can there be true reconciliation when folk can't even own the fact that they know next to nothing - other than what they've created - about us, and won't own up to the privilege that made it easy for them not to know??  Unpack that invisible knapsack, Joan!

She, again, had to go to her "favorite civil rights historian," Taylor Branch, for information on Rev. Sherrod...

I'm a little embarrassed I didn't immediately recognize Sherrod's name, because he's an important figure in one of my favorite books, "Parting the Waters," the first volume in Taylor Branch's majestic trilogy, "America in the King Years."

...just like she did last year - commenting in this piece on the Clinton tapes:

I have to start by saying Taylor Branch's trilogy, "America in the King Years," is my favorite work of history. He brought the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. alive for me. "  And to see my favorite civil rights historian -- so far, there are some up-and-comers that deserve a look, too! -- grappling with the president who, until Obama, thought and did more about civil rights than any president before him, well, it's a thrilling combination. (emphasis mine)

My response to that back then?

"Joan, if Taylor Branch brought the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. so alive for you, why is it that you cannot see Obama is NOTHING LIKE HIM - except of course, a little brown! Please.

In other words - Stop frontin' Joan!

Full version of Ms. Sherrod's Speech and some ruminations of my own...

Not to beat a dead horse but, people (young Black folk in particular) should really see and listen to the entire version of this woman's speech because it seems some have no idea how she got here, from there. Having been born and bred in one of the original 13's in the 1950s, this speech rings as true for me as it did for the people in that audience.

Hell, while listening to her recount how she used to have to go "to the field" after school back in the day, I instinctively started scratching my arms - remembering how that damn okra used to itch like crazy (before my grandmother put me to work on the family's roadside "stand" in front of the house because she said I picked "too slow")!

Though we lived in the "city" during the school year, my mother sent the three of us to my grandmother out in the "country" every summer until we graduated from high school.  From "day clean" to damn-near dark, everything breathing had to get up, put on all those damn clothes and a hat, and catch that school bus to some white man's field to pick vegetables.   They paid you by the bushel, so if you were a "slow picker" like me, you hardly made any money at all! 

After coming home with little or nothing (she got half of what everybody made - there were plenty of us!), "Miss Rose" - as my sons called her - decided I should work the "stand," selling vegetables to the white people who spent their summers down at the beach less than two miles away (all the Black folk on the island had their own family farms).  Like everybody else, I still had to get up early so I could set-up the "stand."  And I had to stay out there all day until the others got back, but - no more picking for me!  Not only did she feed all of her children and grandchildren from the family farm, putting up enough vegetables in those good ole Mason jars to feed an army over the winter, selling some of what she grew on that roadside stand helped pay for a lot of other things the family needed.

Shirley Sherrod is a phenomenal woman - a way better woman than I, by far.  While I felt exactly the way she did about getting out of the South, unlike her, I never went back home to - as she says around the 35:19 click - "reach back and help somebody" there.  Instead, wherever I happened to be was where I expended my energy.  And while that is a good thing along the "good, better, best" spectrum, having as strong a commitment to "from whence one came" as Mrs. Sherrod does, is definitely best - by a long shot.  I'm telling you - she's got me thinking.

Yes, this video is long.  But please set aside some time to watch it.  I promise, you won't regret it.


UPDATE:  The whole lot of 'em are like roaches running for cover when you turn on the lights aren't they?  All in one day we went from this, to this:  Vilsack offers Shirley Sherrod a new job!  Do note however, that - Vilsack's job is safe.  As I said earlier - patriarchy is patriarchy...

And this is why the NAACP can stop sending me solicitations...

NAACP Statement on the resignation of Shirley Sherrod:

With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias. 

Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans. (emphasis mine)

When they start acting, instead of reacting - maybe I'll take them seriously.  "Snookered??"  Really??    (Who says that?)  Besides, shouldn't you have done all that shit in the second paragraph, BEFORE you put this out???

NAACP Slams Shirley Sherrod's Actions as 'Shameful':

"We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers. 

"Her actions were shameful. While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man."

First of all, let's just call it what it really is - Fox News just made a big, damn fool of you guys! And you fell for it - hook, line and sinker, tripping all over yourselves trying to look all Changeling-decreed "post-racial" with that knee-jerk, slamming of this sister for being honest about how she felt. You guys were in such a damn hurry to distance yourselves from this woman, that you initially MISSED the "teachable moment" she was trying to share!

Hell, if more of our people were truly honest about how they felt, maybe we could have a real conversation about race in this country!  But no-o-o, most of us just keep wearing that damn mask, tilting at windmills Don Quixote-style (instead of resolving to address the real issues with which our community struggles), being twisted in the wind by white folk, hell-bent on keeping that foot-on-neck scenario firmly in place by any means necessary. {smdh}

What she admitted feeling, was nothing short of what I, and I'm certain, plenty other Black folk would have felt - if we're honest.  And what she did, after feeling that, was again, nothing short of what I, and I'm certain, plenty other Black folk would have done in the end - the right damn thing.  It just blows my mind, that after damn-near 400 years (and counting) of white supremacy in this country, not only do plenty white folk still think that we don't have a right to our feelings - plenty of us do too!

Second of all, isn't this JULY?  This NAACP banquet (That's right - NAACP banquet!) happened in March!?!  But Mr. Jealous only got appalled, and felt all this shame about it now?   Please.  He should be appalled and ashamed that he got suckered into that knee-jerk statement.

There was no excuse for that attack.  None.  And they shouldn't have fired her (because we all know - that's what "agreeing to accept a resignation" really means).  Even though the tape had been edited, they still (I'm convinced, unwittingly - because that's not what they were looking for in the first place) left in the "teachable moment!":




It's obvious from the video, that she felt she was among "her own," having one of those conversations a lot of Black folk never have in "mixed company" (and never admit to having at all!). But c'mon ya'll - she had to know the cameras were rolling! Apparently, she didn't care to keep "wearing the damn mask" - preferring instead, to share an important, personal and necessary "teachable moment" with her people, in a way she was sure they'd feel and understand.  She was probably confident that if the shit hit the fan, her president, the NAACP and her kinfolk - at the very least - would "get it" and stand with her. As it turns out - that last part was her real mistake.

I've pretty much stopped watching the news in general, and CNN in particular but, I just had to put this video here:



See why I stopped watching CNN?  Have they no real researchers on staff? Look at how they killed the man while he was riding around on his Peterbilt!!

A-a-anyway, I posted the video because: 1) her, "if the staff were free to tell you" around the :58 click provides - despite all their blather about transparency - a very telling peek into how the Changeling's administration is no different than Shrub's or anybody else's, and 2) Eloise Spooner's call illustrates the importance of the "teachable moment" that Mr. Jealous, et al initially missed - because they chose to immediately believe the "lying eyes" of racist white men before even talking to the sister (patriarchy, after all is patriarchy) and they were too quick to "rush to judgement."

Instead of all these resolutions decreeing the obvious, young Mr. Jealous would do well to take a step back and stop - as the beautiful, "young, gifted and Black" Sunni Patterson says in the video below - "mistaking mimicry for mastery, or pretending for knowing."  Stop, as she says, giving "in to the empty threats and scare tactics of the powerless ones" and learn to "be faithful, strategic, victorious and free."  Maybe then, I'll actually open one of those solicitations for membership that keep coming in the mail - and respond.




UPDATE I:  Sherrod has her say!  Reminds me of another "Shirley" sister-warrior - Ms. Chisholm would be proud!

UPDATE II:  Yeah, the Changeling would have you believe it's the lunatics running the asylum.  Please!  As Jason Linkins so succinctly points out here - he's the HLIC (Head Lunatic In Charge)!:  Shirley Sherrod Scandal: How The White House Is Backing Away From The Decision To Fire Her.