WATCH: Full Video Of Sherrod's Speech (VIDEO)

[jefferson_dem]

The NAACP just posted the full video of Shirley Sherrod's speech in front of the Coffee County NAACP this past March.

The relevant part starts about 16 minutes in. Sherrod is talking about how her father was killed by a white man when she was 17; that night, she says, she made a commitment to stay in the South and work toward change.

She says that she was only thinking about black people when she made that commitment. But God had other plans, she said.

"You realize the struggle is really about poor people," she said, and then tells about "the first time I was faced with having to help had to help a white farmer save his farm."

Once you get past the part shown in the Big Government clip, Sherrod goes on to say that that white farmer experienced an obstacle she had never seen: He was blocked from filing bankruptcy, and his farm was foreclosed on. The lawyer, she says, had told the farmer he should just give up the farm.

As Sherrod tells it, she intervened and found the farmer a lawyer who could help him.

"Working with him made me see that it's really about those who have versus those who don't. They could be black, they could be white, they could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people, those who don't have access the way others have," she says.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/07/watch_full_video_of_sherrods_speech.php

[rocktivity]

1. Obama and Vilsack are the ones who need to watch it

and reinstate her!

:headbang:
rocktivity

[JuniperLea]

2. "the struggle is really about poor people"

This is what needs said over and over... she's right. "They" turned it into hate so we would fight among ourselves. "They" consider anyone making a five-figure salary or less as beneath "them."

This fine woman was used by "them" to further their hate-filled bigotry.

She needs her job back, a hefty settlement on the pain and suffering they caused her, a big raise (more than 10%) and our undying gratitude.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Rachel Maddow is going to cover this story tonight!

K&R

Thanks for video. Do you have Vilsack's phone number?

:kick:

[jefferson_dem]

4. She needs to be reinstated, with fanfare and an Oval Office presser. Tomorrow. Period.

I am fuming over this story.

And Vilsack. He can hit the fucking road.