Yesterday, July, 20, 2010 Fox News aired an excerpt of a speech by Shirley Sherrod, the US Department of Agriculture’s Georgia director of Rural Development. In the speech given at an NAACP event this past March, Sherrod discusses dealing with racism and discrimination within the agricultural community and then coming to terms that those most impacted were poor people regardless of race.

After Fox Faux News aired the story, the USDA and even the NAACP who invited her to speak issued statements of astonishment. In fact Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack called Sherrod immediately stating that she needed to write a letter of resignation. When Sherrod mentioned she was driving and not near a computer he told her type it from her blackberry phone.

That was the case until the full speech was aired which showed that Sherrod did not say the comments out of the malice that Faux news tried to represent in the excerpt they aired. Check the full speech below:

What’s even grimier is that Vilsack stated in his tirade against Sherrod,  ”There is zero tolerance for discrimination at the USDA.” HOWEVER,  African-American farmers are still waiting for payment from a 1.25 billion settlement deal made  from a class action lawsuit against the USDA for decades worth of discrimination. Right now the funds are tied up in bureacratic mess while African-American farmers continue to loose valuable assets and farmland waiting for the big payback. Check out this video from CNN to find out exactly what’s going on.  

For more information on what’s going on with Black Farmers visit the National Black Farmer’s Association Website at www.blackfarmers.org. Call your Senator today and tell them to appropriate the delayed funds to the Black Farmers!