A few weeks ago, hardly anyone had ever heard of Shirley Sherrod. Now, across America hers' is a household name. Americans not only know who Sherrod is, they already had an opinion about her based on what they've been told about her being a Black federal employee who used her position to discriminate against Whites. Race-baiters framed the issue as Black racist ranting, but the episode provided President Obama and Americans an opportunity to discuss whether race should still play a role in federal and state policy and politics.
In the end, will it just became a case of ‘a job lost, and a job regained’ or can more be done to discuss ways to eliminate the racial disparities that exist in the country? Irony upon irony, the US Department of Agriculture from which Sherrod was fired for appearing to discriminate, has been the epitome of institutional racism for decades. Because of America’s agricultural past there is a legacy of institutional racism at USDA. When Tom Vilsack took over as Secretary, he’d vowed to rectify the USDA’s history of discrimination claims. The Sherrod case now undergirds Vilsack’s case before the US Senate for funding of a $1.15 billion owed to thousands of African American farmers. In the settlement Vilsack seeks, the USDA admits bias practices against Black farmers between 1983 and 1997. The case not only shows USDA’s decades-long unfair treatment of African Americans when deciding how to allocate farm loans and disaster payments, but intransigent in settling.