After initially throwing Shirley Sherrod under the bus, the White House and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack apologized on Wednesday, and Secretary Vilsack offered her a new position at the USDA. The NAACP also did an about face and retracted their condemnation of Ms. Sherrod.

There’s a lot we could talk about regarding this incident, including why the Obama administration and the NAACP acted as they did. But, what's uniquely important for all of us to understand is the right-wing smear machine — how it works, and what’s at stake if we fail to learn from this moment.

The story of Shirley Sherrod's alleged racism was a fabrication created by the right-wing media, led by Andrew Breitbart and FOX News. Breitbart and Fox were counting on Sherrod's silence to perpetrate their fraud. But thanks to Shirley's strength and the quick appearance of her full remarks, their attempt to spread their lies throughout the mainstream media failed, and they were exposed as con-artists trying to stoke racial fear and paranoia for political gain.

This is not the first time Breitbart and FOX have attempted something like this, and it certainly won’t be the last.

Over the last year, Breitbart, FOX, and other members of the right wing media machine have repeatedly run distorted and fabricated stories claiming a wave of anti-White racism from the Black community, including President Obama. Their motive is simple: mobilize the far right and deflect attention from the deep-seated racism within key parts of their movement.

It was distortions carried on FOX News that led the smear against Van Jones, ultimately leading to his resignation from the Obama administration. It was deceptively edited videos published by Andrew Breitbart, then picked up by FOX News, that destroyed the grassroots community organization ACORN. A few weeks ago, FOX News persistently pushed a bogus story about the New Black Panther Party, claiming that Obama’s Department of Justice is refusing to prosecute civil rights violations perpetrated by Black people against White people. And those are just the smears that caught hold — numerous others were tried and mostly ignored by the mainstream media.

Many of these smear campaigns have destroyed the reputations and careers of good people doing good work. Unfortunately, those attacked don’t usually fight back quickly enough against the smears and the lies. And usually, evidence of fabrication and lies doesn’t surface so quickly.

Shirley Sherrod is a hero because she’s done something much bigger than saving her reputation and her career. She helped expose, on a big stage, the tactics and the character of Andrew Breitbart, FOX, and others who engage in deception and race-baiting packaged as news. And she’s showed us that standing up and fighting directly against race-baiting can work. It's an important lesson because Breitbart, FOX and their friends are going to keep conjuring up the myth of systematic anti-White racism, and unless we fight back, they will win.

You can help by making sure your friends, family, and neighbors understand what has happened, and in particular FOX’s role in race-baiting and misinformation. And together, with our voices united, we can continue to call out this pattern on the national stage. It will communicate to the White House and to other leaders that we expect them to fight back. And it will show the media that we expect them to tell the truth about FOX, Breitbart, and the smear campaigns they keep launching.

At ColorOfChange, we promise to stay focused on giving you meaningful ways to confront the right-wing propaganda machine, and reduce their power to drive national conversations about race and politics. We’re hoping you’ll be with us as we do.

Thanks and Peace,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Atlanta, GA - July 20, 2010: Atlanta-based women of color organizations say an anti-abortion billboard campaign in Atlanta, along with so-called "freedom rides" scheduled this summer are no more than a ploy to turn back the clock on Black women's right to reproductive freedom. In response to the billboard campaign, three reproductive justice groups plan a counter-protest at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center on July 24, 2010 at 2:30 pm.

"We are offended by their cynicism, opportunism, and outright distortions of historical facts. Both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King firmly supported reproductive justice for women. Lies by anti-abortionists, no matter how often repeated, cannot change those historical facts," said Loretta Ross, National Coordinator of SisterSong.

"It is important that we are reminded of the rich tradition of Black women Civil Rights leaders like Coretta Scott King, Ella Baker, and Fannie Lou Hamer, who not only believed but exercised their belief that we, as Black women, are capable of making critical, personal, and just choices about our bodies, our families, and our communities," said Paris Hatcher, Executive Director, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!

Dazon Dixon Diallo, SisterLove, Inc. President/Chief Executive Officer, said, "SisterLove denounces the so-called "Freedom Ride" proposed by anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-sexualhealth fanatics who have chosen to defile the original dream of our civil and human rights icons of the original Freedom Rides. The actions planned by Priests for Life are insulting, disrespectful, and completely antithetical to the struggle for women's human rights. They should be ashamed of themselves, and it is our job as Black women and people of color to shame them!"

 

It is in the tradition of human rights movements that the reproductive justice movement is rooted, and it is in their legacy that these three women's organizations denounce all attempts to vilify and shame the agency, power, and morality of Black women.Funded by Priests for Life of New York, coordinators of the billboard campaign have organized a "Freedom Bus for the Unborn" to launch on July 23 in Birmingham, Alabama - using the historical site opposite the 16th Street Baptist Church where four Black girls were killed in a bombing by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963. Alveda King, the niece of Dr. King and an employee of Priests for Life, will lead the anti-abortion campaign disguising this thinly-veiled attack on Black women's rights with a Black figurehead.SisterSong, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, and SisterLove, Inc.will host a counter rally and press conference of faith-based leaders, civil rights leaders, and women's health supporters in front of the King Center on July 24, 2010, 2:30 pmin Atlanta. Ross says the reproductive justice groups will set the record straight about the anti-abortion campaign and call on the public to trust Black women to make their own decisions about what's best for them and their families."You cannot save Black babies by discriminating against Black women," says Loretta Ross, SisterSong's National Coordinator. "Civil rights has always been about expanding freedoms for Black people, not rolling back the clock to the 19th century like these anti-abortionists want. Should Black women again become breeders for their cause?"Ross says true freedom ensures human rights for all people, including reproductive rights and reproductive health care options for women. She says the anti-abortion Freedom Rides offer no concrete action to help communities to access comprehensive reproductive healthcare, sex education, economic justice through jobs, nor do they prevent the crib-to-prison pipeline for Black youth.Dozens of rides may be scheduled across the country over the next year. Reproductive justice, health, and rights activists, nationally, will mobilize to educate women about their reproductive rights and announce a call to action to advocate for these human rights.

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