"Make that change..."
Words.
"Nobody involved in the Shirley Sherrod scandal emerged with reputation intact — except, of course, for Sherrod herself. But although key players Andrew Breitbart, Tom Vilsack or Benjamin Jealous all deserve a measure of scorn, we're even more distressed by a political culture that, despite the promise of a "post-racial" society after Barack Obama's election as president, has clearly made little progress in coming to terms with the issues that divide our multiracial nation.
...race-baiting has intensified since Obama's election. It starts with a conservative narrative, constantly repeated on right-wing radio and television, that says white people are being victimized now that a black man is in the Oval Office. But the blame doesn't lie solely with conservatives. Attacks by the NAACP on the tea party movement serve only to fuel white resentment. We have no doubt that there are racists in the tea party, but then there are racists in the Parent Teacher Assn., the Boy Scouts of America and, yes, the NAACP. To collectively tar one's opponents as "racists" is the lowest form of political attack.
We're not expecting the likes of Breitbart to learn from their mistakes. But we can hold out hope that the American people will. Sherrod in her NAACP speech was trying to heal racial breaches in the best way possible — by making her audience think about their prejudices and understand how empty racial distinctions are. That this message was twisted by those seeking to worsen racial divisions is the most tragic aspect of this affair."
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