Showing posts with label reputation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reputation. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

They knew her, but fired her just like that

They knew her, but fired her just like that

It's a bad feeling when the people who know you best, believe the first thing they hear without a thought that what they they heard may have heard may not be true.

That's the case of the black woman who was a former Agriculture Department official who resigned under pressure after a video clip surfaced of her discussing how she considered giving a white farmer less than her best effort because of racial feelings she had 24 years ago.

In a video, Shirley Sherrod seems to tell an audience at an NAACP function in March that she did not do her utmost to help a white farmer avoid foreclosure.

Her bosses didn't ask her anything. They didn't check to see if the video was real or taken out of contact, she was just fired. They didn't even wait for her get back to her office she was required to pull her car over to the side of the road and text in her resignation.

However, Sherrod later said the clip only shows part of her comments, and that she tells the story of her experience -- from nearly a quarter century ago when she was not a federal employee -- to illustrate the importance of moving beyond race.

When the public saw the full video and protested and the White House responded:

"We're not sure what the ultimate result will be, but it's clear that with new information through the full speech, a longer look needed to be taken," a White House official announced the next day after her forced resignation. "The White House contacted the department last night about the case and agreed, based on her evidence, that it should be reviewed."

Sherrod said, "When you spend your life helping others and see people try to turn that around to try to make it look like you're a racist when that's not been what your life has been about -- that doesn't feel good," she said.

Those who worked with her judged her on hearsay and never bother to consider that what they heard may not have been true.

Jesus felt the same way about hid disciples. John 14:9 records this statement he made to his disciples, "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"

Harold Melvin and Bluenotes put it this way, "If you don't know me by now, you never, never, know me."