Fighting Back
THE WRONG WOMAN: It's not for the money, says Shirley Sherrod about the lawsuit that she filed against her defamers; it's to make a point against reckless journalism that can destroy lives.
The innocent victim of a political attack, Shirley Sherrod recently filed a lawsuit against those who twisted her gesture of racial reconciliation into a charge of racial discrimination and caused her to lose her job. Had her accusers done their homework, they would’ve realized that trying to nail a “reverse racism” label on a woman of Sherrod’s history was not wise.
The Shirley Sherrod story has been characterized as another example of America’s complex struggle with racism. But despite its explosive nature, it’s actually a more basic tale of human selfishness.