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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. W. Curtis Thomas |
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Thomas makes statement regarding Shirley Sherrod
HARRISBURG, July 22 – State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas, D-Phila., is reacting to the controversy surrounding remarks made by U.S. Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod and the aftermath.
Thomas is calling on Andrew Breitbart, the blogger who posted the misleading and highly edited video of Sherrod's remarks, and the Fox News Channel, which made that video available to a much wider audience, to apologize to Sherrod for the part that each played in her humiliation and subsequent forced resignation from her job with the USDA.
"Given the totality of Ms. Sherrod’s remarks, it is now apparent that they were deliberately mischaracterized by the website that originally posted them and by Fox News Channel in order to retaliate for NAACP’s recent accusations of racism within the Tea Party movement," Thomas said. "Furthermore, it must be said that both the NAACP and the Obama administration committed a grave injustice to Ms. Sherrod by condemning her before they had all the facts. Let this be a lesson to all who would act in haste before they have done their homework."
Thomas said that he is glad to see that USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has now issued a public apology to Sherrod and has offered her a new position with the department; however, he feels that she should be offered her old job back, if she wants it, as she was obviously very competent and devoted to it.
Thomas said he is hopeful this episode will help to ease somewhat the deep racial divide that still exists in America.
"It is now clear that what was originally portrayed as an example of a racial double standard was actually a consciousness-raising story," he said.
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