Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

$13 million settlement for USDA-er Shirley Sherrod’s group

The immediate controversy over Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s removal of Sherrod from her post is interesting enough — both the NAACP and many conservatives withdrew their initial support for Sherrod’s firing and began defending her as more context emerged — but perhaps the more durable story worth public attention is the background, which includes a $1 billion lawsuit discrimination settlement of which $13 million went to Sherrod’s advocacy group [Rural Development Leadership Network via Tom Blumer, Examiner, h/t reader Aaron W.; ten years ago] More: FoxNews.com.

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7 Comments

  • Well, let me add a few wrinkles.

    First, Shirley Sherrod and her husband got $300K personally, for pain and suffering. sorry but that strikes me as crooked. it is hard for me to picture any scenario where that is justified.

    Second, NAACP can’t claim they were snookered, as Ben Jealous puts it, by a video out of context. Ben Jealous was there, as was the board of directors. http://allergic2bull.blogspot.com/2010/07/shirley-sherrod-story-gets-more.html (or click on my website link)

    Third, the NAACP has not, contrary to reports, released the whole tape. the purported “whole tape” has clear edits. so this is now the NAACP cut, which isn’t quite as horrible, but its still pretty bad.

    Fourth, the NAACP version doesn’t exonerate her entirely. she is still a racist. she never denounces her own racism. she doesn’t even seem to regret it very much.

    Fifth, the NAACP version doesn’t exonerate the NAACP. They didn’t know she would walk it back and say she helped the farmer in the end. they just demonstrated approval when she said she discriminated.

  • Ok. True story. When the first black farmers’ settlement came about, a group of scam artists got together and decided they would apply for the $50,000 checks and split them if anyone got one. One did get okayed but the recipient decided not to share. She got decapitated by the others. Some six months after one of the killers was convicted, the killer’s claim was approved. I am not making this up.

    • By Jane

  • Jane i don’t doubt that.

    its like there was a british woman who lost her husband and the father of her children on 9-11. A few weeks later, the INS writes to her saying that since her sponsor (her husband) was dead, she was going to be deported back to england.

    beaurocracies are inherently stupid.

  • Honor among thieves.

    • By D

  • More “black farmer” lawsuit nonsense:

    http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2010/03/08/lawyers-black-farmers-shake-down-taxpayers-agriculture-department-capitulates

    It was amazing for me to behold the media’s treatment of the Shirley Sherrod incident. At first it looked like an incident of reverse discrimination might just get the condemnation it deserved, but oh no — that deviates too much from the script. Shirley Sherrod is now a big hero and is extracting apologies from everyone in Washington. If the races were reversed, there would be loud clear calls for a thorough investigation at the USDA of other incidents of discrimination. But since whites are the victim, there won’t be.

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