The administration of US President Barack Obama scrambled on Wednesday to defuse a racial furor, profusely apologizing to an ousted black Department of Agriculture employee and offering her a unique new position at the agency.
The incident is the latest in a series of race-related issues that have commanded national attention since Obama took office as the first African-American president.
Obama’s race has been a backdrop throughout his one-and-a-half-year-old presidency.
In the Agriculture Department flap, the fired employee, Shirley Sherrod, said she was considering the job offer.
“They did make an offer,” she said in a telephone interview. “I just told him I need to think about it.”
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told reporters that Sherrod accepted his apology.
“She was extraordinarily gracious,” he said.
Vilsack announced the job offer as he profusely apologized for forcing Sherrod’s resignation, based on video excerpts edited by a conservative group and posted on the Internet. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs had apologized earlier for the administration. Gibbs said the administration had acted without knowing all the facts about the video.
In the video, Sherrod related an experience 24 years ago, when she worked for a private organization, in which she had appeared to have discriminated against a white farmer. The unedited video made clear that Sherrod had helped the farmer and in the tape was relating the experience at a meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to illustrate that race should never be considered in dealing with others.
The story moved from the Internet to Fox News Channel on Monday night. Host Bill O’Reilly showed a brief portion of Sherrod’s speech where she talked about withholding “the full force” of her efforts.
“Wow,” O’Reilly said after the clip aired. “That is simply unacceptable and Ms Sherrod must resign. The federal government cannot have skin color deciding any assistance.”
Fox’s Sean Hannity aired the same snippet of Sherrod’s speech and said that “this was racist.”
By Wednesday, Fox’s focus shifted to accusing the administration of rushing to judgment.
In the Sherrod case, Vilsack was asked whether he had spoken with Obama about the situation.
He said simply: “No.”
“This is a good woman,” he said. “She’s been put through hell.”
Sherrod resigned this week as state director of rural development in Georgia. Gibbs called the dismissal an injustice and a mistake. He said Obama had been briefed as the situation developed.
The White House called the Agriculture Department about the case on Tuesday night and it was agreed that her removal should be reviewed because of new evidence. Gibbs said people in the administration and outside it acted without all the facts.
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