SAN DIEGO (AP) — Ousted Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said Thursday she will sue a conservative blogger who posted an edited video of her making racially tinged remarks last week.
Sherrod made the announcement in San Diego at the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention.
The edited video posted by Andrew Breitbart led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to ask her to resign, a decision he reconsidered after seeing the entire video of her March speech to a local NAACP group. In the full speech, Sherrod spoke of racial reconciliation and lessons she learned after initially hesitating to help a white farmer save his home.
Vilsack and President Barack Obama later called Sherrod to apologize for her hasty ouster. Vilsack has offered her a new job at the department, which she is still considering.
Obama said Thursday morning on ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” that the incident shows racial tensions still exist in America.
“There are still inequalities out there. There’s still discrimination out there,” Obama said. “But we’ve made progress.”
Obama pinned much of the blame for the incident on a media culture that he said seeks out conflict and doesn’t always get the facts right. But he added, “A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration.”
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