Recently, she gave a 43-minute speech in March to a major banquet in which she related an incident that had happened in her youth, 24 years ago, when as part of her job she did not do 'all she could do' to help a farmer who was acting in a 'superior' way. She went on to say that at that meeting, that white farmer had actually changed her views. ''Working with him made me see that it's really about those who have versus those who don't,'' she told her audience. ''You know, and they could be black, they could be white, they could be Hispanic."
However, as Simon Mann of the Sydney Morning Herald reported, a 2.5 minute clip of her describing her 'mistake' was posted on a conservative website, which accused her of making racist remarks.
Without thoroughly checking the circumstances, Mr Vilsack of the US Department of Agriculture's director of rural development, sacked Ms Sherrod.
And moreover Fox News headlined the story ''Racism Caught on Tape'', the Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack, defended the decision to remove her under a ''zero-tolerance'' discrimination policy.
However, once the error had been made, Ms Sherrod had received apologies from the White House press spokesman, Robert Gibbs, and from Mr Vilsack, who immediately offered her a new job. (Not her old job back....).
''This is a good woman,'' he told a news conference. ''She's been put through hell, and I could have done, and should have done, a better job … The decision should have been [taken] with more thought and with far less haste.''
The white farmer at the centre of the incident and his wife also came forward. ''She's a good friend,'' said Eloise Spooner. ''She helped us save our farm.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/fragility-of-postracial-us-exposed-by-scandal-20100722-10n0f.html?autostart=1
The civil rights leader Jesse Jackson was quick to propose a meeting between the Spooners and Ms Sherrod at the White House similar to last year's ''beer summit'' which brought together a white policeman and a black academic he arrested in a misunderstanding.
''In the end, it's such a redemptive story,'' he said. ''A rural white family in Georgia and a black woman overcoming years of segregation: it would be great if the President were to seize this moment."
But it was all too late.
Simon Mann's article in Sydney Morning Herald illustrates that whatever the false representations in any situation with any person, 'the mud sticks'. It has brought to light that the former good standing of that person will never be the same, no matter how well the mud is subsequently washed off or by whom.
It is never the same.
Well-Being Australia chairman M V Tronson, along with numerous others who have been visited with such false calamity, can testify it is never the same. His story has been published many times over, and can be read at:
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/incremental-changes-need-to-be-watched/7365.htm
Regardless of the restitution, regardless of how many apologies, regardless of how many confessions and public statements and announcements, it is never the same. A great wound had been inflicted and regardless of the medicine and grafting and soothing, it is never the same.
All those who have come through such excruciating emotional pain will testify of their ongoing mistrust, their looking over their shoulder, their heartache and the lack of basic decency in accountability in such situations.
It happens in politics, in business, in the work place, in relationships, in the courts, in sports, the church, as the politically savvy are ruthless and yet smart enough to use the system to do their dirty work.
Yet, once cleared, it's never the same.
There is only one example where there is an eternal positive outcome after such skulduggery, and that is Jesus' work on the Cross and His resurrection; in this redemption, Christians have their confidence.