THE White House has apologised and offered to reinstate an official fired over a misleading snippet of video posted on a conservative website.
The sacking of the black government official for comments on race, which were taken out of context, embarrassed Obama administration officials who have sought to depict themselves as immune to the blogosphere and demands of the news cycle.
The episode, whipped into a fast-growing political storm by cable television, also embarrassed the media and the top African-American advocacy group, and again revealed raw US emotions over race.
Department of Agriculture worker Shirley Sherrod, the agency’s Georgia director of rural development, was sacked after footage of her apparently admitting racial prejudice against a white farmer emerged on the internet and on television.
She was fired before the full context of her speech – to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People – became clear and showed her remarks had the opposite intent and in fact promoted racial harmony.
“Without a doubt, Ms Sherrod is owed an apology,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said during a contentious press briefing.
“I would do so, certainly, on behalf of this administration. I think … everybody involved made determinations without knowing all the facts and all the events.”
In the full version of the speech, Ms Sherrod said she learned from her experience with the white farmer more than 20 years ago that it was vital to overcome racial prejudice.
Administration critics demanded an apology from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and accused him of overreacting and acting too quickly without establishing the facts.
A crestfallen Mr Vilsack later held a press conference and admitted the accusations against him, and said he had reached Ms Sherrod and apologised to her.
“This was my decision and it was a decision which I regret having made in haste,” Mr Vilsack said, adding he had offered Ms Sherrod a job that would take advantage of her expertise in racial reconciliation.
“I did not think before I acted, and for that reason this woman has gone through a very difficult time.”
Mr Vilsack said his actions should be viewed in the context of the Department of Agriculture’s difficult civil rights history and a reputation of sometimes being prejudiced towards ethnic minority farmers.
The episode reflected badly on the administration, which seemed to have a knee-jerk reaction, amid accusations it was hyper-sensitive about discussing issues such as race.
Pressure will now mount on Barack Obama, America’s first African-American president, who gave a seminal speech on race in the 2008 election campaign, to personally weigh in on the affair.
The NAACP also did not come off well, since the organisation had initially called for Ms Sherrod to be sacked in line with its zero tolerance policy for racial comments, regardless of who makes them.
NAACP president Todd Jealous issued a statement late on Tuesday claiming the group had been “snookered” by Fox News, which initially aired the snippet of video, and Andrew Breitbart, who owns a conservative website on which the clip was shown.
The mainstream news media, despite skewering the White House over the episode, also faced criticism, as many journalists also ran with the story without checking the full context of Mr Sherrod’s speech.
The row comes after the NAACP sparked controversy by accusing elements of the conservative Tea Party movement of fostering racist rhetoric.
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