Shirley Sherrod Firing: Says Obama Hasn’t ‘Experienced What I Have’

Shirley Sherrod says that President Obama “is not someone who has experienced what I have experienced through life, being a person of color. He might need to hear some of what I could say to him.” Sherrod, an Agriculture Department official who was hastily fired when a deceptively edited video seemingly showed her saying racist things was released by the conservative site Biggovernment.com, said on Good Morning America Thursday she would like the chance to talk to Obama about discrimination in the department against black farmers. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized to Sherrod for firing her, and will offer her a new job, though Sherrod says she’ll have to think about it. “I would not want to be the one person in the agency that everyone is looking at to clear up discrimination in the Department of Agriculture,” she said.