What would you do if you were branded a racist? Here's what she did
By Elizabeth Mayo, CNN
(CNN) - She was smeared, taken out of context, and forced out of her job.
Shirley Sherrod became a household name after Andrew Breitbart published a video of her speaking at NAACP event in 2010. An edited portion of that speech went went viral:
"The first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm I didn't give him the full force of what I could do," Sherrod said in the edited clip.
FULL POST
Opinion: A mixed-race romance, a family rift
Editor's note: Elizabeth Mayo is a digital producer for CNN's "Early Start" and "Starting Point." All this week, "AC360°" airs its special series "Kids on Race: The Hidden Picture" at 8 and 10 p.m. ET on CNN. Thursday's installment will focus on interracial dating.
(CNN) - It all started on my second date with Alex. It was 1997 and on a whim we went into Manhattan to see the ball drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square. The closest we could get was 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. That's pretty far away, but we could still see the glittering ball touching the sky. He was 19, I was 17.
For him, I was his childhood dream girl: I'm tall, have curly brown hair and I play cello, so I was the real-life version of Sigourney Weaver's character in "Ghostbusters" (his favorite movie). To me, he was smart, doting and hilarious.
On what had to be the coldest night in the history of the ball drop, we shivered next to each other waiting patiently, with a few thousand spectators, to get one year closer to the millennium. At midnight, the ball dropped and the crowd erupted.
We looked at each other in anticipation and we kissed. Fireworks went off. Literally, behind us in Central Park fireworks set the sky ablaze to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the five boroughs constituting New York City. And when the heck did that saxophone player show up playing "Auld Lang Syne"? We took this only-in-the-movies moment as a sign from the universe that we were meant to be together.
There was one problem: Alex is half-black. I am white, half-Spanish in fact.
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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