Not an excuse, it is what he said and pointed out how they were applauding and cheering. I really do try to stick to the facts. the man admitted that the tape had portions edited out, most news reports do edit for content. It's what they do. Fact is the crowd did not know where her story was leading and they were cheering and applauding her as a racist. I don't see how anyone can deny this; if they watched the video.
Ollie, what were you listening to? I went and found a video of the entire 43 minute speech:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk"]YouTube - Shirley Sherrod: the FULL video[/ame]
The relevant portion occurs approx at 17.35 minutes. There is no cheering or applauding. At the beginning when she says "and I was trying to decide how much to help him"
there is a little bit of laughter.Between that and when she says that she came to realize that it is not just a matter of black and white, but have and have not - there is no cheering or applauding.
It's a good, and heartfelt speech of someone recognizing and overcoming her own prejudices.
It is very sad, to me, that this can not be seen in the current toxic climate