USDA official says White House forced her out as NAACP backtracks from its condemnation

Sherrod then said it was “revealed” to her, though she did not explain how, that “it’s about the poor versus those who have.”

“It’s not so much about white — it is about white and black — but it’s not, you know,” she said, failing to finish the thought. “It opened my eyes, because I took him to one of his own.”

The full video was released by the NAACP late on Tuesday, and the 43-minute speech by Sherrod was indeed largely an exhortation to fellow blacks to eschew resentment or discrimination against others of different colors.

“We have to get to the point where, as Toni Morrison said, race exists but it doesn’t matter,” Sherrod said. “The change has to start with us. Somehow we’ve got to make the other side of town work with us.”

Sherrod began her speech by telling the story of her father’s death in 1965, which she said was a murder by a white man who went unpunished. She pivoted off that to tell the story featured in the Breitbart video that included her interaction with a white farmer. Portions of the video not available in the original version posted at BigGovernment.com showed Sherrod describing how she went on to help the man keep his farm.

Breitbart maintained that “this was not about Shirley Sherrod.”

“This was about the NAACP attacking the Tea Party and this is showing racism at an NAACP event. I did not ask for Shirley Sherrod to be fired. I did not ask for any repercussions for Shirley Sherrod. They were the ones that took the initiative to get rid of her,” he said.

However, the video posted on YouTube by Larry O’Connor, a contributor to BigGovernment.com, introduces Sherrod’s comments by saying in text on the screen: “Ms. Sherrod admits that in her federally appointed position, overseeing a billion dollars, she discriminates against people due to their race.”

Breitbart himself wrote in the post on BigGovernment.com that included the video: “In this piece you will see video evidence of racism coming from a federal appointee and NAACP award recipient.”

Breitbart said he had video of Sherrod’s full remarks but was “protecting” the person who sent him the video by not posting the entire video online.

“If I get the OK from the people who have the rights to the video to put it up on the Internet, I have no problem with it,” Breitbart said on CNN.

After Sherrod defended herself on Tuesday and numerous TV stations found the white farmer featured in Sherrod’s story, who said quite firmly that Sherrod had not discriminated against him but had in fact helped him save his farm, even the president’s most fierce critics said Sherrod should not have been fired.

“Shirley, I don’t think you should have been fired for this,” said Fox News’ Glenn Beck, whose show was mentioned by USDA officials to Sherrod, she said, as the forum that had most spooked the administration into forcing her to resign.

The NAACP also called on Vilsack in its statement Tuesday to reconsider his decision to oust Sherrod.

“While we understand why Secretary Vilsack believes this false controversy will impede her ability to function in the role, we urge him to reconsider and give everyday Americans a chance to surprise him.

Vilsack, however, stood by his decision and Obama stood behind him on it, the White House said.

Vilsack said on CNN that “the statements and the context of the statements created a circumstance where, in the future, if people were not satisfied with the decisions that the rural development director made, they could attribute the decision to a wide variety of reasons that weren’t necessarily related to the job.”

“I determined that it would make it difficult for her to do her job,” he said.

Here is the video excerpt posted on BigGovernment.com on Monday:

Here is the full 43-minute speech by Sherrod:

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