Elisabeth Hasselbeck Cries After Sparring With Whoopi Over N-Word (VIDEO)

Thursday morning on "The View," during a discussion on the N-word prompted by the revelation that Jesse Jackson used the slur in his controversial Fox News tape, Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck had a heated back-and-forth that ended with Elisabeth in tears.

Whoopi, who earlier in the broadcast had used the n-word repeatedly, sending the censors into overload, argued that the word is only as powerful as a society allows it to be and advocated for using the word to give it new meaning. Elisabeth, meanwhile, felt that she couldn't teach her children not to say the word if her black co-hosts and their children were using the word, arguing that, "we don't live in different worlds."

Whoopi then launched into a heated explanation of why black and white America still remain separate: "It isn't balanced, and we would like it to be, but you have to understand, you have to listen to the fact that we're telling you there are issues, there are huge problems that still affect us," she said.

Elisabeth replied, in tears, "When we live in a world where pop culture then uses that term, and we're trying to get to a place where we feel like we're in the same place, where we feel like we're in the same world...how are we supposed to then move forward if we keep using terms that bring back that pain?"

Watch:

From ABC, 7/17

Previously: "The View" Heats Up Over Racism, Whoopi Declares, "This Is A Racist Country"

Comments

[Balzac]

Hasselbeck can't stand the idea that black people can say a word she can't say.

That's just the way it is and it has always been. You can say n---- if you're black, you can say k--- if you're a jew, etc.

So why is she crying? Because she's a bubble-head with a specific agenda spoon-fed to her by her handlers. She's playing victim on purpose.

Folks who think she's sincere - get real, it's TV. She's a Republican and she wants Obama to lose. So she wants to create divisive dialog in the most effective way possible, by passive aggressive methods which are intended to make her liberal co-host look bad.

[alltwisty]

Honestly I think you're giving her way too much credit.

[William1950]

so the deal is that racism is alive and well in america, when we all, the collective inclusive we, stop thinking there is a difference, when our color is nothing more than being short or tall or having brown eyes... then and only then will we not be a racist people. and there is nothing like a double standard to point it out. but to be correct, a double standard is having no standard..­. right? to say that black people have "earned the right" to use the term "among themselves" but no one else dare to is pure and utter bullshit..­. we are all born of accident or design into what family we have... we are either black, white, red ,yellow or brown... we did not "earn" that, it just is. so does someone have the right to be offensive, sure they do, just as someone else has the right to be offended. is it right? who cares.

[SharonB]

Hugs to you William1950, You are so right.

[dana94591]

Though Whoopie is very wrong here, I think that Elizabeth is a bit confused. The N word still triggers a strong response from anyone who uses it. Elizabeth stilloperates in the world of "scared to say anything that may offend" I think she still has racist issues that are not resolved. Why cry???

[Blast]

There is truth in what Whoopi is saying. But, in order to fully, trully understand the N-bomb, and it's devastating affect on a black person and how it makes people within the Black population with regards to slavery in the past, and comedy and hip-hop culture today, you actually have to be, well...bla­ck. It is kind of like describing a car accident to someone that has never been in a car accident. Telling them all the details about your ordeal. The impact, and pain from injuries, and mostly the fear of getting back into an automobile. They can sympathize and empathize with you, but they will never really know the effects unless they have been in one.
Another point I would make is Whoopi's advocacy for using the word until it is run into the ground and a non-issue is a correct one. However, the black community will subconsciously sabotage this approach. By that I mean, blacks could overlook any ethnic group or race, using the N-bomb in everyday conversation for the soul purpose of sanitizing the word,....a­ny race except whites. The reason is simple. Whites are viewed as the cause. Blacks have now wrestled control of the use of the N-bomb from whites. They are not going to allow whites to have that power back.

[auntbaby]

ok ok elizabeth.­.so to keep you and other white folks who are dying to use the word and use as an excuse.."h­ow come black people can say it I can't?"..o­k ok I won't use it either. are you happy?!

[renatam]

Elisabeth is an immature child, whose world/worldview are about to experience a tectonic shift on multiple levels. Insulated and isolated from reality for so long, any time her inner compass is challenged she reverts to outbursts, tears and other tools from her manipulative arsenal to have the conversation go HER way. Very "Mad Men" era, when many woman had limited alternatives to be heard.

Whoppi, on the other hand, really needs to continue to speak up as the boomer African-American woman SHE is, despite the name changes and relocation to Hollywood AFTER that awful entree to Broadway, in the personna of a black junkie -- which, like other kinds of cariacatures (aka The New Yorker, this week) -- was very popular in days gone by.

I applaud Whoppi's relocation back home to NYC -- and re-embrace of her authentic identity as an intelligent and beautiful African-American boomer woman -- whose collective generation has transcended Segregation and found a way to thrive and usher in a new world where we all get to have our say.

Elisabeth can't survive this conversation. How in the world would she have surved and thrived what Whoppi has -- and, who is Elisabeth to dictate to anyone how they should think, what they can say -- and notice how comfortable she is doing so...

Perhaps Whoppi's other media ventures will allow her to be herself -- or RISK being marginalized as The View will be if it doesn't continue to move forward with the rest

[9liberal]

Exactly! Everytime Elisabeth wants to get a point across, she acts like a child who has the brain the size of a pea. She doesn't like it when people don't agree with her, so she acts like a baby. I think it is a great show for women to be able to debate, but it would be nice if they replaced her with someone who knew what they heck they were talking about.
I'm glad that whoopie stands up to her because sometimes it feels like they let her get by with the ridiculous comments she makes instead of holding her to the fire and showing that she is wrong on most occassions.

[McPander]

The shoe on the other foot should be used to understand and not ever to justify. I understand why many African-Americans use the word but to argue justifications is to argue the irrational.
It is hypocrisy to use the other shoe argument to justify someones actions.
I agree "Elisabeth can't survive this conversati­on.". You cannot debate hypocrisy. The person who is a hypocrite will always win. You lose the argument when you open your mouth. To continue the debate is to be shown to be a fool.

[ObamAtomic]

We would like to see the same interest to discuss,
held accountable whomever violate the Constitution,
the use of the word *N* is not a trivial issue,
respect to others is vital for our country and
the Constitution MUST be our foremost concerns,
can we be debating here about the WORD if
we do not had some Constitution left?
Everyone is right,the word is Offensive,­period,and
what is more offensive? the *word* or the actions
breeding the division on America.

[AlligatorShuz]

Does anybody know how the word came to be?
Didn't the word come into use while Spanish, Dutch, Greman slave traders were taking people from Africa several centuries ago?According to a historian from Ghana Dr. Tess Omebehe she said the word scame into existance because the slave catchers were looking for the Niger River People and because they couldn't pronounce the name Niger River People they started to call the the N***** River people. Dr. Ali Mausri author of the Africans says the name came into existance around the 16th century and it was used to humiliate the African people whom they had captured. The name was used to describe West Africans on slaving plantations throughout the Caribbean and North America. So the name originated in West Africa by Europeans.

[Opheux]

GO Eliszabeth i am black myself and i despise it when african americans use the N word as a blacks we we more than anyone should not use the n word we do not have a special permit that says we can say something and others can't that might work in America but that does not fly in the rest of world

shame on you whoopi

[LarBear]

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

So begins a song that can bring tears into my eyes, even at age 67...
I suspect many sing the song, love the song, yet know Not its origins...
I suspect, is a song loved by many a person with black skin tones...
Written by John Newton, a former slaver...
http://www.texasfasola.org/biographies/johnnewton.html (Full story here)
What I love about this song, these words, is the Grace of self Love and (Forgiveness) For giving self Love... Allowing Love, Warmth and Light in, chasing away the darkness of the Soul... Allowing that Love, Warmth and Light within, to radiate out to those around us...
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ'd!

The "N" word, no matter how it is spun or portrayed, will NEVER, IMHO, be a word of Love, Warmth, Light and Grace... WE do NOT need shackled to the "N" word, to achieve Love, Light, Warmth and Grace... And, I speak from a Spiritual, not from the Religious.­..
Used affectionately? I do NOT believe so, in a true, deep, heartfelt way... More to actually keep the heart at a "safe" distance..­.
Knowing the Story of Amazing Grace, adds Heart, to the Power and Beauty of the Song for me...

[Delaware22]

Amen.

[Janemas]

I agree with you too. I cringe when black americans use the word and think it's cool just because they believe they have the right. What an ugly word to teach a child it's ok to use in amongst blacks. Shame on Whoopi!

[thankulord13]

HuffPost's Pick

If you are Black (which I highly doubt) you would have understood where Whoopi was coming from... also don't make a judgment based on a minute and a half segment watch the whole six minutes and you will have a better picture. Elizabeth said we were all the same and Whoopi was saying that is not true that is the idea but we have not gotten there yet! Learn to research before commenting

[TheOutsider]

Elizabeth is saying that she is trying to learn how to be more racially sensitive, but becomes confused when the rules of the game keep changing. That is the source of her frustration and tears. She is bright and articulate; she just needs---like alot of people---to operate within a structured environment. That doesn't make her a bad person. Leave her alone. The fact that she became tearful means she is truly engaged in a quest to become more open-minded.

[Jetling]

Or it's a reflex because she can't comprehend the complexity of how individuals decide to deal with the word.

The word is still completely offensive, to be sure. Some choose to not say itm and other choose to take ownership of it to diminish the impact. What I think is silly is that Ms. Hasselbeck cannot appreciate context.

It still boils down to personal responsibility. I cannot find a situation where the use of the word is ever appropriate, but I do respect Whoopi's explanation for those in the black community who want to overcome that anger - whether it confuses Elisabeth or not. That being said, those individuals should still be cognizant and respectful to others in the black commmunity who would prefer not to hear the word uttered under any circumstances.

[MainSpark]

"That being said, those individuals should still be cognizant and respectful to others in the black community who would prefer not to hear the word uttered under any circumstan­ces."

By "those people," I understand you to mean "...those in the black community who want to overcome that anger...". If that is the case, do they, too, share in the "personal responsibility"?

For far too many of those who'd use the word, the perception will continue to exist that there's a double standard here. Regardless of whether or not they understand the complexities involved, that's their fall-back.­..their excuse. And until the word is "completely offensive" to everyone, it will always exist and be used.

[elr50]

Elizabeth bright and articulate? What show are YOU watching? Must be something on Fox.

[ChristianEcon.com]

"She is bright and articulate"

lol.

[TreesPlease]

Unfortunately, Elizabeth is like many others like her - blonde, white, allowed to do and say anything she pleases, cry when she doesn't get her way, and she has done that from birth, coddled by a society that allows whites to go anywhere do anything. Here is an area into which she may not wander and she is unable to understand that, while we may live in the same world, our experiences are infinitely different. It is similar to being a 'man' and a 'woman'. Still human but different.
I abhor the use of the N word because even when blacks use it it is still derogatory, like 'what's up dawg'. Why call a person by a label that they are not? However, that America is still discussing this and exhibits such strong and visceral response to anything that has to do with race tells you we have a long way to go.
Consider this: No-one was given the choice to be black, white, yellow or red at birth - it just is! There is no glory or shame in being from one race or another. Let us celebrate the diversity we have - it makes for such an enrichment to be able to learn from each other and maybe just maybe makes us better individually.

[chendri887]

We must all learn to listen to, hear, acknowledge, and empathize with each other's pain, whatever that pain may be. It is only through such a strategy that true forgiveness can occur and we can all learn to live with each other, despite our differences. I don't think Elizabeth Hasselbeck is at that point yet. She takes the dominant conservative attitude that...whi­te-black racism is a thing of the past, and that...peo­ple need to "get over it." If she had just listened to and acknowledged what Whoopi was saying--that things are different for African-Am­ericans--t­hat would have been a start in bridging the relationship. It is the direction his country needs to go in healing/dealing with not only its domestic ethnic differences, but also its differences on the international level. More listening and empathizing; less lecturing and bullying. Go, Whoopi!

[GeoNorth]

Words belong to everybody. Nobody has a lock on a particular word. All this talk about the "N word" or S word or F word or B word. we know what the word is that we are refering to. We think that, somehow. if we identify the word by it's first letter that it's okay, but the word itself cannot be uttered. How ridiculous! And to say that one person can utter a word and another cannot is equally ridiculous.

Words have power. They describe our ideas. All words are good words. Words are our tools for communication. Some words are crude to be sure, but like a 16lb sledge hammer, a crude tool, there are times they need to be used.

And Elizabeth.­..get a grip. To cry over a single word, regardless of the word, shows a lack of fortitude. How the hell did she get on TV?

[HoldenLitgo]

She got on TV because the powers that be on this show feel she represents the mentality that, say, put Bush and Cheney in office and refuse to hold them accountable for their crimes. They cast her in the role of "white conservative values person" and they did a fairly good job; She's only half-bright, doesn't really listen, and believes this country was founded on faith in God instead of a need to be free of tyranny. By a bunch of white slave owners!

While I agree with you about words, I don't think words or their value has anything to do with it - remember, those White Conservative Values People are now the ones who say words aren't enough or don't matter. Especially when millions are inspired by those of a Big, Scary Black Person Who Might Be President. It has only to do with those she was cast to represent: those who believe their beliefs are sacred and live in fear that someone might question them or take them away.

[Americano]

Black America was hijacked from their countries and families in Africa, made slaves in Europe and in the United States, treated like merchandise; and worse, “viewed as less than full humans!” For how long? For hundreds of years!
Black America, during this period, developed a language, an inverted association, that included the use of the N word. Sort of comic relief, the N word was used playfully and endearingly to deflect the scorns and bigotry of their White Christian slave masters, that has had a stranglehold on them right into the mid 20th. Century...­.
Blacks in America have earned every right to use the “N” word anyway they want! There isn’t a group of people on this earth that has experienced the long humiliation for the color of their skin as Blacks in America. They have been scorned (i.e., this is the way to treat them) by both new and old immigrants to America just for being Black in America.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck and everyone else that agrees with her position, has not and cannot walk a mile in a Black person’s moccasins. Nor do they understand Black America’s history. And more importantly, the discernment and wisdom that comes from the undercurrent of that knowledge!
The fact that Black America still use the N word, indicates the scars that are still visible and the need to continue to find "Comic Relief!" to deflect and heal!

[Indubio]

I agree with most of what you say. Your history is correct and your assessment of black America is reasonably accurate. But you miss the point if you seriously suggest using the N word is appropriate. It isn't. I irrespective of past treatment if blacks truly wish to move forward into what some have called a post racial America then they have to let go of the past. We shouldn't forget the past's lessons! But we damn well ought to move into a future where the tone and language of racism playful or otherwise is left behind. Maybe blacks find use of the N word amusing when they use it among "themselves" (the mere thought of this segregation sickens me) and perhaps some whites find it funny to hear black comedians use it...I for one find it crude and no more appropriate that any of the dozens of racial labels I grew up with to describe Italians, Irish, Jews, Poles, Hispanics, and people of Middle Eastern decent. Racial epithet is just that and it doesn't make any difference who says it. Goldberg has made a career of being outrageous, saying this to see where IT will land: In this case we'd all be wise to simply ignore her crudeness and follow the accepted convention regarding the N word.

[prochange]

I read a lot of books about slavery. Many of the Africans which were sold to other countries. were sold by their fellow Africans. There was slavery in Africa before the white man arrived.

There was slavery all over the world always and there still is. There is human trafficking going on everywhere and people are making big money with it. Human trafficking is besides the armament industry and the drug industry one of the biggest moneymaker in the world. Why do people do not get up in arms about that? But they get upset about something which happened two or three hundred years ago, because it is easier than facing reality..

Human beings are basically not good. Why else are we not able to stop wars, hunger and oppression. There are always victims and there are always profiteers. There is enough wealth and enough food in this world that everybody could live a comfortable life. But what happens?
Some people like Oprah make insane amounts of money while other people make so little that they cannot afford to go to the doctor and eat healthy food. It is slavery if one person makes billions by exploiting people who purposely are being kept uneducated. And I chose Oprah on purpose because she is exploiting the stupidity of people.

[scrutiny1]

Chattel slavery as it existed in America was a European invention. Never in the history of the world prior to that point were people kidnapped from their homeland, stripped of their culture, brutalized, brainwashed, and held in bondage for generation after generation. The Africans who sold their fellow men into slavery had no concept of the type of slavery that existed in America.

[Brillig]

So because there was slavery all over the world, it was ok for you to notch it up a bit and ensure that ex slaves remain second or third class citizens in the country they were born, all their lives?

[randomx6]

I find it most interesting that you use the word moccasins. Did you suddenly remember the fate of the Native Americans and subconsciously realize that you were downgrading their (much worse and ongoing - IMHO) experience?

[Nooneyouknow]

Sorry; got cut off by the word count.
That said, I think African-American use of the n-word can be self-abusive, because it refocuses individual and cultural identity on very real victimhood. African-Americans, as a culture and as individual subjects of racism, are victims, but victimhood will only take a person so far, especially when very few others care that you're a victim, and in fact a whole lot of people are still interested in victimizing you. At a certain point, as some survivors can tell you, it's not helpful to keep identifying with one's victimhood. It gets in the way of not being a victim any longer. Of course, when you're living in a mainstream culture that's still riddled with racism, victimhood is an ongoing affliction. You've gotta keep fighting back until you win, and African-Americans are definitely winning (Hello, Barack Obama!).
Full disclosure: I'm a white guy, and I'm writing this in my underwear.

[acanthus]

The "victimization" thing again. We have to keep fighting back? How, exactly? When blacks fight back, meaning when they complain about racism, what do we get told? I think you know. We get told that we're practicing "victimology". African-Americans are definitely winning because Barack Obama is running for President? The Barack Obama who is being constantly monitored for signs of paying too much attention to black people, which apparently would mean that he's supposedly not running for President of all Americans? That Barack Obama? Barack Obama's success is his and his alone.

[Nooneyouknow]

I think the n-word works like this: A huge part of the culture and lives of African-Americans has come from their experience of continuing racism and as the descendants of people who were considered not human, or at least nowhere near as human as a white person. As recently as the 50s, innocent African-American men were being arrested, "convicted," and sent to chain gangs and prisons to be slave labor for white businessmen and corporations. A little over 40 years ago, people were being assaulted and even murdered for daring to assert their right to vote.
African-Americans share a culture born in these conditions, and using the n-word can be a rueful reminder and assertion of that shared experience, history, and culture. It's a way of saying, 'this is where we come from, which has made so much of who we are and how we live as a community and individual­s.' It's a way of asserting membership in a community of survivors.
So you can see how it might chafe when a white person says it.

[LSUQ]

While it is true that words are not value-neutral, how that value is assigned is often complex. The "n" word is perfect example of the power of context to assign value to a word.

In many homes with slaves, the children would spend a large amount of their time with slaves assigned to the house. A word used by the children, affectionately, in reference to their caretakers has over time become the word nigre (a version of the "n" word). Growing up in south Louisiana, it was not uncommon for me to hear a white person refer, lovingly, their own children with this term. A logical historical remnant.

The idea that words cannot change in meaning or their ability to cause injury is ahistorical. Just off the top of my head I can think of "queer" theory which is an excepted term in scholastic circles.

Even more ludicrous is the idea that Hasselbeck needs all people to stop using the word before she can teach her children not to. One of the goals of learning is to be informed with but not dictated by every whim that you come in contact with. People disagree with many of her views all of the time. She holds firm to them because she considers them in correlation with her values. Why would making the argument to abstain from using the "n" word be any different? Is it that seductive?

[Indubio]

You're right about Hasselbeck­...her comment about everyone needing to stop using the N word was amusing. I never had a problem if my children (adults now) used colorful language as long as the surroundings were appropriate for the choice of language (don't use the F word in front of grandma). Racial slurs however, were never tolerated in our house; not in jest, not as a joke, and it never mattered whether one of our children heard the word used by someone else. I know from experience that it's difficult for a parent to teach children responsibility in a society that professes to value it but does much to encourage the opposite behavior, proper social behavior in a society where social decorum is at such a low status we celebrate low life celebrities rather than running them out of town on a rail, and to value education in a society that worships and pays millions for people to act and quite honestly live in stupidity. Nevertheless, as parents we must try to mitigate societal cesspool valves for the sake of the the our collective future.

[Brillig]

We are not dogs, you may lovingly refer to your dog with a pejorative - "Bitch" However, you call your wife that, it is NOT loving! Negroes are not dogs, they are humans.