I'm ashamed to say that I was watching this crap this morning. How is this woman so fucking stupid? It's sad that she gets so upset over a word that has absolutely no relevance to her past. Listen to Whoppi and shut the fuck up.

Of course she has to show the world that she cares about other people and their views just not about herself.

whose bright idea was it to hire this bimbo in the first place?

she is (Hasselbeck, whatever her name is) so uptight, that i feel MY breathing restricted. she is like the subitute that you're like, "Yea, subsitute" then you see how she is and you're then saying "Ah, bummer"…. why she bothers me is simple: she is a fraud with a cal state or asu education, and puts on so many false airs that she does not know what reality is.

Elizabeth needs to learn when to shut the hell up. Which is, actually, before she opens her mouth to begin with.

She must have gone to the Jessica Alba school for acting.

You people just don't know how that word cuts to the vary soul of a rich privileged white women like Elisabeth. You just don't get it.

She can cry more and I still won't believe she's a "compassionate" conservative. She's just an ignorant conservative.

I wish she could feel my pain. The pain I had to feel watching her. When will our suffering end?

Come to me, juju. Together we will weather this storm.

I feel like a campfire and a good exorcism would come in handy right now.

Oh goodie, race relations from someone who thinks The Color Purple is a hue to avoid on the racks at Barney's.

(She's a "summer")

Sigh… I remember when she was just the pretty girl on Survivor who made it to the Top 4 by being nice, and attractive. I'm shaking my head but you can't see me.

oh my fucking god. i want to crap on her neck.

As dumb as she is and as much as I understand where Whoopi and Sherri are coming from, I kinda agree (emphasis on kinda) with the stupid bitch. And I'm loathe to admit it. But seriously, we do live in the same world, even with the differences. I think she has a point. If black people don't like others using the word, they should cut it out too. It's relatively simple. And there's me on a soapbox. I'm done. And damn, I hate taking Hasselbeck's side.

I'm there Janice but we have to bring everyone else and we can learn fun new ways to kick asses ala STM. Crapping on ones neck is one way to shut them up. As well as pissing in eyes.

Wow….I'm the only one on here who agrees with Elizabeth on this one!

I don't like the idea of a word being "acceptable" for some people to use, while not ok for others. I hate the word cu*t (you know, that word for women) and don't want anyone to use it. It's derogatory, offensive, and degrading. Much like the N-word.

But yeah, she's still an idiot who needs to stop crying on tv.

I understand what you mean sexyback. In some ways she has some good points. But it's hard to pick them out along with the crap.

Ok, Elisabeth—ELISABETH, now stop crying!!

Just because others get to use the word and you don't. You don't need to cry about it! Gahhhh.

Here, you can have these words: Irritating Crybaby. And take this ice cream sandwich and go play.

Seriously, though,

I think she started crying because she had her thoughts and words all rehersed out in her head this morning while she was brushing her teeth, while she was in the car to the studio, and while she was in make up.

She had a great reaction from everyone all pictured in her head. She saw, in her mind's eye an audience standing ovation.

Then it all went terribly WRONG.

I agree that there is no way to grow if we still carry on the same old antics. She has some good points there. I SO think that Ms Sherri Shepard needs to keep her trap shut little miss "i thought the world was flat" because since that statement her opinion to me seems uninformed. i thought whoopi and elizabeth had substantial points. but its time to let it go. the new generations are growing up and the only reason they feel this way is because now their parents are putting it in their head to hate a certain race. ERACISM is where it needs to be

Was she joking about the world being flat? I don't think anyone is actually that ignorant. I mean, really.

I love her

The African-Americans can use the word but no one else can. Yea, right, let's keep the racism going.And then the African-Americans wonder why we live in two different worlds.

I don't understand why we can't just say Black. How often do we say, Caucasian? I think we become so enveloped in terminology that there is no proper way anymore. What is acceptable to one isn't to another. I think we should refer to every race as a different term for shit - that oughtta shut everyone up. Dingleberry, Turd, Crap, Doodie… just pick one and get over it.

Just in response to what Whoopi said…didn't white women and black women, all women in the U.S. gain the right to vote at the same time, when the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920? I guess I don't get her point there.

Jo- technically that was based only on sex/gender…I think black people still had a tough time voting sometimes/someplaces until the CR Act approved by LBJ in '64, which eliminated the backwards and biased Jim Crow laws throughout the country.

But yeah, that irked me too. We all have obstacles and problems to overcome.

You're right Jo…Whoopi has said that before. None of our Mom's or grandmother's got to vote, black or white, until the 19th amendement.

Black men were "symbolically" given the right to vote with the 15th amendment, but in truth were not able to truly do so out of fear for their lives and those of their families. Also in an effort to prevent them from voting, a poll tax was imposed, knowing fully that most blacks could not afford to pay it. This was lifted in 1964 with the 24th amendment.

The 19th Amendment, which granted ALL women (of the U.S.) the right to vote, was proposed in 1919 but was not ratified until 1920.

How can you guys watch this show? I couldn't even finish the clip.

iSore, I am with you. BLECH!

I kind of see both of their points. What I think is crazy is that it is Jesse Jackson - a minister - saying nuts and n*ggers.

NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER, NIGGER. What if you don't know the race of the person saying it?Words do not have power. Period. Besides, cunt would have to be that offensice as well. CUNT, CUNT, CUNT.

Lissie darling, while you are hard at work creating that lesson plan for how to raise children to be decent humans, don't forget to include a chapter on how terribly disrespectful it is to interrupt people when they are talking.

Disprespect via racial slur = Unforgivable, fainting couch, oh my aching white guilt, the horror, the tears

Disrespect via disregard of common courtesy = hunkydory, okey dokey, because I am just so darn MAD, people!!!! (sob)

Oh. My. God. What is wrong with that woman? She just started crying because Whoopi laid it out like it is and she felt chastised. Poor baby. I can't believe how cool the other women were with her. I guess she's a voice for all the uber-privileged in this country who don't like to think about what it's like for anyone else? In a way, though, it's very cool that they're talking about it.

I think there are simply a lot more creative, colorful, funny ways to be offensive than to fall back on old reliable words that are "naughty".

For example, rather than say a person is vertically challenged, you could use the following:

Like dwarf, midget, little person, leprechaun with a pot o gold, ankle biter, flea, midge, smidge, the Lollipop Guild, titch, shortie, Thumbie, Thumbelina, Tiny Tim, Mini, those touched by the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Happy, Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy, Sleepy, or Dopey etc etc

Words hurt, people!!!

and when talking with your fave homosexual shortie, you could jovially ask them when they plan on coming out of the cabinet.

killorn, thank you for that.

This is the second keyboard that I have ruined today due to a Dr. Pepper spew.

Comment #36 has turned me into a laughing soda geiser.

So… only black people are allowed to use the word "nigger"? I think the word should not be used by any race. It is obviously way more hurtful when a white person calls someone a nigger that when a black person calls someone else a nigger, but that doesn't make it okay for black people to use it as a "term of endearement." Allowing "nigger" to be used only by selected races encourages segregation.

I need to quit drinking while reading Mollygood.

killorn- I would post some favorite words for homosexuals as well but I'm guessing that's a no-no…

What Would George Carlin Do?

Can we all just agree to crap on her neck and be done with it?

no qc, you most certainly do not.

Stm, I'm with you on the crapping on her neck.
That means I also get to stick my ass in her face.
:-)

( A fate WORSE that death)

make sure you eat taco bell and alot of greens before you crap in her neck girls. if you're going to do a job you might as well do it right.

how about this? when non-blacks collectively stop using the n-word under their breath, then we can ask blacks to stop using it as well. we'll all be waiting a while…

and the self-righteous pointing! Could she get more annoying.

killorn, props for "she's a summer"! aahahahahaha

I'm usually a non-violent person but this bitch deserves a good beat down. Not just for this post, in general.

Elisabeth should have been fired a long, long time ago. I can't watch this show. Watching the clip was horrible. She thinks her point of view is relevant and insightful. It's not. Whoopi made a point about words only having great meaning when we let them. I couldn't sit through a full episode of this show, but I applaude Whoopi for standing her ground.

"Have you seen the movie Crash?" WTF does that have to do with anything? Was that her whole lesson on race relations?

I can appreciate her asking questions, but if she would just shut up and listen for a second instead of her nonsensical ranting she could learn something And why the hell is she crying? If she doesn't want to say the n-word, and she's not black, then why does it affect her so much?

And even tho all women may have gotten the right to vote in 1920, even today, the voting system is unequal. Voting centers are a lot scarcer in low-income (disproportionately minority) neighborhoods.

Well I have a great great grandma that is black and I am white so I think that relative qaulifys me as black "black so there you go niggers!
Elizabeth just talks to much and sherri sheppard is just a dumb nigger.

"why does it affect her so much?"

Because saying that some color of people are allowed to do one thing and others can't is a bad thing.

Besides, how black is black? Can a half-black say it? How about a quarter?

I'm embarrassed for her. BARBARA!!!! WAKE UP! GET RID OF HER!!!! I can't even watch the show because of her!

You know what I think is unfair? How it's all horrible for a white to use the word nigger but if a black wants to stand up and call a white person every racist name in the book it's OK. It's actually supposed to be 'funny'. (Example: the film Guess Who.) I don't think whites should be saying shit about blacks - but just because the blacks were treated the way they were doesn't give them a new right to perpetuate segregation by using racial slurs against the whites.

For anyone still reading this, it's Nigga not Nigger that black people use, and just like many languaes context, spelling, and pronuciation can change meaning. That said, if you're still with me here's some historical context on how black you should be to use the term.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule
The 1910–19 decade was the nadir of the Jim Crow era by most measures. Tennessee adopted a one-drop statute in 1910. It was followed by Louisiana the same year, Texas and Arkansas in 1911, Mississippi in 1917, North Carolina in 1923, Virginia in 1924, Alabama and Georgia in 1927, and Oklahoma in 1931. During this same period, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and Utah retained their old "blood fraction" statutes de jure, but amended these fractions (one-sixteenth, one-thirtysecond) to be equivalent to one-drop de facto.[5] By 1925, almost every state had a one-drop law on the books, or something equivalent.[citation needed] These laws gave justification to bureaucrats like Walter Plecker of Virginia,[6] Naomi Drake of Louisiana,[7] and similar people around the country, who insisted on labeling families of mixed ancestry as Black.
Before 1930, individuals of mixed European and African ancestry had usually been classed as mulattoes, sometimes as black and sometimes as white. The main purpose of the one-drop rule was to prevent interracial relationships and thus keep the white race "pure." In 1924, Plecker wrote, "Two races as materially divergent as the White and Negro, in morals, mental powers, and cultural fitness, cannot live in close contact without injury to the higher." In line with this concept was also the assumption that Blacks would somehow be "improved" through White intermixture.

I refer to myself as "cracker" or "honky" on a fairly regular basis. Not that they have anywhere near the same history of hate behind them, but because I think it's funny to make light of a word that is supposed to be derogatory and take ownership of it. I totally understand why it's acceptable for blacks to use the "n" word and not whites (or anyone else, for that matter!).

Crap on her neck? Piss in her eyes? And you wonder why blacks have a reputation for being ignorant and violent?

So Whoopi wants to be a nigger. Let her. She is like so many other blacks who are too ignorant and narcissistic to appreciate the many great sacrifices of their FAR MORE NOBLE black ancestors — you know, those people who had actual (rather than imagined) white racism to deal with?

Beth, if you don't understand an inside joke - don't comment on it. Nice assumption on the race of the coiner though, considering you don't know the origin.

So I don't even know how it came to be used as an argument by a few people on here, but let me lay it out. I don't think anyone should really use the dreaded 'n-word', black or white, because of the history and 'taking it back' isn't having the success ratio you thought it might. But as an arguably privileged white girl it's hard for me to be the last word on the subject. That being said, I think it's perfectly acceptable for me to refer to women as cunts (and men too if they're acting particularly cunt-y) but I bristle at a man doing it. Same thing? You be the judge.

Beth = classy.

Classy means racist and ignorant, right? Right?

"“Have you seen the movie Crash?” WTF does that have to do with anything? Was that her whole lesson on race relations?"

Pretty much. Wasn't that everyone's favorite lesson on race relations?

"That being said, I think it’s perfectly acceptable for me to refer to women as cunts (and men too if they’re acting particularly cunt-y) but I bristle at a man doing it. Same thing? You be the judge."

Chelsea–I agree with you.

I think words only have as much power as you give them. If someone is ignorant there's nothing you can do about it. They will always be that way but I don't have to get angry if they are a big racist. That's who they are and so be it. But they have no importance to me and neither will they words.

Bitch, that's a word that can have a disrespectful connotation. But if my friend says it to me I know her intention is not to disrepect me. If some douche says it to me out in the street I know he's not being funny. Whatever, have a nice day and I hope you get jock itch. But I'll still go on my merry bitch way.

I wish Whoopi would have whooped her ass. How can anyone tell black people to stop using a word that continues to be muttered under non-blacks breath? There is a lot of black literature that explains the context of the n-word and how it is used. So a non-black person should never tell me not to use the n word. When you are called a nigger at that very instant you know there are two different worlds. Many blacks don't repeat the word nigger but are called a nigger frequently, and people like myself take the word nigger and empower myself. I pity those who think calling me a nigger brings me down or breaks my spirit.

And just because I can say it doesn't mean that you can say. There is a right of passage.

Sam…you are definitely a nigger.

ok, i never watch this show but this clip got a lot of attention so i checked it out and as much as Elizabeth has a reputation for being annoying I agree with her. It is a negative term when someone who is white uses it but ok for someone who is black? that is sending a mixed message so why not stop the use the word as a "term of endearment" which clearly it is not…you have to practice what your preach if you are gonna pull the color- unfair world card.

CRASH was the WORST MOVIE EVER!!! I still can't believe it won oscars….Or is that the industries way of giving back to all those who were oppressed? Or those who get killed first in all the movies…

Elizabeth is right.

This argument is so tiresome. Why don’t folks get it?! At what point did “nigga” become a term of endearment. Slavery has really had long lasting effects, but none more damaging than psychologically. What is so difficult to understand?! White slave owner demeans black slave by calling them nigger. He does everything inhumanly possible to that nigger to show that he’s a nigger. Anyone heard of Stockholm Syndrome? That’s when a hostage begins to show signs of loyalty to the hostage taker. Let’s call this the Nigger Syndrome.

Some slaves began to picture themselves as niggers and other slaves as well…Massa’ was right…you juss a dum nigga! Fast forward through the years and we have the same thing. Let’s be real. Everything else is so fake in this world, at least we can be real with ourselves. Nigga isn’t a term of endearment. Nigga is when your tongue is too lazy to say Nigger. As in…the word is door…you say doe…floor..flo’…and any other English word that becomes “ebonics”.

Take it out the hands of the oppressor and do what Whoopee…oppress each other? Terms of endearment…nigga please, bitch nigga, that nigga (baby’s father) ain’t shit, nigga break yo self, etc. Anyone ever notice that nigga is primarily used in reference to black males. Females, well y’all just black bitches.

Be honest people, we have become mentally strapped to being inferior and not trusting each other. Don’t believe me…how about light skin vs dark skin…talking white vs talking black…kinky hair vs straight hair. Fact is, the majority of the time you hear nigga…it ain’t good. Folks are so messed up in the head, they don’t know the difference. I grew up saying nigga all the time because that is what my environment taught me to appreciate my history. Folks really think they doing something calling folks nigga out of love. Please, stop using that tired excuse to use the word because you don’t want to stop using the word.

you said it jamal!!!! no one needs to use the word. what bothers me most about the clip is someone as incompetent and inarticulate as elizabeth is getting so much press. the issue is more about her than jesse jackson's hypocrisy.

thank you lisa.

beth- what the!?!?!?

*wonders how to become a more noble black person*

I think you need to have a cheetah or a lynx on a chain and emulate significant portions of Coming to America. Yip yip yip.

I get her point but why does she make everything so personal? Seems like she might be hanging out with her kid too much because she acts like a child. Just because someone doesn't agree with her, she gets annoyingly defensive.

Social intervention required?

I have a soft spot in my heart for Elisabeth. I would liken it to Chelsea's adoration of Amy, or Elle of Kimora. I also want to repeat the fact that Elisabeth started off as a normal person much like you and I and worked her way to her position now. She is not an entitled rich girl, well she didn't grow up one at least.

I agree with Elisabeth 110%. Whoopi is an idiot and so is Barbara Walters. As a matter of fact, so are any of you that agree that using the "N" word is appropriate.

Appropriate or inappropriate, who cares. If you don't like it, don't use it. This is all such a moot argument. People will continue to use that word in many ways, including racist and endearing, and probably a word of contexts in between no matter what anyone decides about it.

It can't be anything but a personal decision. I can't make racists stop using it, and I certainly wouldn't presume many black people care what I think about them using it. No matter the outcome of the discussion, people will continue to use the word for their own purposes. And that leaves us… well, right here where we started.

I never use the word - but if Whoppi wants me to teach my kids she and Obama are niggers - hey I can do that.

Now you guess whether I am black or white or mixed.

I agree with Elisabeth.
Everytime I see clips of this show I hate Whoppi more and more.

I agree with Jamal. It is the slave mentality. I am black, and I do not use the word. I have heard people say, "take care of him, he's my nigga". Whether it is thought of by some as a term or endearment or not, I chose to keep the word out of my vocabulary. White people can make the same choice.

Know that not all black people use the n-word, just as I know that not all white people are as ignorant as Beth.