The View Presents a Skewered “View” On Sensitive Topic

So we knew it was only a matter of time before the “color” debate would rear its ugly head.

Yesterday, on The View, the women were casually discussing the controversy surrounding Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Perry who either knowingly or unknowingly, set up a hunting camp in an area where a rock with the N word grafted into it calls home. The exact words were actually “N—erhead”.

Of course Whoopi Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd quickly expressed their displeasure and disgust. Barbara Walters echoed the same sentiment and even went as far as illustrating how repulsive she found the N word. She said it in a sentence: “It very hard for me to say….It gives me the chills”. Goldberg added that it was obvious the word as foul as it may be is here to stay and sugarcoating what the words on the now infamous rock actually say wasn’t exactly solving the issue. The segment promptly went into freefall, with Shepherd verbalizing her disapproval with Walters for actually saying the N word out loud being that she is Caucasian. She didn’t however take offense when Whoopi used it but having a white woman say the N word with such ease didn’t sit well with her. Walters obviously taken aback pushed further by asking Shepherd if she would be just as offended if she were reporting a story that required her to use the N word. And Shepherd retorted: “You can do whatever you want! You’re Barbara Walters!” Walters, clearly at her wits end, responded: “I’m sorry that has nothing to do with it Sherri”. And Shepherd closed it down with: “When you say the word I don’t like it…When white people say it, it brings up feelings in me”. However, Goldberg made it clear that she wasn’t at all offended by Barbara Walters uttering the N word because she was obviously trying to make a point and reiterate the shared sentiments at the table.  Shepherd didn’t hide her disappointment when it became clear that she didn’t have the support of the one person there who could intimately attest to the painful connotation that word evokes.

Whose side are you on? Personally, I think we have all passed the point of no return when it comes to the N word. It has been used in every context imaginable and is a mainstay within the black community, whether it’s used in jest or in anger. If we really feel that it needs to be completely obliterated from the face of the earth then that process has to start from within the community. It’s not okay to tolerate it from your own and then do a complete 180 when someone from another race is associated with it. Of course it burns more when Caucasians “go there”, but I have to say that Shepherd directed her anger at the wrong person, and if she thinks she was helping the cause, she’s dead wrong. Her reaction and outburst actually complicated it. As long as the black community is flippant about the N word usage, it will continue to haunt us for years to come.