The white house correspondents dinner. Some said the use of the word was in poor taste. In the first 45 minutes, your discussion about the use of the word at the event and the appropriateness towards president obama. If you are africanamerican and want to give us your thoughts, call 202 7488000, everyone else can call in on call 202 7488001. If you want to post on social media pages, you can do so at , cspanwj. Prompted from a conversation between josh earnest and a correspondence. Comedian Larry Wilmore gets up to speak after the president of United States. It was in the last section of his speech that he used the we will show you in context what happened there. We are not editing this, so just so youre warned about that. Heres what happened last saturday. [video clip] a black man was thought by his mere color not good enough to lead a football team. And now, to live in your time, mr. President , what a black man can lead the entire free world [applause] words alone do me no justice. President , you know, barry, you did it my nigger. Host that was the exchange that took place like saturday last saturday. Some supporting it. And some criticizing the use of the word. This in the wall street thenal, saying that it was naacp president saying he objected to his decision to use the word, even though he taught he thought he intended to be sincere. Host that was the comments from the naacp. We are getting your thoughts on the use of the word itself, especially towards the president of the United States. Africanamericans, call 202 7488000, all others, call 202 7488001. Yesterday, during the usual press briefing that took place thehe white house, Washington Bureau chief of the American Urban Radio Network gets into a bit of an exchange with josh earnest, the press secretary, about his use of the word. Heres a bit of that exchange. [video clip] im confident that he use the word by design, he was seeking to be provocative. I think any reading of his comments makes clear he was not using the president as the but of a joke. What is true is that it was a tough assignment that any comedian takes on when they sign up for this job. The president s expectation when he walks in that room is that, that comedian and other people are going to get much closer to the line than they were nearly would. As they try and make a joke. I want to be very clear. Ok with this is use and how to use the nword. I will just restate what i said before, the president with the president said is that he appreciated the wilmoresmr. Expression on saturday night. Host more that is available at cspan. Org. On twitter adding to the conversation, saying the use of the term was inappropriate in both the setting and the context. This is keith from chicago, illinois. You are up first. What do you think about what happened on saturday night . Caller i enjoyed the program, of course. The president was right on par. It seemed to me that mr. Wilmore was playing to his cable audience, and not the room, which is kind of a sin in comedy. In terms of the use of the word directly the kind of pull back the curtain on the vernacular within the community. And quite clearly, it was a term of endearment. In the say it is akin to gay community, use of the word queer is both a slur when used in a certain context, and within a wordmunity, it is also of empowerment. So context matters, and no one should misconstrue that. Wilmore could have used better judgment, knowing that the room, the nation, and the world were watching. People thatlot of unfortunately use that word in a different context in relation to the president. He didnt need to reinforce that, in my opinion. Host james is up next in florida. Caller yes, sir. I agree with the caller. I volunteer at the school, i hear young white boys use that term. Some people use the thing for hateful. But that word, we should try not mention. Even though it was a joke, i think you should stay he should Say Something else. My brother, some like that. Myn young white boys say nigger. Lets not be hypocritical about it. If they dont want white folks to say it to another black man, we should not have been saying it. Lets be truthful to one another. ,ven though they were joking that was another black man saying to another black man. But ive seen the young white boy say to another white boy. Host that is james in florida. Weve gotten some response on the pages of the Washington Post. One of their columnists talked about the events of saturday night, Larry Wilmore is not my end used that word. See it yes, many people as a term of endearment. Reclaim the ugliest word in the english language used to value their enslaved ancestors host linda is up next from marx, mississippi. Hello. Linda, good morning. Caller good morning. Was not an intentional use of disrespect, but i was thinking was inappropriate use. Its not a word that you should ,se to represent the president it was disrespectful. I dont think he meant it to be disrespectful, but it was. Is it only because he used it to the president that makes it disrespectful . Its general use otherwise, is that what you feel . Caller no, i dont. But it really was inappropriate to use to address the president. Is an appropriate use to use at all. That is when the, this is ralph from baltimore. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host you are on, go ahead. Agree i kind of dont with addressing the president using those kind of words. I think in this day and time, we are so distracted by so many issues that cause us to be offended that we are missing the whole point here. To makes basically America Great again. My dont think we can continue to be upset and angry and irritated and agitated by so many groups and trivial matters that we forget the big picture here. I dont want to be divided as a country. I want to stand united, in the United States of america. I dont want to get into these bathroomnders about a or flags or black lives matter, were all these other things that are dividing us that we are missing the whole picture here. Thats basically how i feel about it. I am africanamerican and i support donald trump. I want to make America Great again. We cant do that fighting one another, getting mad and upset, finding about this inviting about that. I just dont think its good. Host this is cornell from tolls look, oklahoma. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Pan. Im appalled by the blacks who are calling in trying to justify the usage of that word. Larry wilmore should be fired. He should be barred from television. No place in the civilized world, in this country, for that word anymore. I went through school desegregation, i was one of the very few blacks in an allwhite school. I heard the word every day. And for a lot of these African Americans to be calling in and trying to justify the usage of that word, they are shameless to me. Absolutely shameless. Those are my comments, thanks for giving the opportunity. Host it is inappropriate in any context, or only because of the president . You are saying the worst the word is inappropriate. Caller the word should be buried. I hear young blacks using the word constantly, and i correct them when they use the word. Its a degrading word, and again, it should never be used whatsoever in any context at all. Thank you. Newspaper,guardian, Rebecca Carroll wrote a column about the use of that word by mr. Wilmore. To read you a couple of thoughts this morning, she said as much as i support understand the use of that with obama, if only Larry Wilmore was saying you can keep degrading us. Host again, that is in the pages of the guardian. Larry wilmore and the use of the nword last week towards the president of the United States, the focus of our discussion in the first 35 minutes this morning. The lines will be on your screen, which are next from teresa in chicago. Teresa, good morning. What do you think . Caller good morning. I want to express that i feel that it was very inappropriate for mr. Wilmore to use that. Given the venue and the public that he was in the audience that he was speaking to. Think that is something that she wanted to say that to the president , that should have been done very privately. I think this country still needs to have a conversation on race, which hasnt really taken place. There has been a lot of disrespect to the president during his presidency. It is continuing to go on. And i dont think that using that word helped that situation at all. As a matter of fact, it showed afroamericans disrespecting their own. I think that word should be buried and eliminated. I think its wrong in any context. I think in some of the musical people who are using this in disrespecting women and just using this word like it is a miseducationws in terms of understanding black history. The meaning of that word ginally in the dictionary so, i feel like someone like him, sing in journalism and so forth should have known better. Host you have heard some people say you have to consider the context and some people say that they have to consider in some cases a term of endearment. What you think about those arguments . Caller endearment has its place, theres a time and place for everything. The place when you have a nationwide thing that is being broadcast like that i know far as usinggo so humor. I dont even feel really at this the nword should really be used. That is some comedy pornographic or Something Like that. I dont know. For that not particular occasion. Host we go next to brandon, florida. Go ahead, you are on. Caller it is just comedy. Ive looked at it, its just comedy. Host because it was used in a comical sense, it was ok . Caller pretty much. Host lee is up next in jackson, mississippi. Caller hello. Pig is stillk on a a pig. I dont think this word should ever be used in a common situation or any other situation. I believed you should look at the origin of the word, it was originally to degrade a person, to put them in a subhuman category. People lower themselves to other peoples designation of who they are. That is never adequate to use this word. You never should use it. I dont know why anyone would use that. President obamas response was inadequate. It was not a lustrous, it did not show any honor on him, he should have condemned it. It should never be used at all. It doesnt make any sense. It was not a term of endearment. Was going to ask you about the white house response. You think it should have a stronger response from the white house . Caller im in the military, im a vietnam veteran. I got into fights about this. Died because they refuse to be called a name. Its not necessary, it adds nothing. We should do things and say things that engender respect and lift us above these types of words. It does nothing to help us at all. ,hether you are black or white you should address the president in an honorable way. Host that is steve from jackson, mississippi, calling in on a line we set aside for africanamericans this morning. Regarding the use of the nword during a comedy routine by comedian Larry Wilmore. That is the topic of our conversation, if youd like to give us a call and express your views, call 202 7488000 for africanamericans, all others, call 202 7488001. If you want to see the whole routine for yourself, will it showed you a bit of what happened. You can go to war website at websiterg our cspan. Org at. Good morning. Caller i saw nothing wrong with it. Me, it was just to let him know, everybody know no matter how far you come, if you are black, you are black. Thats all it was, was a comedy skit couple of words. Host you should only take it as that and nothing more . Thats what im saying. Its nothing more than that. I dont understand why people are getting so upset. I could see if they were using it to down him or Something Like that, but he didnt. The some people brought up historical meaning of the word of the Historical Context of the word, saying because of that and other things, it shouldnt be used. Caller i was always taught the nword was applied to an ignorant person. Person, soignorant does not apply to me. Host that his grace. A couple of people on twitter, this is jody saying im not black it, but i do not i do know satire. More like captain, my captain in that movie. Forink larry said in love obama. My black students set it to each other all the time, i didnt like it and told him to stop. , elmo ishe phone lines next in baton rouge, louisiana. On our line for African Americans. Caller im so sick and tired of this whole country upset about a word. I river when they bury the word. I have a lot of other words the need to go in that casket. Words that are negative towards women in all this kind of stuff. All the problems we have in our neighborhood, and we have a National Discussion about one word. Said, its just a word, you call them what you want. We have other issues in our neighborhood that we need to deal with instead of going around the country like if we bury the nword, all of our problems go away. Im just sick of it. Host on the line for all others, jim is up next. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would just like to remind everyone of the outrage that happened during a deposition that paula deen days about her divorce that happened even 20 years ago, which use the word. Everyone was so outraged that she lost her business, kmart dropped her, sears dropped her, she lost her tv shows, everybody went crazy about the fact that in a deposition about something that happened in her divorce prior 20 years ago, that leaked out and everyone was so outraged that she lost millions and millions of dollars. Now, in the same situation, what is going to happen to him . That word shouldnt be used in any way because of the fact that it is hurtful comments divisive, and it can be financially disruptive. In that situation, there should be some consequences for the situation. It shouldnt be passed on. Host you dont suspect he will see the same type of consulate is happened to him of consequences happen to him . Absolutely not. There is a race bias in our country. If youre going to condemn it for one, condemned for everybody. I dont think the guy should get that shedont think shouldve lost her tv shows, i think shes back on again, thank god. I dont think she should have taken all of that outrage when she is in a deposition and asked a question. In the situation, this was intentional. This was a thoughtout situation , he probably rehearsed the speech. Why someone didnt come around and say this is an appropriate, or whether or not anyone even looked at the speech that he gave they should be a serious reprimand, there should be an apology. Whether it will happen im sure it probably wont. Host one of the stories on this topic made reference to the fact that the president himself used the word in a podcast. Sitting president obama use the to make a Interview Point that theres still plenty of room for america to combat racism. It quotes him as saying racism, we are not cured of it, and its not just a matter of if not being polite to say the word in public. Thats not the measure of whether racism still exists or not, its not a matter of over discrimination, societies dont, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior. As a store that was released last year, you can find it on the cnn page. In jamestown,gil North Carolina. It morning. Good morning. Caller good morning. The nwordis use of was totally despiteful, degrading, it was selfserving and gratuitous. I think he did it only to boost his own ratings. He could have said my brother, sir, this is the president of the United States. We need to stop using this degrading word, he needs to be jettisoned to the dustbins of history. I agree with all the other callers, particularly black callers about that who dont want to see this word used anymore. The context was Larry Wilmore, his act was failing, his jokes were failing, and i, for one, not to watch his show. I will refuse to watch a show because of that. Im only one, but i hope that others will do the same. Host what do you think about the president s reaction, not only where he gave him a hug, but the white house reaction as well . Caller i think president obama is such a gentleman that i think it took in the back, but that wilmore owes the president an apology. Here was president obama, being being gentleman, was just just didnt want to react initially to that particular degrading comments. Is gil from North Carolina talking about those comments that were made by Larry Wilmore. You can see the whole thing on our website if you want. It was a former cnn talk host piers morgan who took to twitter , talking about this event, saying get rid of the nword, america. Larry will more president obama it made the whole world cringe. It now forever. Thats just one of the tweets that came out yesterday. Shawn king, associate with black lives matter said this. We watched Larry Willmore at the correspondents dinner, it was one of the most hilarious, courageous, and comfortable, confrontational 30 minutes ever. Loved it. Alexandria, virginia, jack is up next. Good morning. I agree the word should never be used. That cant help but think life has better priorities. But a time when every major city in the United States, young black men are killing each other , it seems to me if the effort put forward to deal away with the nword should be put forward to get away with the killings. A word can hurt, but word cant kill. Thats my comment. Host chicago, illinois is where judy is. The morning. Thanks for calling in. Caller my name is judy and my father in chicago had his own newspaper, the new crusader here in chicago. When i was seven years old, he had a white guy in his office and said these nasty words to my father. My father i could read. He put me to the collegiate dictionary, and the used to be more than part of the word saying that word. It had two definitions. He told me that that man was one. And to understand that, they have changed our definitions this was 60 years ago. They dont tell you everything. Intochanged a lot of ways the dictionaries. Er, he said a, and i think that is what the president understood. If you look at what the republicans did at the president s inaugural thingy, you and all of these republicans figuri