ABC News said the 31-year-old "View" panelist nearly burst into tears while talking to her co-hosts about why it is acceptable for some people to use the racial epithet, but not OK for others.

"Sometimes I think it's almost worse to use it privately than publicly," said Hasselbeck, who is white, referring to reports that the Rev. Jesse Jackson used the word without realizing he was being recorded -- when he also made a reference to castrating likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

"I can use it as a term of endearment, (but) I don't want to hear it come out of your mouth," ABC News quoted "View" co-host Sherri Shepherd, who is black, as telling Hasselbeck.

"This is upsetting to me," Hasselbeck said. "When we live in a world where pop culture that 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?"

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg, who is black, then told Hasselbeck, "You must acknowledge the understanding of what it is and why it is."