Resist The Temptation

Stop apologizing. For the love of God, stop apologizing.

This post is not directed at Republicans. They have learned over the past several years that refusal to apologize can get one a) elected to the presidency; b) great financial riches while President; c) ability to remain free from indictment while some people get indicted for possession of marijuana and occasionally less; b) considered the individual most likely to become the 47th President of the United States of America.

Democrats and the left, having failed to make the connection, have learned none of that. And so it was that Whoopi Goldberg, who on Monday contended that the Holocaust was not about race, made amends on Tuesday in the best way possible when

“So yesterday on our show, I misspoke,” said a contrite-sounding Goldberg, 66, adding that she wanted viewers to “hear it from me directly.”

“I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race, and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man — but it is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race,” she finally acknowledged.

“Words matter, and mine are no exception,” said Goldberg, who had confusingly repeated many of her initial claims during a late-night TV chat hours after first apologizing Monday.

“I regret my comments, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people,” she told her viewers Tuesday.

That was her mistake. "Words matter, and mine are no exception," coupled with "I regret my comments, and I stand corrected" did her in. Whoopie G. was not suspended despite having apologized; she was suspended in part because she did apologize.

She expressed regret not only for the impact of her words, which often takes the place of apology. Instead, she stated "words matter" and "I stand corrected," thus acknowledging error. Then The View gave several minutes to Anti-Defamation League National Director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt to remind us of the horror of the Holocaust and lay out the perspective of the Jewish community.

Deeply appreciate @WhoopiGoldberg inviting me on to @TheView today to have an important discussion on the importance of educating about the Holocaust. Whoopi has been a long-time ally of the Jewish community and @ADL and her apology is very much welcome. https://t.co/0lCLSgM9vO

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 1, 2022

Deeply appreciate @WhoopiGoldberg inviting me on to @TheView today to have an important discussion on the importance of educating about the Holocaust. Whoopi has been a long-time ally of the Jewish community and @ADL and her apology is very much welcome. twitter.com/ADL/status/148…

Whoopi's was a wide-ranging statement of regret followed by an opportunity, which Greenblatt made the most of, for a representative of the opposing viewpoint to educate the audience.

In today's cancel culture, that sort of thing is a mistake, one Democrats are wont to make.  Once someone concedes error- the principled response- few people have reason to rally to her cause because she herself has admitted being in the wrong.  And opponents see it only as a sign of weakness.

Moreover, as this tweeter noted, "Whoopi apologized. Said she was wrong. Said she will change her thought and still was suspended. What is the point in apologizing and realizing you are wrong? Horrible precedent...."

It does no good for the individuals who made the mistake, nor for their supporters.   They appear weak, pandering to people who are  encouraged to continue their purge of opinions which are hurtful to their sensitive souls. It has gone too far- America knows it, and voters know it.

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Many People Felt Wrong

On ABC's The View on Monday, the women started talking about a school in Washington State cancelling To Kill a Mockingbird and one in Tennessee doing the same for Maus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrative book about the Holocaust. 

A bizarre remark followed, made by, ironically, an individual who professionally took on the surname "Goldberg,"  Whoopi commented "The Holocaust isn't about race." Momentarily interrupted, she continued "No, it's not about race. Because- it's- it's not about race.... It's about man's inhumanity to man.... Let's talk about what it is. It's about how people treat each other."

 

The following morning, Whoopi issued a (sort of) apology, which was as unnecessary as it was predictable. An apology wasn't appropriate because the comments were far less anti-Semitic than they were stupid. And everyone is stupid at one time or another, some of us more often than others.

Whoopi Goldberg doesn't appear to be anti-Semitic nor especially hateful. She is no Linda Sarsour. Instead, Whoopi merely had to be corrected and her audience assured that Adolph Hitler and the Nazis, who argued that Aryans (whomever they are) were the superior race, were wrong in believing that Jews are inferior and that they constitute a race. The show's first guest, B'nai B'rith CEO Joseph Greenblatt, made that point when he explained

You see, Hitler's ideology, the Third Reich, was predicated on the idea that the Aryans, the Germans, were a "master race" and the Jews were a sub-human race. It was a raciailzed Anti-Semitism. Now that might not fit exactly or feel different than the way we think about race in 21st century America, where primarily it's about people of color but throughout the Jewish People's history they have been marginalized. They have been persecuted; they have been slaughtered in large part because many people felt they were not just a different religion but indeed a different race....

Slaughtered in large part because many people felt they were not just a different religion but indeed a different race.

If Whoopi on Monday had maintained that the Holocaust was about race only because the Nazis made it that way, that it was more generally an attack upon the people of a religion, her message would have been accurate.  An allegation that the Nazi movement was ultimately about how people treat each other, she would at least have been philosophically debatable. The Holocaust, though, was specifically the effort by Adolph Hitler and his henchmen to annihilate the people identifying with the religion of Judaism.

We know "Jewish" is not a race. And notwithstanding the phrase "Jewish-American" disturbingly gaining popularity recently, it is not a nationality.  

"Breaking news from Mt. Sinai: Judaism is a religion," we are reminded by God. Among the many points made by Jonathan Greenblatt on The View, that may be the one most ignored, but it would be our peril

.

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One Or None

Following up on Friday night his remarks of two weeks earlier about "Lift Every Voice and Sing"/the Black National Anthem reinforcing disunity and promoting segregation, Bill Maher commented (beginning at :39 of the video below)

The program "The View" last week devoted a lot of time to this while somehow avoiding what I actually said. It seemed to be a lot about a need to school me on the Black National Anthem itself.

Whoopi Goldberg said we need two anthems because "we're having to re-educate people." Because nothing ever goes wrong when you start talking about re-education. Just ask Chairman Mao. Maybe we can set up some sort of camp now.

Goldberg wouldn't approve of re-education camps, of course, unless they were segregated. She stated (beginning at :56 of the video below)

I'm just going to throw my two cents in. I think because we have gone backwards a good 10-15 years, we're having to re-educate or educate people. We're going to have to re-educate people about how women want to be talked about, how black people want to be talked about, how Hispanic people want to be talked about, and yet, it's a little bit tough- Native Americans, the Asian folks. These are all things that we- I thought we all worked together and got everybody to the point where here's what you can't say and just so you know, Bill, Lift Every Voice has always been considered the Black National Anthem.

It's always been that because the separation of the anthems has been so clear to us. Now maybe other people don't feel like that but I feel like, you know, we have to re-educate and retell people. We don't thing rape is funny. We don't think, you know, talking about Native Americans in a really despicable way is funny. It's not funny. It's not funny. We have to re-educate.

This was a curious rant given that Maher was not talking about Native Americans or rape. Nor was he even commenting about black people. He was talking about "Lift Every Voice and Sing," dubbed the "Black National Anthem."

Goldberg was so determined to inform people who are not women, nor black, Hispanic, Asian, or  Native American that they need to be re-educated that she mentioned it once, then circled back and mentioned it twice. That she did not specify "non-Hispanic white males" makes it no less condescending, only less explicit and straightforward.

She stated "we have gone backwards a good 10-15 years." Also, "I thought we all worked together and got everybody to the point" of addressing people respectfully. Evidently, we've gone backwards- yet now we are enlightened.  Whoopi, please debate Whoopi.

And no, "Lift Every Voice and Sing" has not always been considered the Black National Anthem. The tipoff should have been the word "black."  Fifty years ago, the prevailing term was "Negro." Twenty years earlier, it was "colored."  (To the enlightened who will do the "educating," it now is often "people of color.")

If  "Lift Every Voice and Sing" is a black national anthem, black is erased as a race, color, or culture and becomes a nation. If not a nation, a national anthem is not an anthem.  Maher explained Friday evening

and you know, when it comes to an anthem, it doesn't have to be the one we currently use but it has to be just one. You know, because it's a national anthem and symbols of unity matter and purposely fragmenting things by race reinforces a terrible message that we are two nations hopelessly drifting apart from each other....

Notwithstanding Goldberg's claim that "Lift Every Voice and Sing" has always been considered the Black National Anthem"

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" was first written as a poem. Created by James Weldon Johnson, it was performed for the first time by 500 school children in celebration of President Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 in Jacksonville, FL. The poem was set to music by Johnson's brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and soon adopted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as its official song.

Bill Maher's previous show "Politically Incorrect" was forced off the air after the host told the uncomfortable truth about the 9/11/01 hijackers. A couple of decades later, he is smeared by new critics, for whom honesty and accuracy are alien concepts.

 

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False Reality, False Hope

On Friday's episode of "The View," host Caryn Elaine Johnson, known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg, took exception to ridicule by Washington Examiner reporter Eddie Scarry of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Scarry had tweeted out a photograph of the incoming freshman member of Congress along with "Hill staffers sent me this pic of Ocasio-Cortez they took just now. I'll tell you something- that jacket and coat don't look like a girl who struggles."

Justifiably, the vice-hosts of The View also criticized  Scarry (who later deleted the tweet), though oddlynone pointed out that Ocasio-Cortez's outfit was professional and that she is no more a "girl" than, say, Matt Gaetz (R-Fl) is a "boy." 

That is a concept which probably escapes Goldberg, given that she condescendingly warned the reporter "hush, boy."

This incident, admittedly, is a trivial one. However, Goldberg made a much more serious error when- either ignorantly or disingenuously- she appeared to correct Sunny Hostin. The latter, while defending Ocasio-Cortez, had made the mistake of having prepared for the topic and stated

... and if you look at all of Congress, I mean, the Senate is filled with gazillionaires, the Representatives, the House, filled with gazillionaires. And do you know if you look, at all the money, working class people have never ever been able to- I found this stat, that no one from the working class has gotten into politics and gone on to become governor or Supreme Court Justice or the President. That is unbelievable- unbelievable.

Goldberg, undeterred by a panel member having done research, responded "Sonia Sotomayor was a working class woman. That's- that- they flash that stat."

Whether Hoskins' information applies to every Representative, Senator, President, and Supreme Court Justice, we'll never know. In a flash, Hostin remembered who the star is and quickly backtracked.

It's unfortunate that she did. Sotomayor was born into a working-class family but even before being becoming a United States Supreme Court Justice in 2009, was a huge professional success and had left those working-class roots behind.  After graduating from Yale Law School and passing the bar examination, Sotomayor worked in the NYC, NY district attorney's office and in 1984

entered private practice, making partner at the commercial litigation firm Pavia & Harcourt, where she specialized in intellectual property litigation. She moved from associate to partner at the firm in 1988. While she climbed the ladder there, Sotomayor also served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the New York City Campaign Finance Board and the State of New York Mortgage Agency.

Sotomayor's pro bono work at these agencies caught the attention of Senators Ted Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who were partially responsible for her appointment as U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York City. President George H.W. Bush nominated her for the position in 1992, which was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on August 11, 1992. When she joined the court, she was its youngest judge. On her 43rd birthday, June 25, 1997, she was nominated for the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton. She was confirmed by the Senate that October.

Sotomayor's current socio-economic status- and her professional status prior to being elevated to the Court- are typical of her colleagues. It is typical, also, of officials throughout the upper echelons of government, the point Hostins made amidst Goldberg's denial. The Washington Post noted in July

If the Senate approves Trump’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, every justice sitting on the Supreme Court will have attended either Yale's or Harvard’s law school. (Ruth Bader Ginsburg started at Harvard and transferred to another Ivy, Columbia.)

“The elitism on the Supreme Court is worrying,” said Benjamin Barton, a law professor at University of Tennessee at Knoxville. “From the age of 18, these people have all essentially done the same thing, followed the same path, run in the same cloistered circles. That’s not healthy.”

In 2012, Barton published a comprehensive study on the personal backgrounds of Supreme Court justices. He found that the modern-era court presided over by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was in many ways the most elitist, homogenous group assembled since the court's inception.

While the current justices are far more diverse in gender and race than past decades, their educational and work backgrounds are almost uniform

Latina Sonia Sotomayor has a reasonably modest (though not poverty-stricken) background, her mother having been a nurse and her father a tool-and-die maker.  Whatever her background, she no longer is working-class. Most members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the House of Representatives, moreover, come from relatively privileged backgrounds. And now every member of the US Supreme Court sports a law degree from Harvard and Yale.

So Hostin's remarks did not originate from a mere "stat," notwithstanding Goldberg's misdirection. The federal government is filled with individuals from an elite background, and saturated with people who are wealthy or at least of a socio-economic class most Americans will never attain.

The implication of Goldberg's remark, whether born of ignorance or deception, reflects what many on the left- and especially Democratic politicians- fail to understand or willfully ignore.

Class counts, and too much. Against the odds, Sotomayor overcame the twin professional handicaps of ethnicity and gender. However, focusing exclusively on the advancement of women and ethnic minorities, and celebrating them, will blind us to the factor of class and reinforce the myth of unlimited mobility in American society- at least for white males.

Moreover, the American people will not be fooled. We know that the system, if not rigged, is  skewed obscenely toward the privileged, and that males and whites are not immune from this distortion.  And when loads of privileged elites- Whoopi Goldberg among them- imply that the path is clear for anyone to ascend to the highest ranks of government, a resentment builds that has unintended, dangerous consequences.

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Controversy On "The View"- 5

I saved this one for last, though again transcribing the important part of the transcript in which the women of ABC's "The View" discussed use of the "n-word" in light of the revelation that Reverend Jackson had used it when admonishing Barack Obama on GOP TV.

WALTERS: Is it-- and what you’re saying– is it okay for black comics primarily, like yourself when you do an act and so forth, is it okay then to use as it is still done and not okay for white people? Is that the case?

SHEPHERD: Yeah I, I have no problem with them using it. It’s something that means something way different to me than it does to you. I grew up with my family using it. It– for me, I can use it as a term of endearment.

WALTERS: But if I used it...

SHEPHERD: I don’t want to hear it come out of your mouth.

HASSELBECK: I just think, here’s the like, how do you, okay, so wait a minute, let’s think about this. This is how I think things can be simplified sometimes. How do you teach children, okay? We should be acting. We’re trying to teach our kids certain things in this world, no? So then are we, are we acting out on what we’re actually preaching them? Am I supposed to tell Grace, "Grace okay, here is [sic] some words you can use, here is [sic] some words you can not." And then but you’re friend over there can use it because-

GOLDBERG: Can I simplify it for you? The little kid is not going to walk up to Grace and say "[bleeped out]" It’s not going to happen. [laughter]

HASSELBECK: It’s an example. I’m just giving an example.

GOLDBERG: But, but I understand your example. I understand your example, but Elisabeth, as I said at the beginning when we first talked about this word, this is a word that has meaning when you give it meaning. I’ve never met [bleeped out], I have never gone to [bleeped out], I don’t know any [bleeped out]. There are [bleeped out]. You can try it, just like you can-

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to.

GOLDBERG: No, no, no, listen to me, listen to me. Just like you can talk about comical Italian people if you were a comic.

HASSELBECK: I’m half Italian.

GOLDBERG: And yeah, so you can say all kinds of stuff. You can say the stuff that your mom and dad would say in the privacy of their home and not outside. That’s just the way that it works.

SHEPHERD: What about teaching, what about teaching Grace with different things that- There are some things where people are sensitive to. There are some things that we can’t say because people are sensitive to it. Kids say "why does that person have a hump on their back?" You know, that might hurt their feelings. So why not explain it in that way?

HASSELBECK: Look, I’m not saying I won’t explain to my daughter how to talk about words. I grew up in a household where we didn’t say- I’m half Polish and half Italian. If somebody said to me "you’re a dumb Pollack," it offended me. I never made fun of myself saying, you’re, you’re that word. I’m a this. I never would go into my own heritage and use a phrase that is used against me in the privacy of my own home because I think it perpetuates stereotypes and hate.

GOLDBERG: You have to understand [bleeped out] word that has followed us around, and basically what we did is we took it out the hands of people that were using it and put it into our hands and we use it the way we want to use it and that’s the way it is.

HASSELBECK: Then it sneaks into pop culture then. I’m just trying to get an answer.

WALTERS: You did. You’re not listening you’re just talking. She is saying-

HASSELBECK: - I am listening.

WALTERS: -it’s okay in her culture, but it is difficult as you as a white mother to explain that, that Jeffrey can use it, but Grace can’t.

HASSELBECK: It’s not difficult for me. It’s just an example in terms of general philosophy. I have no problem explaining things to Grace. My thing is that we don’t live in different worlds. We live in the same world.

GOLDBERG: We do live in different worlds. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s the way it is Elisabeth. This is the way it is. This is how I grew up. My mother could not go and vote in the United States of America, the place of her birth. We, go- wait, wait.

WALTERS: And don’t we want that to change?

GOLDBERG: Yes, we would like to. But you don’t understand.

HASSELBECK: I’m not going to take that away from no.

GOLDBERG: No, no, I, I want you to. But what I need you to understand is the frustration that goes along when you say we live in the same world. 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. And you’ve got to know this if you want to know us.

HASSELBECK: I’m not trying to take- I understand. I’m not trying to-

GOLDBERG: But it didn’t sound like it.

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to take that away from you. When we are living in this world and we are living in the world where there is in, in the pop culture, when that word is in use. When there are- [crying] this is upsetting to me because-

WALTERS: Okay, just take a breathe and let someone else talk.

HASSELBECK: I am, I am, but this is a conversation that is hard and we’re going to have it here and we have it here for a while because we love each other. 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 and 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?

GOLDBERG: I can tell you.

HASSELBECK: How?

GOLDBERG: Here’s how we do it. You listen and say "okay this is how we’re using this word and this is why we do it." You have to say, "well, you know what? I understand that, but let’s find a new way to move forward." You must acknowledge the understanding of what it is and why it is in order to go-

HASSELBECK: But when is it time to have the conversation?

GOLDBERG: But we are.

HASSELBECK: We are, yes.

WALTERS: Okay, but one second, let somebody else have a conversation for just one second. [laughter] We have a man- [laughter and applause] We have a man running for president who is 50 percent white and 50 percent black. And one of the things that he is trying to do is to bring people together and there still is racism. I have not heard anybody on this show say the word that you just said. They say the "n" word, we’re so afraid of it. If I said what you said, I would never hear the end of it. But when- wait I’ll grant it. But when you say it’s okay, we are trying to change. This is what Barack Obama and others are trying to do, to move forward. In the meantime, we have to understand that we haven’t gotten there yet. And maybe we should and maybe it’s not okay for you to use the word, but that is the reality, that’s the reality of the moment. And whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Barbara Walters and Sherri Shepherd are discussing the use of the n-word by blacks as compared to use by whites:

WALTERS: Is it-- and what you’re saying– is it okay for black comics primarily, like yourself when you do an act and so forth, is it okay then to use as it is still done and not okay for white people? Is that the case?

SHEPHERD: Yeah I, I have no problem with them using it. It’s something that means something way different to me than it does to you. I grew up with my family using it. It– for me, I can use it as a term of endearment.

WALTERS: But if I used it...

SHEPHERD: I don’t want to hear it come out of your mouth.

Don't dwell on Shepherd's hostile, nasty remark "I don't want to hear it come out of your mouth." It would be too easy to call Shepherd hateful and ignorant and leave it at that. And it would be little more (but still, more) than a cheap shot to suggest something wrong with the upbringing of an individual for whom such a mean-spirited word is "a term of endearment."

The real issue in this exchange, as in the entire discussion, is race, especially the means to discuss it. Shepherd contends "it's something that means something way different to me than it does to you." She is not the first person, especially among comedians and others of the Hollywood elite, to argue that black people can say what white people cannot. She's not the first individual to ignore the impact upon youth, of either race, of hearing role models using the term.

Use of the "n" word is unjustified by any group of people. But it is arguable that it is even worse when used by blacks, the group obviously victimized by the term. The speaker finds it so satisfactory, so gratifying, as to use it in public. If white people, failing to understand completely the harm inflicted upon a group of people who are objectified and demeaned by a word, hear it spoken specifically by a member of that group, the message is obvious: it is acceptable. No manner of rationalization can compensate for the presence of the word in public discourse and the increasing acceptance that brings about. As the word is used more and more, it is less stigmatized, its bigoted nature less well internalized.

I don't believe most black adults have the charitable attitude toward this term as do Goldberg and Shepherd, though they seem to believe they speak for everyone of their ethnic group. Perhaps it is fame or the rarefied air of Hollywood and/or New York which has so warped their view of race relations. But something has, and they need to be called on it.

Controversy On "The View"- 4

Again, skip over it if you wish, but here is the transcript of the relevant portion of discussion of the "n-word" on ABC's "The View" of July 17, 2008:


WALTERS: Is it-- and what you’re saying– is it okay for black comics primarily, like yourself when you do an act and so forth, is it okay then to use as it is still done and not okay for white people? Is that the case?

SHEPHERD: Yeah I, I have no problem with them using it. It’s something that means something way different to me than it does to you. I grew up with my family using it. It– for me, I can use it as a term of endearment.

WALTERS: But if I used it...

SHEPHERD: I don’t want to hear it come out of your mouth.

HASSELBECK: I just think, here’s the like, how do you, okay, so wait a minute, let’s think about this. This is how I think things can be simplified sometimes. How do you teach children, okay? We should be acting. We’re trying to teach our kids certain things in this world, no? So then are we, are we acting out on what we’re actually preaching them? Am I supposed to tell Grace, "Grace okay, here is [sic] some words you can use, here is [sic] some words you can not." And then but you’re friend over there can use it because-

GOLDBERG: Can I simplify it for you? The little kid is not going to walk up to Grace and say "[bleeped out]" It’s not going to happen. [laughter]

HASSELBECK: It’s an example. I’m just giving an example.

GOLDBERG: But, but I understand your example. I understand your example, but Elisabeth, as I said at the beginning when we first talked about this word, this is a word that has meaning when you give it meaning. I’ve never met [bleeped out], I have never gone to [bleeped out], I don’t know any [bleeped out]. There are [bleeped out]. You can try it, just like you can-

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to.

GOLDBERG: No, no, no, listen to me, listen to me. Just like you can talk about comical Italian people if you were a comic.

HASSELBECK: I’m half Italian.

GOLDBERG: And yeah, so you can say all kinds of stuff. You can say the stuff that your mom and dad would say in the privacy of their home and not outside. That’s just the way that it works.

SHEPHERD: What about teaching, what about teaching Grace with different things that- There are some things where people are sensitive to. There are some things that we can’t say because people are sensitive to it. Kids say "why does that person have a hump on their back?" You know, that might hurt their feelings. So why not explain it in that way?

HASSELBECK: Look, I’m not saying I won’t explain to my daughter how to talk about words. I grew up in a household where we didn’t say- I’m half Polish and half Italian. If somebody said to me "you’re a dumb Pollack," it offended me. I never made fun of myself saying, you’re, you’re that word. I’m a this. I never would go into my own heritage and use a phrase that is used against me in the privacy of my own home because I think it perpetuates stereotypes and hate.

GOLDBERG: You have to understand [bleeped out] word that has followed us around, and basically what we did is we took it out the hands of people that were using it and put it into our hands and we use it the way we want to use it and that’s the way it is.

HASSELBECK: Then it sneaks into pop culture then. I’m just trying to get an answer.

WALTERS: You did. You’re not listening you’re just talking. She is saying-

HASSELBECK: - I am listening.

WALTERS: -it’s okay in her culture, but it is difficult as you as a white mother to explain that, that Jeffrey can use it, but Grace can’t.

HASSELBECK: It’s not difficult for me. It’s just an example in terms of general philosophy. I have no problem explaining things to Grace. My thing is that we don’t live in different worlds. We live in the same world.

GOLDBERG: We do live in different worlds. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s the way it is Elisabeth. This is the way it is. This is how I grew up. My mother could not go and vote in the United States of America, the place of her birth. We, go- wait, wait.

WALTERS: And don’t we want that to change?

GOLDBERG: Yes, we would like to. But you don’t understand.

HASSELBECK: I’m not going to take that away from no.

GOLDBERG: No, no, I, I want you to. But what I need you to understand is the frustration that goes along when you say we live in the same world. 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. And you’ve got to know this if you want to know us.

HASSELBECK: I’m not trying to take- I understand. I’m not trying to-

GOLDBERG: But it didn’t sound like it.

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to take that away from you. When we are living in this world and we are living in the world where there is in, in the pop culture, when that word is in use. When there are- [crying] this is upsetting to me because-

WALTERS: Okay, just take a breathe and let someone else talk.

HASSELBECK: I am, I am, but this is a conversation that is hard and we’re going to have it here and we have it here for a while because we love each other. 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 and 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?

GOLDBERG: I can tell you.

HASSELBECK: How?

GOLDBERG: Here’s how we do it. You listen and say "okay this is how we’re using this word and this is why we do it." You have to say, "well, you know what? I understand that, but let’s find a new way to move forward." You must acknowledge the understanding of what it is and why it is in order to go-

HASSELBECK: But when is it time to have the conversation?

GOLDBERG: But we are.

HASSELBECK: We are, yes.

WALTERS: Okay, but one second, let somebody else have a conversation for just one second. [laughter] We have a man- [laughter and applause] We have a man running for president who is 50 percent white and 50 percent black. And one of the things that he is trying to do is to bring people together and there still is racism. I have not heard anybody on this show say the word that you just said. They say the "n" word, we’re so afraid of it. If I said what you said, I would never hear the end of it. But when- wait I’ll grant it. But when you say it’s okay, we are trying to change. This is what Barack Obama and others are trying to do, to move forward. In the meantime, we have to understand that we haven’t gotten there yet. And maybe we should and maybe it’s not okay for you to use the word, but that is the reality, that’s the reality of the moment. And whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Hasselbeck and Goldberg discuss the "world," Hasselbeck finding "we live in the same world," Goldberg believing that we're on a different planet:

HASSELBECK: It’s not difficult for me. It’s just an example in terms of general philosophy. I have no problem explaining things to Grace. My thing is that we don’t live in different worlds. We live in the same world.

GOLDBERG: We do live in different worlds. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s the way it is Elisabeth. This is the way it is. This is how I grew up. My mother could not go and vote in the United States of America, the place of her birth. We, go- wait, wait.

WALTERS: And don’t we want that to change?

GOLDBERG: Yes, we would like to. But you don’t understand.

HASSELBECK: I’m not going to take that away from no.

GOLDBERG: No, no, I, I want you to. But what I need you to understand is the frustration that goes along when you say we live in the same world. 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. And you’ve got to know this if you want to know us.


Whoopi Goldberg is enlightening us to the reality that there are "huge problems that still affect us," though she apparently has chosen not to reveal what those problems are, aside from the stigma that she finds unacceptably attached to use of the "n" word. She refuses to acknowledge that "we live in the same world," referring to "when you say we live in the same world." No generosity of spirit here, no understanding that this is the same world with different perspectives. Of course, if we live in the same world we have to find a way of getting along; getting along while living in a different world would require space travel. Ironically, it is Hasselbeck who is acknowledging the hard work of accomodating each other in one country, Goldberg who gives racists and other people of ill will amongst us an excuse to avoid understanding those who are different from them.

I understand there are "huge problems that still affect" blacks. And I wouldn't deprive Ms. Goldberg, who demands all others "know this if you want to know us" of the conceit that she speaks for all Americans of her race. Still, though I for one would like to know more blacks, and whites, hispanics, and Asians, I do not want to know you, Whoopi. And I don't know why anyone would.

Controversy On "The View"- 3

I just can't stop myself from commenting on treatment of the "n-word" on ABC's "The View" of July 17, 2008. So I'll do so again, following the relevant portion of the transcript. Skip over it if you're sick of it by now.


WALTERS: Is it-- and what you’re saying– is it okay for black comics primarily, like yourself when you do an act and so forth, is it okay then to use as it is still done and not okay for white people? Is that the case?

SHEPHERD: Yeah I, I have no problem with them using it. It’s something that means something way different to me than it does to you. I grew up with my family using it. It– for me, I can use it as a term of endearment.

WALTERS: But if I used it...

SHEPHERD: I don’t want to hear it come out of your mouth.

HASSELBECK: I just think, here’s the like, how do you, okay, so wait a minute, let’s think about this. This is how I think things can be simplified sometimes. How do you teach children, okay? We should be acting. We’re trying to teach our kids certain things in this world, no? So then are we, are we acting out on what we’re actually preaching them? Am I supposed to tell Grace, "Grace okay, here is [sic] some words you can use, here is [sic] some words you can not." And then but you’re friend over there can use it because-

GOLDBERG: Can I simplify it for you? The little kid is not going to walk up to Grace and say "[bleeped out]" It’s not going to happen. [laughter]

HASSELBECK: It’s an example. I’m just giving an example.

GOLDBERG: But, but I understand your example. I understand your example, but Elisabeth, as I said at the beginning when we first talked about this word, this is a word that has meaning when you give it meaning. I’ve never met [bleeped out], I have never gone to [bleeped out], I don’t know any [bleeped out]. There are [bleeped out]. You can try it, just like you can-

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to.

GOLDBERG: No, no, no, listen to me, listen to me. Just like you can talk about comical Italian people if you were a comic.

HASSELBECK: I’m half Italian.

GOLDBERG: And yeah, so you can say all kinds of stuff. You can say the stuff that your mom and dad would say in the privacy of their home and not outside. That’s just the way that it works.

SHEPHERD: What about teaching, what about teaching Grace with different things that- There are some things where people are sensitive to. There are some things that we can’t say because people are sensitive to it. Kids say "why does that person have a hump on their back?" You know, that might hurt their feelings. So why not explain it in that way?

HASSELBECK: Look, I’m not saying I won’t explain to my daughter how to talk about words. I grew up in a household where we didn’t say- I’m half Polish and half Italian. If somebody said to me "you’re a dumb Pollack," it offended me. I never made fun of myself saying, you’re, you’re that word. I’m a this. I never would go into my own heritage and use a phrase that is used against me in the privacy of my own home because I think it perpetuates stereotypes and hate.

GOLDBERG: You have to understand [bleeped out] word that has followed us around, and basically what we did is we took it out the hands of people that were using it and put it into our hands and we use it the way we want to use it and that’s the way it is.

HASSELBECK: Then it sneaks into pop culture then. I’m just trying to get an answer.

WALTERS: You did. You’re not listening you’re just talking. She is saying-

HASSELBECK: - I am listening.

WALTERS: -it’s okay in her culture, but it is difficult as you as a white mother to explain that, that Jeffrey can use it, but Grace can’t.

HASSELBECK: It’s not difficult for me. It’s just an example in terms of general philosophy. I have no problem explaining things to Grace. My thing is that we don’t live in different worlds. We live in the same world.

GOLDBERG: We do live in different worlds. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s the way it is Elisabeth. This is the way it is. This is how I grew up. My mother could not go and vote in the United States of America, the place of her birth. We, go- wait, wait.

WALTERS: And don’t we want that to change?

GOLDBERG: Yes, we would like to. But you don’t understand.

HASSELBECK: I’m not going to take that away from no.

GOLDBERG: No, no, I, I want you to. But what I need you to understand is the frustration that goes along when you say we live in the same world. 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. And you’ve got to know this if you want to know us.

HASSELBECK: I’m not trying to take- I understand. I’m not trying to-

GOLDBERG: But it didn’t sound like it.

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to take that away from you. When we are living in this world and we are living in the world where there is in, in the pop culture, when that word is in use. When there are- [crying] this is upsetting to me because-

WALTERS: Okay, just take a breathe and let someone else talk.

HASSELBECK: I am, I am, but this is a conversation that is hard and we’re going to have it here and we have it here for a while because we love each other. 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 and 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?

GOLDBERG: I can tell you.

HASSELBECK: How?

GOLDBERG: Here’s how we do it. You listen and say "okay this is how we’re using this word and this is why we do it." You have to say, "well, you know what? I understand that, but let’s find a new way to move forward." You must acknowledge the understanding of what it is and why it is in order to go-

HASSELBECK: But when is it time to have the conversation?

GOLDBERG: But we are.

HASSELBECK: We are, yes.

WALTERS: Okay, but one second, let somebody else have a conversation for just one second. [laughter] We have a man- [laughter and applause] We have a man running for president who is 50 percent white and 50 percent black. And one of the things that he is trying to do is to bring people together and there still is racism. I have not heard anybody on this show say the word that you just said. They say the "n" word, we’re so afraid of it. If I said what you said, I would never hear the end of it. But when- wait I’ll grant it. But when you say it’s okay, we are trying to change. This is what Barack Obama and others are trying to do, to move forward. In the meantime, we have to understand that we haven’t gotten there yet. And maybe we should and maybe it’s not okay for you to use the word, but that is the reality, that’s the reality of the moment. And whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

One portion of the exchange has three of the women contending the following:

HASSELBECK: I’m half Italian.

GOLDBERG: And yeah, so you can say all kinds of stuff. You can say the stuff that your mom and dad would say in the privacy of their home and not outside. That’s just the way that it works.

SHEPHERD: What about teaching, what about teaching Grace with different things that- There are some things where people are sensitive to. There are some things that we can’t say because people are sensitive to it. Kids say "why does that person have a hump on their back?" You know, that might hurt their feelings. So why not explain it in that way?

HASSELBECK: Look, I’m not saying I won’t explain to my daughter how to talk about words. I grew up in a household where we didn’t say- I’m half Polish and half Italian. If somebody said to me "you’re a dumb Pollack," it offended me. I never made fun of myself saying, you’re, you’re that word. I’m a this. I never would go into my own heritage and use a phrase that is used against me in the privacy of my own home because I think it perpetuates stereotypes and hate.

Goldberg says "You can say the stuff that your mom and dad would say in the privacy of their home and not outside. That’s just the way that it works." Is she listening to herself? I suspect Hasselbeck's parents said these things privately but not publicly for good reason: a) they understood that it was in bad taste; and b) they recognized that public airing would only encourage others to use the same language. And as for "that's just the way that works?" Here is something else "that's just the way that works," Whoopi. Blacks and women (among others) lose out on housing or jobs or other of life's necessities because they are black and female- do you like that? Apparently so, because "that's just the way it works."

Uh-oh. As if it isn't bad enough, Shepherd then asks "Kids say "why does that person have a hump on their back?" You know, that might hurt their feelings. So why not explain it in that way?" There are two reasons: 1) If one believes Ms. Goldberg, who has a moment earlier referred to "a word that has meaning when you give it meaning," you think a word has whatever meaning the speaker wishes to apply to it- unless Whoopi was referring solely to the n-word, which raises a whole set of problems, incoherence among them. So, in the gospel according to Goldberg, the child isn't being hurtful because her "meaning" was not to be hurtful; 2) The person has a hump on his/her back. The child, without ridiculing or stereotyping the individual, has asked his parent about it. That sounds like legitimate curiousity, which if answered would help lift the child out of ignorance. Apparently, Shepherd as a child asked few questions.

Controversy On "The View"- 2

It was the discussion that, though discouraging because of what it revealed by a couple of participants, was one I wish I had seen live. To recap:


WALTERS: Is it-- and what you’re saying– is it okay for black comics primarily, like yourself when you do an act and so forth, is it okay then to use as it is still done and not okay for white people? Is that the case?

SHEPHERD: Yeah I, I have no problem with them using it. It’s something that means something way different to me than it does to you. I grew up with my family using it. It– for me, I can use it as a term of endearment.

WALTERS: But if I used it...

SHEPHERD: I don’t want to hear it come out of your mouth.

HASSELBECK: I just think, here’s the like, how do you, okay, so wait a minute, let’s think about this. This is how I think things can be simplified sometimes. How do you teach children, okay? We should be acting. We’re trying to teach our kids certain things in this world, no? So then are we, are we acting out on what we’re actually preaching them? Am I supposed to tell Grace, "Grace okay, here is [sic] some words you can use, here is [sic] some words you can not." And then but you’re friend over there can use it because-

GOLDBERG: Can I simplify it for you? The little kid is not going to walk up to Grace and say "[bleeped out]" It’s not going to happen. [laughter]

HASSELBECK: It’s an example. I’m just giving an example.

GOLDBERG: But, but I understand your example. I understand your example, but Elisabeth, as I said at the beginning when we first talked about this word, this is a word that has meaning when you give it meaning. I’ve never met [bleeped out], I have never gone to [bleeped out], I don’t know any [bleeped out]. There are [bleeped out]. You can try it, just like you can-

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to.

GOLDBERG: No, no, no, listen to me, listen to me. Just like you can talk about comical Italian people if you were a comic.

HASSELBECK: I’m half Italian.

GOLDBERG: And yeah, so you can say all kinds of stuff. You can say the stuff that your mom and dad would say in the privacy of their home and not outside. That’s just the way that it works.

SHEPHERD: What about teaching, what about teaching Grace with different things that- There are some things where people are sensitive to. There are some things that we can’t say because people are sensitive to it. Kids say "why does that person have a hump on their back?" You know, that might hurt their feelings. So why not explain it in that way?

HASSELBECK: Look, I’m not saying I won’t explain to my daughter how to talk about words. I grew up in a household where we didn’t say- I’m half Polish and half Italian. If somebody said to me "you’re a dumb Pollack," it offended me. I never made fun of myself saying, you’re, you’re that word. I’m a this. I never would go into my own heritage and use a phrase that is used against me in the privacy of my own home because I think it perpetuates stereotypes and hate.

GOLDBERG: You have to understand [bleeped out] word that has followed us around, and basically what we did is we took it out the hands of people that were using it and put it into our hands and we use it the way we want to use it and that’s the way it is.

HASSELBECK: Then it sneaks into pop culture then. I’m just trying to get an answer.

WALTERS: You did. You’re not listening you’re just talking. She is saying-

HASSELBECK: - I am listening.

WALTERS: -it’s okay in her culture, but it is difficult as you as a white mother to explain that, that Jeffrey can use it, but Grace can’t.

HASSELBECK: It’s not difficult for me. It’s just an example in terms of general philosophy. I have no problem explaining things to Grace. My thing is that we don’t live in different worlds. We live in the same world.

GOLDBERG: We do live in different worlds. I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s the way it is Elisabeth. This is the way it is. This is how I grew up. My mother could not go and vote in the United States of America, the place of her birth. We, go- wait, wait.

WALTERS: And don’t we want that to change?

GOLDBERG: Yes, we would like to. But you don’t understand.

HASSELBECK: I’m not going to take that away from no.

GOLDBERG: No, no, I, I want you to. But what I need you to understand is the frustration that goes along when you say we live in the same world. 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. And you’ve got to know this if you want to know us.

HASSELBECK: I’m not trying to take- I understand. I’m not trying to-

GOLDBERG: But it didn’t sound like it.

HASSELBECK: I am not trying to take that away from you. When we are living in this world and we are living in the world where there is in, in the pop culture, when that word is in use. When there are- [crying] this is upsetting to me because-

WALTERS: Okay, just take a breathe and let someone else talk.

HASSELBECK: I am, I am, but this is a conversation that is hard and we’re going to have it here and we have it here for a while because we love each other. 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 and 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?

GOLDBERG: I can tell you.

HASSELBECK: How?

GOLDBERG: Here’s how we do it. You listen and say "okay this is how we’re using this word and this is why we do it." You have to say, "well, you know what? I understand that, but let’s find a new way to move forward." You must acknowledge the understanding of what it is and why it is in order to go-

HASSELBECK: But when is it time to have the conversation?

GOLDBERG: But we are.

HASSELBECK: We are, yes.

WALTERS: Okay, but one second, let somebody else have a conversation for just one second. [laughter] We have a man- [laughter and applause] We have a man running for president who is 50 percent white and 50 percent black. And one of the things that he is trying to do is to bring people together and there still is racism. I have not heard anybody on this show say the word that you just said. They say the "n" word, we’re so afraid of it. If I said what you said, I would never hear the end of it. But when- wait I’ll grant it. But when you say it’s okay, we are trying to change. This is what Barack Obama and others are trying to do, to move forward. In the meantime, we have to understand that we haven’t gotten there yet. And maybe we should and maybe it’s not okay for you to use the word, but that is the reality, that’s the reality of the moment. And whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Despite what was "bleeped out," I think this part of the exchange was really good:

HASSELBECK: I just think, here’s the like, how do you, okay, so wait a minute, let’s think about this. This is how I think things can be simplified sometimes. How do you teach children, okay? We should be acting. We’re trying to teach our kids certain things in this world, no? So then are we, are we acting out on what we’re actually preaching them? Am I supposed to tell Grace, "Grace okay, here is [sic] some words you can use, here is [sic] some words you can not." And then but you’re friend over there can use it because-

GOLDBERG: Can I simplify it for you? The little kid is not going to walk up to Grace and say "[bleeped out]" It’s not going to happen. [laughter]

HASSELBECK: It’s an example. I’m just giving an example.

GOLDBERG: But, but I understand your example. I understand your example, but Elisabeth, as I said at the beginning when we first talked about this word, this is a word that has meaning when you give it meaning. I’ve never met [bleeped out], I have never gone to [bleeped out], I don’t know any [bleeped out]. There are [bleeped out]. You can try it, just like you can-

There is no reason for Hasselbeck- "I'm just giving an example"- to be defensive. Surely, children recognize a double standard- and it's pointless to explain to a child that other children (whom we teach them to view not as blacks, Roman Catholics, gay, etc.) can say things which they cannot. A role model, if a parent, means something to children, who know when we are not "acting out on what we're actually preaching them." (Gosh, I'm actually quoting Elisabeth Hasselbeck!) Recognition of hypocrisy, even if the word itself is not understood, comes early. And acting is a role model is an exercise in an adult holding himself/herself accountable for actions consistent with the guidance being given to children. Yet,Whoopi Goldberg reacted to this scenario with disbelief.... which means she understands little about children or is so caught up in her narrow-minded ideology that she disregards reality.

Then Goldberg, wedging herself into an untenable position, claims the n-word "is a word that has meaning when you give it meaning." This is an odd stance, given that over the decades many whites used the term and were understandably accused of racism despite denying such intent- or "meaning." Perhaps if Ms. Goldberg cracked open a dictionary she would discover that words have meaning quite apart from the political significance she decides, perhaps at a whim, to impart to them. Otherwise, a word would have a different meaning each time it was used (or would it- we couldn't be sure) and no one could be held responsible for any statement uttered out of laziness or ignorance- which, given, the one here by this comedian, would be exceptionally fortunate.