Whoopi Goldberg | 09/08/2008 10:50 am

Whoopi Goldberg Reaches Out to Readers

I’ve been reading — and it’s taken me a long time to figure out how to work this doggone computer, I’m not very good at it — the various comments that have been made on the wOw site especially to things that I’ve said I believe. One of the greatest things I want to tell you is I appreciate everybody’s support. Some things that I read, though, kind of distressed me — like a response to something that I had written by Joanne Selle and Marjorie C., talking really about the black issue — the fact that I brought up race when talking about Sarah Palin’s daughter.

I said I thought if it had been one of Barack Obama’s daughters as opposed to a very nice young white lady it would have been a different response. Well people took to the fact that I made the differentiation by saying a white lady or a white girl and that made the discussion about race. Let me be really clear: You cannot tell me in this country — when you put a white girl next to a black girl and they’re both pregnant — that people are not going to say, “Well, she’s going to end up on welfare.” Or people are going to make those kinds of remarks that we’ve heard made, by the way, over the last 10 to 15 years; at least I have. And maybe it’s because my child got pregnant very early on that I have a distinctive feel about this. My daughter was talked about very differently than other people at the time, and maybe it’s because she was the child of a famous person. I don’t know. But to say that doesn’t come into play is ridiculous. To say that it is using the race card seems very strange to me. It’s an observation about a truism in the United States. They would have been treated differently. Would they have treated Chelsea Clinton the same way they’re treating Sarah Palin’s daughter? I don’t know. It hadn’t occurred to me until this moment that maybe they would have said the same thing about Chelsea Clinton, that she’s young and we have to stand beside her and it’s nobody’s business. Maybe they would have said that. I don’t think so, really, in my heart of hearts, but maybe they would have.

We are always going to disagree about certain things because that’s the nature of human beings. We don’t all think alike, we don’t all talk alike ...

Maybe you have to take a look, and my using a black and white description was not valid. I’ll take that. But I do take offense to Joanne and Marjorie talking about how black people want everything given to them, and how people of color are bitching about the fact that they didn’t get enough from Katrina and how when it happened in Iowa nobody like Oprah or anyone else did concerts for them. I do want to point out to you that I find it interesting you did not refer to the fires in California. Remember the fires in California? Where suddenly the government swooped right in there with money for different communities? Or other natural disasters that have happened — like Florida. You didn’t mention those where the government swooped in. I don’t think you’re accurate, Joanne, in saying that no one helped in Iowa. I don’t think that’s true at all. As a matter of fact, I know it’s not true.

Read more about: Election, News, Politics, Sarah Palin, Television, The View

404 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

“It’s an observation about a truism in the United States.” Probably the scariest thing that’s happenend in our country in the past decade Whoopi is that people don’t want to here any truism’s anymore. If what you say isn’t couched in the correct rhetoric then you’re attacked. I get so emotional about this fact that I’m not sure I can even intelligently discuss it at this point. But we’ve become a nation that won’t TALK about the things that are killing us. So how can we change it if we don’t talk about it. We can’t talk about racism couched in patriotism… . We can’t talk about racism in general. We’re being gagged and blind folded and it’s so unhealthy and dangerous. I’m so f——g glad that you SAID these things. They need to be verbalized. If they have to be yelled from the top of the empire state building. And it case I wasn’t clear. You are damn straight that if it had been a black girl or Chelsea Clinton the verbiage about this kid’s pregnancy would be totally different. So there. I said it to.

By Chrome Toe on 09/08/2008 10:13 am

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Wonder.. it’s nice to know we can agree to disagree and still get along. Maybe ‘All Americans’ should stop hating each other for how they look on the outside.

By Barbara Taylor on 09/08/2008 10:17 am

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Barbara, I could not agree with you more We all bleed the same

By Nan S on 09/08/2008 3:35 pm

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Since most the neo-cons don’t know Ms. Palin, her popularity is based on how she looks and the fact that she is a pro-life, pro-gun toteing hillbilly. Most of the trailer trash, wouldn’t vote for a black man under any circumstances so now they are sure they are going to vote, for a real white pertty women, instead of a black man.

By Alessan O on 09/08/2008 9:21 pm

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Okay, Alessan, I’m going to call the “trailer trash.” See, now, if you drive from Iowa on Interstate 80 through to Oregon, Washington, California, mostly all you’ll see is trailers. That’s part of the problem, seeing people in blocs and writing them off. It’s the same function as when people write off blacks, or women, or bridge players. A great bit of the problem, I think, is just how huge and complex things are these days. I do agree that one of the problems with Gov. Palin is that people don’t know anything about her, so she’s turned into a huge Rorschacht test. And people from Alaska are very wary of spilling the beans on her because she has a reputation for being vindictive. True or no, she’s got the rep. What we need to do is settle down and get the facts. For example, the AP is saying her little town of which she is so proud is the methamphetamine capital of Alaska. That is apparently true. They tore Rev. Wright to shreds, but what about her minister? Lordy lordy…. And like that. What people who live in trailers are going to do is anyone’s guess, particularly with over 6% unemployment.

By Mugsy Peabody on 09/09/2008 4:23 am

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Whoopi, I was glad to see that you addressed the term “African American”. As a white person, I have always been puzzled by this term. I have ancestors from several European countries, but it would never occur to me to call myself a “European American”. I have a very dear friend of 26 years that is from Ghana, West Africa. She’s the only one of my friends who could actually call herself an “African” American, but she doesn’t. Though born and raised in Africa, she simply calls herself an American now, for that’s what she worked hard to become and is very proud of the fact.

By Nanny hasSeven on 09/08/2008 10:19 am

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I’m so happy to hear you have a friend from “Ghana”. Kudos! Medal anyone! Your post indicates at least to me that while you are an American you or obviously ignorant of the evolution of slavery in this country and the Civil Rights Movement. Amazing! I’m speechless quite frankly.

By Andromeda Jakes on 09/08/2008 11:22 am

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ummmmm….andromeda. I think this is the kind of sacasm that Whoopi was referring to. we are all at different places in our “awakenings” and we have to always allow people to be where we once were. We can’t grow then spit on those coming up behind us. So, take a breath, get your “speech” back and allow women to grow in the time they need to grow. As for all of the “barbie” talk etc., I have been quite upset by women online, who claim to be Hillary supporters, now using Misogyny against Sarah Palin. Women-hating is NEVER an acceptable response. I don’t care if you disagree with someone’s politics, we can’t attack them as a woman. When I hear the words “barbie”, “beauty queen”, “catty”, or “bimbo” then I immediately know I am up against misogyny. Any word that is invented by a man, and only used against women as a negative description, is MISOGYNY. And when we, as women, then adopt it towards a women, WE are no better than anyone else. So, Sarah may have completely different politics than I, like 180 degrees on every count - but the truth remains that 10 years ago she got fed up with the white men crooked politians that kept recycling in Alaska and decided to run for office. Regardless of her beliefs and regardless of my own, I have to give her credit for being willing to put her butt on the line - it’s surely MORE than I have done to affect this country. so many of us just sit back and complain and never put our own money or personality on the line. I still say, if Sarah was a democrat and had the same beliefs as Hillary say, or even Obama, we could be calling her the second coming. Now, as for McCain using her and her not getting the fact that she is being used, well, we all have our own lessons to learn in life. I may not support her stance but I surely support her right to make her own decisions and get her own lessons. I don’t want anyone standing in the way of me learning what i need to learn either - even if I insist on learning it the hard way. As for the viral words that people put out on blogs, and youtube etc.; sometimes the internet is just a place for humans to behave badly in public. it’s sad that people can be so hateful to each other. Makes me wonder where this will all end. So, we can be opposed to someone’s political beliefs, but just like us, they are entitled to them. What we are not allowed to do is continue any kind of women-hating rants. It’s so not pretty. thanks, Ame (a white democrat still learning and just happy to hear Whoopi speak - a voice of common sense in a sea of ugly racist, classist, misogynist hatred sometimes.)

By Ame -thyst on 09/08/2008 1:34 pm

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Great post Ame-thyst - My kids new what the term “misogyny” meant by the time they were ten years old. Not because I sat down and said “this is what misogyny is” but because there were so many every day examples of it that I had to explain my reactions to. Especially in the music and on tv at the time. I too have been really disturbed by the verbiage being used in the furor over Sarah Palin. While I agree wholeheartedly with Whoopi that she’s “dangerous” in a political sense… I certainly think that diminishing her in the ways she’s been being diminished is misogynistic. So ditto to your post… and nice lead in for the poster prior. As an aside.. but still on the misogynistic tone of the country… i read somewhere the other day that Todd Palin often sat in on meetings his wife held in her capacity of elected official. The article was being written as a favorable article about how family oriented the Palin’s are and how close Todd and Sarah Palin are. It went in depth as to how he was considered a consultant to her on some things, that he sat in on meetings and was very much a part of the activity. Do you remember how NEGATIVE people were about that fact with Hillary? that one of the great criticisms of her was that she was so involved in the administration when she was “just the wife”. do you think for a minute that if there had been an article written about how Michelle Obama would sit in on meetings about public policy wiht her husband, would “consult” and would take phone calls related to his office that the backlash wouldn’t be IMMENSE?

By Chrome Toe on 09/08/2008 2:55 pm

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Ame-thyst— Finding someone completely revolting, dangerous and demented doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with gender….it’s just that you deplore everything she espouses and represents. So, I’m not getting sucked into the GOP line—criticize and you’re a woman hater. She’s dreadful, she’s stepped up to that bat…and now we’ll take our swings. That’s how the game’s played. If she doesn’t….well she can run along home and go back to her moose/bear/anything on four leg slaying,

By No Kill and Drill Palin on 09/08/2008 7:37 pm

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Hey Ame-thyst How did you like it when McCain called his wife a C—-T in front of reporters………….. I guess you think that’s better than Barbie doll………

By Dona Howlett on 09/09/2008 4:26 am

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Michelle, I’ve stated here at wOw that I prefer the term ‘Colored’ rather than ‘African American’. In a more recent reply to Kryssi K, I wrote the following. _____________________________________ Kryssi K, You wrote, “As for the racial stuff … I personally say “black” … Now, in 2008, I’m labeled ‘African American’. However, because of my multi-mixed racial heritage, I liked it when we were called, ‘Colored’. And, truth be told, considering the racial diversity of a large percentage of Americans with a trace of African bloodline from several generations back, the term ‘Colored’, is probably more accurate. Consequent, I also agree when you conclude that, “I refer to myself as white, and not “European American”, which is technically what we should call ourselves if we’re going to be calling blacks African Americans.” By Maizie James on 08/29/2008 3:13 pm

By Maizie James on 09/08/2008 5:05 pm

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Oh. And in a more detailed post, I explained my ‘rainbow’ ethnic diversity. I wrote: Um … My paternal great-grandfather was half Irish - the son of a Georgia plantation foreman, and half African (Probably from Central East Africa), his mother a slave. There son, is my late paternal grandfather. He married my paternal grandmother, whose father was a full blooded Native American, and her mother half Native American half, African decent. My maternal great-grandfather was Italian. His son, my grandfather was half Italian, and half Ethiopian- his mother a distant cousin of Halle Selassie. My maternal great-grandfather was British, Dr. Thomas Bunting, a direct descendant of Sir Richard Clinton born in 1733 in Shropshire England, and settled in North Carolina, in Clinton the city which bears his name. He married my maternal great-grandmother a Native American (Cherokee) and Mulatto (half African, half German). My maternal grandmother is their daughter. (She was always proud that her father was a well-known Doctor.) Wow. Does that not make me RAINBOW? By Maizie James on 08/29/2008 5:47 pm

By Maizie James on 09/08/2008 5:12 pm

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Wow Maizie! For sure you can be “Rainbow” - you’ve earned that right. But the thing that impressed me the MOST was all the history you know about your ancestors!!! What a beautiful and fascinating heritage you have and to KNOW all that is truly a gift/blessing!

By Sharon Belko on 09/08/2008 7:14 pm

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Sharon, thank you. I can’t tell you how much a thrill it was when this past May, when I attended the ‘Bunting’ family reunion in Clinton, North Carolina. It was the first reunion were White family members, descendants of my maternal grandmother’s father, Dr. Thomas Bunting attended. I also met ‘distant’ cousins who were the great grandchildren of many of my grandmother’s cousins who ‘passed’, and settled in Providence Rhode Island in 1900. Although there is a sad note to this, because my grandmother was always jealous that she could not ‘pass’ … believing she would have lived a better life.

By Maizie James on 09/08/2008 8:09 pm