Whoopi Goldberg is walking back a culturally-insensitive remark she made during a discussion on “The View” Wednesday.
During a conversation on former President Donald Trump and actress Stormy Daniels, Goldberg used a derogatory and racist term associated with the Romani people while referring to Trump’s political base as “people who still believe that he got (expletive) somehow in the election.”
Goldberg issued a video apology via the ABC talk show’s official Twitter account following the episode’s broadcast.
“When you’re a certain age, you use words that you know from when you were a kid or you remember saying, and that’s what I did today,” Goldberg said. “And I shouldn’t have.”
The derogatory term Goldberg said Wednesday has historically been used to denote when someone has “been cheated in some way” and likely originates from the derogatory Romani term “gypsy,” wrote Mary-Frances Winters of The Inclusion Solution, which is run by diversity, equity, inclusion and justice consulting firm The Winters Group, Inc.
“I should have thought about it a little longer before I said it, but I didn’t,” Goldberg continued. “I should have said ‘cheated,’ and I used another word and I’m really, really sorry.”
Goldberg’s faux pas comes a year after the television host was suspended from “The View” for a two-weeks period, after receiving criticism for comments she made on the Holocaust. During an episode of the show last January, Goldberg said the Holocaust was not about race, but rather about man’s inhumanity to others.
Goldberg reignited controversy on the subject in December when her comments to The Sunday Times of London were labeled as “deeply offensive” by the Anti-Defamation League. In an interview with the British newspaper, shared during Hanukkah, Goldberg suggested Jews are divided on whether they are a race, religion or both. “My best friend said, ‘Not for nothing is there no box on the census for the Jewish race. So that leads me to believe that we’re probably not a race,’” she recalled.
In a statement obtained by USA TODAY at the time, Goldberg said her remarks to the Times were taken out of context and were a response to her previous comments on the Holocaust, adding that her support for Jewish people “has not wavered and never will.”
“I’m still learning a lot and believe me, I heard everything everyone said to me,” Goldberg said. “I believe that the Holocaust was about race, and I am still as sorry now as I was then that I upset, hurt and angered people.”
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Contributing: Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
