Whoopi Goldberg: ‘We Need White People to Step Up’ and Acknowledge Racism

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg had a spirited conversation with guest host NBC Sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya Tuesday on ABC’s “The View” about how race is taught in America.

During that conversation, Goldberg declared it was time for “white people to step up” to acknowledge racism.

Tafoya said, “Why are we even teaching that the color of the skin matters? Because to me, what matters is your character and your values.”

Goldberg said, “Yes, but you know — you live in the United States. You know that color of the skin has been mattering to people for years.”

Tafoya shot back, “Can’t we change it that it doesn’t?”

Goldberg said, “Well, we need white people to step up and do that.”

Tafoya said, “But I think they have been doing that since the Civil War. I’m not saying it’s perfect.”

Goldberg said, “No! No, no, no, they haven’t.”

Tafoya asked, “What do you mean they haven’t?”

Goldberg said, “Listen, when you have a country, or let’s talk about a state — where somebody can be hung from a tree, and it’s OK?”

Tafoya said, “That is not OK.”

Goldberg said, “Well, it was OK. It was OK in the South. People did it all the time. People would run you down.”

Co-host Joy Behar said, “Not that long ago.”

Goldberg agreed, “Not that long ago.”

Co-host Sunny Hostin said, “There are still lynching going on today.”

Goldberg agreed, “They are lynching people.”

She added, “I love having this conversation because I feel like it’s important. You know, when my grandpa came back from World War I, he still had to step off the sidewalk to let somebody go.”

Tafoya said, “That makes me sick.”

Goldberg said, “It should. We need more people to feel like that so we can get to the place everybody thought we were with race and all the conversations. But America has had her reckoning. It continues to happen because unless we can say, ‘This is what the country was like. This is what we don’t want to be anymore.’ We have to teach the little ones to respect people because you’ll be around people, you’ll see people, you’ll hear people say things that won’t make sense to you. This is what happens in the country because we’re not past that.”

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