In a heated discussion about racism in America, The View co-host Joy Behar blasted what she called the “racist rhetoric” coming from the Republican presidential candidates.
“The kind of racist rhetoric we’re hearing right now in this political season is really contributing to the problem. It makes all the racists come out of the woodwork and think that they now have the right to speak in these racist terms,” Behar said during a show dedicated to commemorating the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. “It gives permission to these supremacists and KKK. It’s a disgrace and should always be countered-pointed with a different position.”
View co-host Whoopi Goldberg lamented that the anti-police group Black Lives Matter doesn’t have a transformative leader like the civil rights movement had Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Why are we still fighting the same things?” Goldberg asked. “Why is it that when lots of kids say, ‘This is something that’s bothersome to me,’ and they’re out protesting, why is it not recognized the same way?”
“We have the paperwork to say we’re equal, segregation is gone, you’re okay, you’re safe,” co-host Raven-Symone added. “We have that paperwork, but that doesn’t change the minds of the people. That doesn’t change what is being done on an everyday, face to face type of lifestyle.”
Behar briefly cited a 2009 CBS News/New York Times poll that said as many as 66 percent of Americans thought race relations in the U.S. were good. By 2014, that numbed had plunged to just 34 percent.
“It breaks my heart that we’re here, that we’ve regressed to this point,” said co-host Paula Faris. “Let’s be a part of the change. How can we make this better?”
“One of the best things you and everybody can do is learn your history,” Goldberg replied. “Understand why an older black man might be mad. Because they went to World War II, fought a war in another country, came back to their own country and couldn’t vote. Understand the history, understand what’s happened. Once you know what happened, you are not so doomed to repeat it.”
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Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
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