In defending Mel Gibson against his latest rant (this is the racist one, in case you lost count, not the homophobic one), Whoopi Goldberg proves Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck aren’t the only comically misinformed hosts on the show.
If ever there was a better person to defend Gibson’s N-word usage, it would be somebody famous, somebody well-liked, and preferably, somebody black. Whoopi is all of those things! And because she is Mel’s friend, she knows he’s not racist. She lets him hang out around her kids!
And it’s a decent point she makes, if only so folks like us can note that there isn’t just one type of racist white guy. There’s the “blacks should have separate drinking fountains” type, and then there’s the “I’m cool with them unless I suddenly go off the chain and turn into a maniacal slob, and in that case, fuck those bitches.” Mel is, it seems, the second kind. Is he attending Klan meetings? No. Does he look down on blacks — particularly those that would sleep with his ex-girlfriend? Absolutely.
What’s telling is Whoopi’s refusal to answer the question about whether Mel’s earlier comments about Jews make him an anti-Semite. Does his remarks about gays make him homophobic? Apparently not when you’re drunk.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
At the very least, Mel gave Whoopi the opportunity to get excited about something?
christopher di spirito
Whoopi jumped the shark long ago.
Her problem is, she’s been sleeping in the Big House with the Master for long that she’s forgotten how to recognize a racist, homophobic, anti-Semite when he’s standing in her home interacting with her children.
Sceth
Bad Whoopi! Bad, bad Whoopi! You’re usually so smart :(.
Anyway, many Christlings will take Mel’s restrictive and punitive morality as further evidence he’s one of them.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Whoopi: I love ya girl! But I think your dreds may be would a little too tightly as of late…………
T
WOW!!! so a man tells his wife she may get raped by a pack of n**gers and he isn’t racist?? if that isnt racist I dont know what is?
stop kissing ass Whoopi, I’ve lost all respect for her!
toby
@T:
I lost all respect for Whoopi after doing infomercials and HOLLYWOOD SQUARES even though she had won and oscar.
OT3P_Wolf
Oh Whoopi, how could you… Oh, and about alcohol, it often shows peoples true feelings, even if they don’t mean to show them.
reason
I agree with her, which is rare. Based on this alone I would not brand him a racist. Mel was clearly drunk and drugged out of his mind and trying to attack her with the most vile things that could come to his mind. Granted that is what came to mind has more to do with the prevalent race baiting and fear-mongering that was a staple in media and parts of politics. Willy Horton anyone? I think Mel was looking for a tool to hit her with and just stole those of people like Regan, several before and after, who were subtly attempting to articulate that message of fear in campaign ads. Obama even spoke of the fear that some in the older community had of African Americans in the era that he grew up in. Mel seemed to be playing off that to scare his wife which would go along with the death threats and everything else that he hurled at her.
I don’t think you can take one transgression like that and rap him up as a racist. His friends like Whoopi would have a birds eye view into an issue like this.
Is Gibson homophobic? I think that is much clearer granted he articulated that view several times even when he was dead sober. He even refused to apologize and asked why he would apologize about the truth in two subsequent interviews involving the s*&t comes out of there comments that Queerty was buzzing about.
Everyone has said something that they certainly didn’t mean and would cringe if they heard it on tape today. But, while Mel may slide on this his homophobia is not excusable.
PBo
Whoopi has been an ignorant sellout for a LONG time. I was just starting to let her off the hook….but here we go again! Who doesn’t know that most racists will smile in your face, come to your house, do lunch with you…but will talk about you like a dog behind closed doors. Don’t even try to move next door or marry his daughter. Whoopi acts as if she has not lived in the US all of her life. She is obviously living in a bubble….How delusional and irresponsible of her!
Fitz
Not defending him.. just saying that the mix of drunk, drugged, and angry relationship fight is not going to show you at your best.
Matthew Rettenmund
Anyone claiming he isn’t racist is deaf, dumb and blind. As Behar said pointedly, a LOT of people get drunk and most of them don’t say racist, anti-Semitic, anti-gay, misogynist things like that. Getting drunk loosens your tongue, it doesn’t make shit up. For him to say she’d be raped by a pack of N-words, that proves that’s how he characterized black people, and that proves in his brain being raped is bad, being raped by blacks is muuuuch worse.
Don’t be stupid; the man is demonstrably racist, sexist, anti-gay and anti-Semitic.
PBo
@Fitz:
He does not sound drunk at all to me. In fact most people said the same…even Whoopi said that he did not sound drunk. Regardless, the thing is, people are usually more truthful under the influence. He said things that he did not want others to hear but that does not mean he is not racist just because he was saying it in private. Racism is still racism whether it is in your face or behind closed doors.
reason
If you put it in context it is clear that it had nothing to do with race, it was about instilling fear. Granted Mel has expressed his other transgressions more clearly. Jews – Passion of the Christ, DUI; Gays – Various interviews when sober, Braveheart, disclosure of agents, etc.; Women – Various interviews when sober, DUI, High on Drugs, excessively in secret recording. Guy has a lot of problems; he can be buried with the truth, there is no point in grasping for something that is not there. Holding to the standards that you all are trying to set, just about everyone in the country would be deemed racist against other races and their own. The word racist looses its meaning in power when its applied to people who are not.
Luxury
Whoopi completely embarrassed herself this morning. Apparently she doesn’t know her “friends” that well. What she said was eerily similar to the age old line “I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black”, apparently we found one of the “friends”. As far as alcohol goes, I strongly believe that a drunk mind speaks a sober heart.
Mike
Who cares? It’s his private life and it was never something that was meant to be leaked to the public. A lot of people say stuff like that in the privacy of their own homes and don’t get trashed on the internet for it. He shouldn’t have to apologize for anything. He can say whatever he likes in his own home. Buh bye free speech!
Luxury
I also don’t think this is the best line of work for Whoopi. More often than not, she’s completely condescending, and it actually makes you uncomfortable watching sometimes. I think she’s a phenomenal actress/comedian, but a talk show host/moderator, she is not.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Racists are never racist in front of other races.
Just because Whoopi has never seen this side of Mel, doesn’t mean that side does not exist. Just because he never called her kids pickaninnies, doesn’t mean he doesn’t call other people’s kids niggers.
Homask
I agree that we’re all racists, since nobody escapes their childhood programming unscathed. It’s the degree to which we question it (or not) when we’re older that matters. Anyway, I hope nobody is seriously looking for wisdom amongst the brainless banter on the View.
dvlaries
Maybe Whoopi has got a renewed yen for some famous, untried white-boy dick. She does like it. Ask Ted Danson.
I stopped talking Goldberg seriously in 1993 when she gave an interview to “60 Minutes,” when the affair with Danson was at the height of its notoriety, and supplied the fatal bullet in Danson’s 16 year marriage to Casey Coates. I think Ed Bradley did interview, but Goldberg declared the matter off limits even before the cameras turned on.
She did, however, take us into her bathroom and inform us on her favorite reading materials while she takes a shit. Seriously.
Franco
If the clip started twenty seconds earlier you would known that Joy’s the only one with common sense on this show. She called him out pretty good. Vaffanculo and all.
Revemupman
I personally think Mel was so caught up in trying to verbally attack her that he would say anything to get her blood boiling. That being said I do not condone his racist, misogynistic words. He needs some anger management and restraining orders. And this problem will go bye-bye. Now whoopi does have a point, he is an ass. But I pretty much expect people of Mel’s generation to still have a bigoted mindset.
RainaWeather
@Revemupman: People of Mel’s generation? He is not that old.
I knew Whoopi was an idiot when she defended Polanski because it wasn’t “rape rape.”
Desdemona
The things Mel Gibson said were so much more sexist and misogynistic than racist! And leave it to Sherri again to make it all about being black. Joy is apparently the only woman who recognized the INSANE MISOGYNY!
peteNsfo
I thought I was crazy… I went to YouTube to check out Hot Topics and couldn’t believe both Whoopi & Sheri, WTF? Seriously?!
Is it a Hollywood thing? An ABC thing? Is she kidding herself; imagine a racist not being racist to your face? Shocking, I tell-ya, just shocking.
The only person happy about all of this is that faggot, Denis Leary!
Lamar
I don’t think him being drunk is any excuse, booze often makes people do things that they want to do in the first place but they stopped themselves doing. It can expose people for who they really are and in this case it exposed him as a racist. It’s impossible for you to use the N-word in that context and not be racist. That’s not even the worst part, the worst part is he’ll probably just apologize (even though he probably won’t be sorry) and just get away with it. Too many celebrities casually say the N-word and aren’t made to pay for it and the usage is increasing lately. Also he’s a Christian, I’m probably more a Christian and I’m atheist.
Lamar
I don’t think him being drunk is any excuse, booze often makes people do things that they want to do in the first place but they stopped themselves doing. It can expose people for who they really are and in this case it exposed him as a racist. It’s impossible for you to use the N-word in that context and not be racist. That’s not even the worst part, the worst part is he’ll probably just apologize (even though he probably won’t be sorry) and just get away with it. Too many celebrities casually say the N-word and aren’t made to pay for it and the usage is increasing lately. Also he’s a Christian? I’m probably more a Christian and I’m atheist.
Taylor Siluwé
I have to grudgingly agree with Whoopie when she says that drunks say crazy shit. And although many, including Whoopie, say he didn’t sound drunk, a die-hard drunk can down a bottle of Scotch and still not appear intoxicated.
I belief he was seriously under the influence just by the tenor of his rant, the panting, the fumbling for words, the raged breathing – the man was clearly completely unglued.
Having said that, the “raped by a pack of N****RS” line is pretty tough to excuse and I’m not doing it, however when it comes to melt-downs with an ex, I’ve personally said and done some things which if called to the mat on them I’d have to throw myself on the mercy of the court and claim temporary insanity.
And I’m not even a drunk. Mel is a pretty notoriously unlikable guy and he’s lucky to have any friends left. Apparently, Whoopie Goldberg considers herself a loyal one. Good for her. Each of us should be so lucky as to have a friend who still stands by us after we do the ugliest, most regrettable thing we’ve ever done.
I know people are gonna mark this comment down, but fuck it, I’m just being real.
Jeff K.
I think Whoopi is the kind of person who wants to see the good in everyone. Normally it’s a commendable quality to have, but in this case I think it’s misplaced.
The Artist
My grandmother always said, “even in jest, when someone say something, they mean it.” PEACELUVNBWILD!
MissLaWandalicious
This is all so racist.
David Ehrenstein
@christopher di spirito: BINGO!
Some “Celebrities” think they can confer “enlightenment” on hateful slugs. Elton John is another example of this idiocy.
Stck a fork in all three of them (Mel, Whoppi and Elton) — they’re DONE.
Cam
He admitted on the tape to punching her while she was holding her daughter and twice knocking her teeth out….is Whoopi saying also that he isn’t a wife beater?
She also defended Roman Polanski drugging and raping a 13 year old girl saying it wasn’t “Rape Rape”.
Whoopie reminds me of those people that live next door to serial killers and say things like “Oh, he isn’t a killer, look at how lovely his garden is!”.
Revemupman
@RainaWeather
“People of Mel’s generation? He is not that old”.
Dude is 54, he’s old in my book……
When you were born 1956 the time back then was tripple times hostle towards gays, blacks, women, or pretty much any minority back then. He probably has some hateful parents.
CHEEKIEY
Ok, Isn’t it time to retire this show ? ?
It’s a Stain for ABC
Taylor Siluwé
No. 33 · CHEEKIEY “Ok, Isn’t it time to retire this show?”
No, its not. You can’t put a group of people on a daily show chatting about current events without pissing off almost everyone at some point or another.
I can think of a ton of shows that could retire for the betterment of humanity – The View ain’t one of ’em.
Chitown Kev
I see Whoopi’s point but a lot of times people say what they really think when they are drunk…
Actually, I think the whole statement by Mel Gibson was probably a fantasy of his.
RyanAM
You know what I find amazing amidst all this?
When someone uses the -N- word (vile) virtually every commentator and poster alike on this website wants them completely vanished, tranished and banned for life.
When a celebrity, or anyone on television says the word f*ggot….literally loads and loads of posters say “SO WHAT? It’s just a word…get over it!”
That right there is why gay rights are not going anywhere, and will not go anywhere. Because of pussy gays who were brain washed to believe they are lesser than, therefore disgusting homophobic rants and DISGUSTING HOMOPHOBIC WORDS (like f&g!) don’t phase them and they actually defend the person who said it.
This story aside, the comparing the outrage over Mel Gibson compared to the unwavering defense toward Dennis Leary makes me stomach turn.
Carlton
If only gay posters could be this passionate when a celeb uses the word fag in an interview…but eh, that’s just a word. who cares, right? self loathing gays need be gone.
Carlton
@Taylor Siluwé: You must not have heard the many times this show made false, inaccurate, misleading and downright hateful commentary toward our community (which I’m not so certain you are a part of)…or possibly didn’t care to hear. This show is for old woman with a chip on their shoulders to mouth off. The average sane person is not tuning into The View to start their view of their morning. Sorry babe.
axos
Mel’s generation…? I’m older than he is, and even if I’m able to say dumb things when angry, racist or sexist things are not among them.
Taylor Siluwé
No. 37 · Carlton
No I’m not part of the community, I just lurk about Queerty for the sheer joy of it. And I don’t excuse the show when the girls get it wrong, I just think there is certainly still a place for it.
More people than old woman watch The View. I have 20ish gay male friends who live for it. So lets not throw statistics out there with no basis. You’d be surprised who watches what. I occasionally watch Glenn Beck just to see what that teary monstrosity is up to (…keep your enemies closer, and all that).
But I agree with you, the average sane person is not tuning into The View to start their day. In my area at least, it comes on at 11am. I’m an early bird. By that time, all the worms are gone. 😉
Carlton
@Taylor Siluwé: I figured you weren’t part of the community when you made this comment:
“You can’t put a group of people on a daily show chatting about current events without pissing off almost everyone at some point or another.”
That may not be an excuse but sure sounds like a justification toward the many misinformed drivel spewed on that show mainly by the biggest offender…Sherri Shepard, and as for not offending people, it’s about facts, information and having your integrity stay loyal to that upon becoming a television personality. The masses and viewing public have a ight to hold those on television speaking on current events to a higher standard than me skyping my mom while eating a glazed donut.
Time and time again, Sherri and Elizabeth have gone on the offense and defense as authorities on the subject of all things gay when their commentary was just pure hate and filth, but worse, inaccurate hate & filth. That won’t be excused or justified by a great majority of gays (my boyfriend who loathes the show, included) and I’m sorry that it is for your gay friends. I hope they find an…errr…uhm…more appropriate show that’s actually targeting their demographic, which the outdated View certainly is not.
Jin Lee
do people still watch this program? why? and why do people care what is said on it?
you have a reality tv reject from Surivor, a woman who was hired to be funny on the show but doesn’t even know if our planet is flat or round, I don’t even know who Joy Behar was or is, and Whoppi did jump the shark by taking this lame gig.
Taylor Siluwé
No. 40 · Carlton
The comment you quoted (humorously enough as proof that I’m not of the community) happens to be, uh, very true. Can you disagree with a straight face?
And me agreeing that I wasn’t a community member was a joke. Where’s your sense of humor? No wonder you hate this show. Stop being so serious all the time. My gay friends, and my big ol’ gay self, happen to love The View.
Even when Sherry makes an ass of herself, or Hasselbeck, and now by some standard, Whoopie. It’s still not something I’ll rage and fume over as long as FOX exists. With Hannity and Beck and all those FOX dittoheads actually doing real damage and spreading real unadulterated hate, you wanna whine about Shepard and Hasselbeck?
Good grief, man, get a life.
reason
Get over yourselves, as if you have never said something that you didn’t mean. If I recorded the most outrageous sections of your lives we would be dragging you to the guillotine.
reason
This is not in defense of his other actions, I just don’t believe he is racist. If he actually punched his wife while she was holding a child to boot, he should be headed to jail.
j.c
AMEN Reason! WHO HASNT said something racist in their lives? this bullsh*t of getting people fired for saying “racist” things just goes to show how PC our country is becoming and how we cant even criticize SOME people because of it. Mel, you didn’t do anything none of us havent said or done before.
B
No. 6 · OT3P_Wolf wrote, “Oh Whoopi, how could you… Oh, and about alcohol, it often shows peoples true feelings, even if they don’t mean to show them.”
What it actually does is reduce inhibitions and allows random thoughts stored in the brain to flow out of the mouth. Mel Gibson has a lot of anti-semitic memories floating around in his head because he grew up with a father who is a rabid Holocaust denier.
Whoopi’s probably seen Gibson in more normal circumstances and probably has a good idea of what his actual opinions are, but Gibson also has a series of personal problems and sometimes he starts spewing, triggered by anger, alcohol, whatever. Whoopi called it “boneheaded”, which might be pretty close to the truth in this case, but you’d have to know Gibson personally to say for sure.
If Gibson really is racist, he doesn’t deserve any sympathy, but if his problem is alcohol or an anger problem, treating him as a racist won’t help – you have to accurately diagnose the problem if there is going to be a reasonable chance of fixing it.
Yet Another
Random and slightly “racist”, I know. But I bet most of the people attacking Whoopie and Mel on this thread are white.
Saying words do not make you a racist any more than blowing smoke makes you a chimney. It’s the heart that matters and we have no idea whats on Mel’s. Yes he said ugly hateful things. Yes they COULD be indicative or racist beliefs. But it’s not proof and since racism is such a dispicable thing we shouldn’t toss it around so lightly.
Racism is more than “nigger.” <— I'm allowed to say that. lol
palmal
Mel is a drunk who needs outside help. He’s still responsible for his behaviour whether he was drunk or not. And he’s responsible for his drinking problem. Hope he sees the light and does something about it.
ewe
Whoopi has inserted her foot in her mouth many times trying to play it safe when all she really has on her mind is lining her pockets. She is annoying.
ewe
Mel Gibson is so filthy rich that he can continue being the drunken asshole for as long as he remains alive. Those are the facts. He is not going to change. He was an arrogant homophobic piece of shit when he was in his twenties and thirties.
ewe
Throwin around the word nigger is no worse than throwin around the word faggot. There are a bunch of stupid hypocrites on this site. Fuck all of you that feel putting down a black person is worse than putting down a black person who is gay. If that is you then you got some serious self esteem issues.