Whoopi Apologizes for New Offensive Remark on The View

Goldberg, who used ethnic slur for Romani people, says she's 'really, really sorry'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 17, 2023 7:19 AM CDT
Whoopi's 2023 Comes With an Apology, Just Like 2022
This image shows co-host Whoopi Goldberg on the set of the daytime talk series "The View."   (Jenny Anderson/ABC via AP)

Whoopi Goldberg found herself embroiled in yet another controversy this week after she said an ethnic slur on air. CBS News reports that, on Wednesday's episode of The View, the show's co-host was trying to articulate how supporters of former President Trump felt after he lost his bid for reelection in 2020. As Goldberg put it, those Trump fans felt they "got 'gy---d' somehow in the election." The word, tied to the label "Gypsy," has popped up on lists of racist or ethnic terms to avoid for its negative stereotypes of Romani people as being swindlers or con artists.

Goldberg tried to explain herself later Wednesday. "You know, 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, and I shouldn't have," Goldberg noted in her mea culpa posted on Twitter. "I should've thought about it a little longer, before I said it. But I didn't." She added that she should've just used the word "cheating" and said she was "really, really sorry." Response to both her slip and her apology were a mixed bag.

Some people noted that they'd long known not to use that word, while others say they'd had no clue on its origins or offensiveness. "Well, I learned something today! Thanks for this teaching moment. I won't say this in the future!" one surprised commenter wrote on Twitter. Both CBS and the Guardian note that Goldberg has found herself in hot water before for controversial remarks made on the show. She was suspended from The View for two weeks last year for saying that the Holocaust wasn't "about race," then found herself apologizing later in 2022 for making similar remarks. (More Whoopi Goldberg stories.)

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