“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg controversially questioned if the country needs to “see white people get beat up” to see systemic change to policing, and was blasted for making the controversial statement.
The women of “The View” addressed the death of Tyre Nichols, who was brutally beaten to death by five members of the Memphis Police Department’s Scorpion Unit during a traffic stop on Jan. 7, during Monday morning’s episode.
“When will the brutality finally lead to some police reform from the ground up,” Goldberg asked. “Because clearly, it doesn’t matter if it’s a white policeman or a black policeman.”
“It is a problem in the police and the policing itself,” she continued, before suggesting that society is incapable empathy unless they can “recognize” the victims.
“How many times do we need to see White people also get beat before anybody will do anything?” she posited.
Then quickly backtracked that she wasn’t “suggesting that,” so viewers shouldn’t write in to tell her what a “racist” she is.
“I’m just asking is that what people have to see in order to wake up and realize this affects us all?”
Co-host Sunny Hostin said she refrained from watching the video of Nichols being beaten to death, because “as the mother of a black son, who’s six-foot-two and twenty years old,” her “worst nightmare” is what is on the recording.
She added that the people she believes should view it are “those people who can just decide not to watch it, because they know it’s not going to happen to their kid.”
Meanwhile, Sara Haines, did see the video, “because that’s the least we can do,” was shocked by the “casualness” which the Scorpion unit “went from zero to murder” while knowingly wearing body cameras.
Ana Navarro pointed out that “people would have done more to help out a dog,” than the officers did to help out Tyre Nichols.
“What we saw, in this case, is that good cops come in any gender, any class, any color,” she said. “And bad cops can be any gender, any color, and these cops were blue before they were black.”
Navarro noted that the Scorpion Unit, which has since been disbanded by the Memphis Police Department, was “aptly named” because the disgraced team was “filled with poison and hatred and the desire to kill.”
“How many more times are we going to have to see black youth beaten to death, beaten to the point of not being recognizable, and do it over and over again?” She queried.
Navarro cited the deaths of Nichols and other victims of police brutality as the reason “we cannot ban history” from classrooms.
Florida’s department of education banned an Advanced Placement course on African American Studies on the basis that it “is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis cited the inclusion of “Black Queer Studies” in the curriculum as an “agenda” somebody is trying to push on the state’s children.
“Who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory?” He questioned.
“When you try to use black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
He also objected to the topic “Movements for Black Lives,” which tackles the eradication of prison.
“How is that being taught as fact?” DeSantis said. “And I also think it’s not fair to say that somehow abolishing prisons is somehow linked to, like, Black experience, that’s what Black people want,”
“I don’t think that’s true at all. I think they want law and order just like anybody else wants law and order,” he continued. “That is more of ideology being used under the guise of history.”
Navarro clearly disagrees. “This is why in the midst of all this happening banning AP African American studies in Florida is the wrong thing to do. We need to learn from history not to repeat the same things over and over again,” she concluded.
Golberg said she hadn’t watched the video, because she’s “had it up to here” with police violence.
“I don’t know what we have to do! I don’t get it,” she remarked. “I don’t understand why we are constantly asking and asking and asking.”
“Is it just because folks have dehumanized us and made us like some kind of monsters,” she continued.
“I listen to that other side on television and they talk about us like we have no humanity,” Goldberg accused conservatives in a parting jab.
Social media scorched Goldberg for for her “grotesque response to a national tragedy,” and called for ABC to fire her “immediately.”
“These comments by Whoopi Goldberg is going to be taken seriously by too many Libs,” someone wrote.
“This racist statement is directly inciting violence against white people. She needs to be fired.”
“Who’s gonna tell Whoopi Goldberg more White people are killed by police every year than Blacks?” Another added.
“BTW, most who die at the hands of police are armed and/or in the commission of a crime. Guess they don’t learn that in the ivory tower.”
“Only a true racist such as Whoopi Goldberg can blame white people for the murder of a black person at the hands of black cops,” one person tweeted.
The five former members of the Memphis Police Department involved in Nichols’ beating were charged with second-degree murder after his death on Jan. 10.
The Scorpion Unit was “permanently” deactivated on Saturday.