Whoopi Goldberg Says Oscars Let Will Smith Alone So they Wouldn’t Have to Explain ‘Why They’re Taking the Black Man Out’

The View host Whoopi Goldberg suggested that the Oscar Awards show let Will Smith be following his “assault” on Chris Rock because of complicated racial dynamics.

Since the slap heard ’round the world during Sunday night’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Oscar Awards show, it seems like everyone in the entire world has chimed in about the moment, in literally every conceivable way.

On Tuesday’s edition of ABC’s The View, the hosts continued the national conversation about the incident, in which Mr. Smith slapped Mr. Rock live on stage for cracking a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia-induced hair loss.

Ms. Goldberg, a past Oscar-winner and telecast host, gave her analysis of the dynamics involved in the handling of the incident — which she called a “assault” — by the show’s producer Will Packer:

The reason no one got up to go comfort Chris is because they weren’t going to let anybody else on the stage. They were not going to lay. I’m going to tell you the rest of it. Let me finish with this part. They weren’t going to let anybody go back. There were people there for Chris. Everybody is aware.

The reason people got up and went over to him is because I think a lot of people thought, Oh my God, is he having a break? And so do we need to get him out? What do we need to do?

And the reason they didn’t go and take him out is because that would have been another 15 — 20 minute explanation of why we’re taking the Black man out five seconds before they’re about to decide whether he’s won an Oscar or not.

So that’s, and I’m going to say I believe Will Packer made the right decision. He said, let’s get through the rest of this so we can deal with it wholeheartedly. So that’s what went on. This is not the first time craziness has happened on stage, but this is the first time we’ve seen anybody assault anybody on stage.

Co-host Sunny Hostin added that “we need to also talk about Chris Rock because what’s playing over and over again is his assault. Internationally on television, his family is seeing that, his children are seeing that.”

“He took the high road, but we have to keep him in mind because he was the victim here,” Hostin said.

Watch above via ABC.