Comic and pundit Bill Maher defended The View host Whoopi Goldberg over her suspension for a remark — that she apologized for — that the Holocaust was “not about race.”
On Friday night’s edition of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, the host became the latest celebrity to rally to Ms. Goldberg’s defense since ABC suspended her.
Everybody was like, Oh, Bill, I guess you’re enjoying the karma. First of all, I’m going to talk about this at the end of my show, next week teaser. But there is no fucking thing as karma. OK, get over that.Look, she attacks me on a regular basis. She says stupid shit on a regular basis. It just happened to coincide. But can I just say this I had on last week, Ira Glass, a former longtime head of the ACLU talking about free speech. Whoopi Goldberg, who, by the way, I hope is still a friend, we can disagree with each other, should not be canceled or put off her show, as much as I totally disagree with her crazy statement. Free speech, she should be there. She shouldn’t get a time out….Can we just understand that part of our sorry racial history in this country is that the point of view from a black person is often going to be very different and sometimes shocking to a white person? I pulled the quote from when we defended Michael
Vick. Remember, Michael Vick was the football player who was electrocuting dogs, and I’m a lifelong PETA board member, you know? Also, someone who believes the Nazis were very racist. OK.Here’s what she said about Michael Vick: He’s from the South. This is part of his cultural upbringing. For a lot of people, dogs are sport. Instead of just saying he’s a beast and he’s a monster. This is a kid who comes from a culture where this is not questioned, OK?You see the point here and again, I don’t agree with her on Michael Vick, but we grew up in two different worlds which the white people imposed upon the black people. They are going to sometimes have a very different opinion.And the answer is not to make them sit in a corner for two weeks. That is insulting. It’s so insulting to make a 65 year old. I mean, the person at ABC News that, “I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments reflect” — how insulting for someone of her age who’s a sophisticated person — “and the impact of her comment.” There is no impact. There aren’t neo-Nazis waiting for the green light from the lady on The View to go out and do a new Kristallnacht.
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