Why Whoopy is Dead Wrong In Defending Wash your Mouth with SoapMel Gibson
“You’re an anti-Semite. You’re a misogynist and you’re a racist.”This is how Joy Behar, co-host of ABC’s The View, describedactor Mel Gibson on the talk show’s July 12 episode.
Gibson, after all, can reportedly be heard on tape using racial slurs while criticizing the appearance of Oksana Grigorieva, his former girlfriend and the mother of his baby.
“You look like a f___ing pig in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n___ers, it will be your fault,” Gibson allegedly told Grigorieva. Additionally, on another tape, Gibson reportedly refers to Latinos as “wetbacks.” Despite reports of such remarks, and the anti-Semitic streak Gibson showed when pulled over for drunk driving in 2007, Whoopi Goldberg, another co-host on The View, doesn't think Gibson is a racist. Her rationale?
“You can say he’s being a bonehead, but I can’t sit and say that he’s a racist, having spent time with him in my house with my kids. I can’t say it,” she told Behar.
On The View last night, Goldberg brought up Gibson once again. This time, however, it was to express her outrage that those who disagreed with her stance on the Braveheart actor dared to criticize her on blogs and leave angry phone calls with her assistant.
“Now, being a black woman, you’d think you would give me a little bit of, of, you know, leeway to have some feel if I was around a racist,” she protested.
But racism is complicated. Certainly, those with African-American ancestry know what it feels like to be on racism’s receiving end. However, there are lots of ways racism manifests itself, not all of them obvious. A racist isn't just someone who fancies white hoods and burning crosses and terrorizing people of color.
The dictionary tells us that racism is “the belief that… a particular race is superior to others” or that racism is “discrimination or prejudice based on race.” The hateful words that have reportedly flown from Mel Gibson’s mouth on multiple occasions indicate that his views fit this most basic definition of racism. If the voice on those tapes does, in fact, belong to Gibson, we know not only that the actor has no qualms about using dehumanizing terms to describe black men, but that he views black men as a group that runs around in “packs,” as animals do. We also know that he presumes black men are rapists and Latinos people who only arrived in the U.S. by illegally swimming across rivers. Collectively, these comments reveal prejudice and the notion that people of color are inferior — in short, racism.
I’m not sure exactly why Ms. Goldberg doesn’t see it this way. We know that she defended former boyfriend Ted Danson when he appeared in blackface several years ago during a celebrity roast. However, I also know that at times, Goldberg has spoken eloquently about race matters, such as when she defended the Black Panthers to a guest on The View who characterized them as whiny, privileged youths. Goldberg may be off about Mel Gibson, but she’s not altogether clueless about race relations. I believe that she simply has a difficult time swallowing the painful truth that our friends, lovers and family members may be racists or espouse racist views.
Mel Gibson may have set foot in Whoopi Goldberg’s home and been kind to her and her daughter, but that doesn't mean he can’t be racist. Think about it. Staunch segregationist Strom Thurmond fathered a child with a black woman. He financially supported the child and visited her, all the while adhering to a political ideology that classified blacks as inferior. Was Strom Thurmond racist? Yes. Was Strom Thurmond kind to his mixed race daughter? Yes — based on his daughter’s accounts of him, that is.
People with racist views behave in contradictory ways, because after all, racism really makes no sense. I still marvel at the fact that for years, whites didn’t want to share swimming pools with blacks, but allowed black women to nurse their children. Which act is more intimate — breastfeeding or sharing a public pool?
Those of us who are mixed-race, adopted, belong to blended families or have married interracially may be related to folks who harbor racist views against people with our heritage. Take President Barack Obama. When he gave his famous “race speech” in 2008, he referred to his white grandmother as a woman “who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”
Obama didn’t downplay or overlook his grandmother’s views, because he loved her. He recognized her views for what they were — racist. In this country, where similar views on race are ingrained in each of us early on, it doesn't help to take Whoopi Goldberg’s attitudes on the matter. We can't collectively pretend that racism only resides in those far away from us, rather than in those with whom we regularly open our lives to. We share meals with people who have racist views. We spend holidays with them. If we're to be honest, we hold many similar views ourselves. Let’s not ignore this fact. Racism can only be overcome if we identify and address it.
Photo Credit: David Shankbone
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