'The View': Whoopi Goldberg And Sunny Hostin Hit Back At Bill Maher, Say That The Word 'Woke' Has Been 'Co-Opted By The Right'

Maher’s comments come as he discussed a petition for an Abraham Lincoln statue to be removed from a Washington D.C. park. Maher said regarding the petition, “Really? Lincoln isn’t good enough for you?”

During Thursday’s The View episode, Goldberg clarified why the statue has offended people.

“That statue wasn’t good enough because it showed a slave down at Lincoln’s feet,” she said. “This idea of ‘woke,’ I’m gonna say this again, most of y’all were asleep.”

When Joy Behar asked who she was speaking to, Goldberg said, “I’m talking to all those folks that use the word ‘woke’ all the time. Look in the mirror! Y’all can’t seem to handle anything!”

Goldberg was referring to conservatives who have used the word as a way to denigrate Democrats and other liberal-minded people.

“…You can’t seem to handle the discussions of why people feel the way they do. Your idea is to get rid of everything. So stop calling us snowflakes.”

Hostin chimed in, saying, “I’d like to address his comment on wokeness . What he is doing is saying that woke has changed. The term ‘woke,’ if you look it up in Webster’s Dictionary, and it really is there, is about being aware of social inequity, social injustices, and fighting those, and that is a good thing.”

“The term has been co-opted by the right,” she continued. “The term has been co-opted by the far right and the alt-right. And the term has even been co-opted by Bill Maher himself.”

 

Hostin added, “He is comparing woke with identity politics. He thinks woke means a diversity of opinion. That is not what woke meant in the mid-1900s, that’s not what woke meant during the civil rights movement, it’s not what woke meant during BLM, it’s not what woke means now. And I think he should be ashamed of some of the things he has said about wokeness. He has called college campuses too woke becaue they are talking about diversity and social justice and inclusion.”

Maher has been called out by The View before; in January of this year, Goldberg took offense to Maher’s comments about not wanting to live in a “paranoid” world created by the coronavirus. He also called it a “disease of the very old,” insinuating that he and others were never threatened by the illness.

“How dare you be so flippant, man? That’s not really funny to people who have lost their kids or people who have lost family members or dear friends to this,” she said at the time.

“Listen, nobody on the planet really wants to go through this,” she said. “This is not something we’re doing because it’s sexually gratifying. This is what we’re doing to protect our families. And you don’t have to do it, but stay away from everybody…I want to point out, there are little kids who can’t get vaccinated. Lots of people who cannot get vaccinated, so you’re playing Russian roulette with their lives.”

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— The View (@TheView) March 2, 2023