Deconstructing Whoopi
by Guest Contributor SLB, originally published at Post Bourgie
I’ve never seen The Color Purple in its entirety. Oh, I’ve seen snippets here and there—enough that, if strung together sequentially, I’d have nearly 7/8 of the film before me. I’m only disclosing this because I’m fairly certain that The Color Purple will be raised in criticism of the discussion I’m about to open.
See, I’m about to talk about Whoopi Goldberg. And in my experience, no discussion of Whoopi Goldberg is ever complete without mention of her Revelatory Turn as Celie in The Color Purple. I mean… I get it. Whoopi was great as Celie and, for many, the cool points she earned as part of Spielberg’s formidable cast erased a multitude of Goldberg’s race-related “sins.”
But my earliest memories of Whoopi Goldberg have nothing to do with “Till you do right by me….” My earliest memory of Whoopi Goldberg is from an oft-forgotten ’80s gem called Jumpin’ Jack Flash. I was seven when this film emerged, probably eight when I saw it on cable. On first viewing a few thoughts ran through my head:
- “Is that a woman or a man?”
- “Oh. That’s a lady. Who is this lady and where did she come from?”
- “Where’d she get that goofy name?”
- “Why aren’t there more Black people in this movie?”
- “What’s up with her hair?”
- “Why is she always waving her hands around all wild and wide like that?”
I was naive. I didn’t know what dreadlocks were when I was eight, didn’t know that black chicks and white dudes were allowed to hook up on movie screens, didn’t know that there were ways to be feminine on celluloid that didn’t involve the wearing of dresses, cosmetics or jewelry.
Needless to say: I didn’t get Whoopi Goldberg.
Because I knew nothing of her stand-up work, I had only the study of her films (aside from The Color Purple, of course) by which to shape an opinion of her. As time went on, she continued to befuddle me—as a bookstore owner/thief surrounded by an all-White cast in Burglar, as an au pair/Mammy figure surrounded by an All-White cast in Clara’s Heart, and as a flamboyant psychic helping her two, top-billed White co-stars find romance despite the grave in Ghost. But the more befuddled I became, the more attention I paid to Whoopi when I saw her onscreen.
I simply didn’t know what to make of her. I hadn’t yet known any Black women like her, who easily navigated all-White social circles and rarely dated within their race (onscreen and off), who rarely played into the stereotypes of traditional femininity but were near-constantly romantically linked, in spite of their system-bucking.
Occasionally, as I grew up, I’d overhear adults judgmentally murmuring about her. At the height of her ’80s popularity, words like “sellout” and “Mammy” and “shuckin’ and jivin’” were always wafting out of the grown folks’ conversations at my house, but I didn’t know then what any of that was about. I’d just remember her turn as a concerned professor in the Emmy-nominated episode of A Different World, where Tisha Campbell reveals her HIV status or I’d think of her performance in the film adaptation of Sarafina! and I’d shrug.
Whoopi was “Black enough” for me.
She was a staple of my childhood and whether or not she dated white men or relied on a broader brand of physical comedy than I typically laughed at didn’t really matter. Seeing her onscreen comforted me. She seemed smart, for one. Her voice sardonic, her lips smirking, she always looked like her whole Hollywood persona was an inside joke and, someday, she’d reveal that the joke was on her detractors.
But then came the Friar’s Club Blackface Debacle of 1993. That year kind of marked a turning point in my unwavering and still somewhat unexplainable support of The Whoop. It was one thing for her to be dating that dude who played Sam on Cheers. It was another to not only cosign his Al Jolson impression but to confess to various media outlets that it was her idea.
Mind you, by 1993, I was fourteen and going through my Black Militant Awakening Phase (the result of attending Deer Park Middle, the first school and last school in my K-12 academic career that wasn’t like, 85% Black). Suggesting that your White boyfriend show up at a Friar’s Club roast in burnt cork and exaggerated lip grease while bugging his eyes was just something I couldn’t abide—the utter dopeness of Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit notwitstanding.
In the decade following, Whoopi’s approval rating constantly vascillated. For every Sister Act 2, there was a Made in America. For every Ghosts of Mississippi, there was a Corrina, Corrina.
And let’s just talk for a minute about Corrina, Corrina, shall we? In what universe was this film a good idea? What executive looked at the script for that tripe and said, “Yes. I think America would love to see Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta get it on in a period piece where, even with a degree, she has no choice but to be his domestic… in yet another rousing turn as a young child’s ever-lovin’ Mammy? And those scenes were Tina Majorino licks the little black child actress’s face and tells her she tastes like chocolate or wears her hair in unkempt ‘pickaninny-style’ plaits sounds fabulous!”
Seriously. I need to know who greenlit that film because I owe his or her doorstep a flaming bag of poo. (Turnabout is fair play.)
Around 1998, when Whoopi appeared in the screen adaptation of How Stella Got Her Groove Back, I guess I started coming around. It was one of the few times I’d seen her with an all-Black cast and I was struck by how relaxed she seemed in the role of Stella’s cancer-diagnosed BFF. Also immediately noticeable was how much Whoopi had aged in the twelve years since I’d first seen her. She was hippy and saggy and comfortable with who she was on that level few women really reach until they’re perimenopausal.
The wild gesticulations and White-man-wooing that’d mark so much of her early career sort of melted away in Stella. And suddenly, Whoopi Goldberg began to remind me of the women who’d shooed me out of their grown folks’ business all those years ago. In short: she was becoming more of a Big Momma than a Mammy, more a wisdom-laden matriarch than a “What’s wrong, Massa? We sick?” archetype.
If you think I’m reaching with the Stella example, look no forward than Whoopi’s current gig on The View. Some of the things she says, particularly things like how a vote for “government reform” implies Constitutional reform… that could extend to a re-examination of Blacks’ freedom. Pick a day, any day, to tune into The View and you’ll find that, at this point in her career, The Whoop is not only on fire, but really wouldn’t give much of a damn if she weren’t.
These days, I find myself wondering if Whoopi has been like this all along. You don’t just morph from blackface-suggesting, over-gesticulating, primarily White-male-dating mascot to pro-Black Mother Wit, do you? Can the Whoopi Goldberg who thought Corrina, Corrina was a great representation of the Black woman on the silver screen be the same Whoopi Goldberg who systematically takes Elisabeth Hasselbeck to task for her racist, sexist, partisan insinuations on the daily?
I think she can. She can and she is. If nothing else, growing up watching Whoopi Goldberg on the small and big screens prepared me to dismantle a ton of assumptions—about race, about beauty, and about accountability. She’s one of those anomalous sisters who reminds you that there’s no such thing as “Black enough,” no need to paint and pluck and plump yourself in order to be considered attractive, intelligent or desirable, and no entire group of people you can placate by fitting into the box they’ve carved for you.
Even if she puts another White dude in blackface and parades him around some stodgy gentleman’s comedy club, totally diminishing my understanding of her yet again, I’ll always be grateful to her for that.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Tek wrote:
great post. I have always had mixed feelings about Whoopi. But I love her and I hang onto her because I came to know her through her stand up which was to me revolutionary and radical.
It’s interesting to me that she gets the flak for the Ted Danson black face thing, I’m sure she didn’t hold a gun to his head.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 10:15 am ¶
Eliot wrote:
As a 25-year-old white dude, I haven’t put as much thought into this as you have, but I’ve definitely asked myself, “What is the DEAL with this lady?”
Her career trajectory has been a bizarre one that has encompassed racially-driven material to slop (see The Associate or Eddie) to sad, obvious moneymakers (Jenny Craig, talk radio).
But I saw her speak last week on a panel about George Carlin’s influence on American comedy, and she was amazing. She is a smart woman who is aware of her actions and fervently devoted to calling out bullshit in a tactful manner.
Long live the Whoop.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 11:00 am ¶
Jess wrote:
I vaguely remembered the Ted Danson thing and wondered if the point was to say, “Hey, if you all are going to get on me for dating white dudes, would this make you happy?”
I don’t know. I am not in her head, but it was one possible way of looking at it given her comedy.
And also, don’t discount the need for a paycheck. A lot of people forget that evven big-name actors don’t get to pick which movies they appear in all the time. Sometimes you are under contract to make, say, three movies and the scripts you get just suck.
Other times you are in a lean period and want to get your face and name out there.
Still others the final product looks a hell of a lot different from the script. In New York there are guys who sell copies of scripts with other books on the street. The differences are striking in some cases.
Whoopi may not have thought Corrina Corrina was a good idea (I didn’t either) but if someone told you they would pay you $2 million and you weren’t entirely sure where your next deal was coming from, or if you’d ever work again, you’d take it, probably. I’m not saying Whoopi Goldberg was struggling by that point, but there are a lot of actors out there who were just as good who went through very long dry spells. See: James Coburn, or Harry Dean Stanton, or even Bela Lugosi.
So I’d say that there’s a natural evolution of her as a person — I ask are you the same as you were in 1990? No, I bet (I hope not). But also, there’s the requirements of the industry she works in, which affect our observations of her.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 11:21 am ¶
LTP wrote:
The article linked regarding her respone to the Friar’s club incident is really interesting. I’ve seen quite a few roasts and they’re rife with sexist, racist and incredibly vulgar humour - that’s part of their appeal (I’m not defending it, but rather explaining!).
This choice quote by Whoopi, I think, sums up her motivations. I’m not sure what to think, but I suppose that i can sort of see where the desire to go over the top came from… but not that it was an appropriate revenge:
“She said that she and Danson, who have been the subjects of much media speculation because they are often seen together, decided to play on some of the nasty letters and comments their relationship has elicited. “We’ve gotten a lot of hate mail. He’s been called a |nigger lover’ and people have said that if we had a kid they hoped he or she died. We decided to go over the top with it. If you think he’s a nigger lover, here he is in blackface. People took offense about it.”
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 11:28 am ¶
Gail wrote:
I fell in love with Whoopi when I first saw her stand-up act. She was brilliant. And then her movie career, with the strange vacillating between roles formed from real artistic vision and those based on commercially profitable stereotypes… Whoopi’s professional and personal choices reflect someone who lives according to her own desire rather than according to an ideology. An artist embraces humanity over ideology, and that is what makes Whoopi an artist, and someone I respect deeply.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 11:40 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Have you ever seen her early standup?
She deals with race in some of her stuff, such as the “wanting blonde hair as a child” routine that’s interesting.
I think Comic Relief (maybe II) was my real introduction to Whoopi Goldberg, and I’ve haven’t seen a lot of her problematic films.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 12:39 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
Agreed, great post! I have a soft spot in my heart for Whoopi. And I love the daily lecture she gives Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 12:41 pm ¶
Sasha wrote:
Yes! She is amazing and complicated–good article!
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 12:47 pm ¶
Eva wrote:
I love Whoopi, I remember her standup routine, I remember her on Comic Relief in the early 90’s. I like her because she walks to the beat of her own drummer.
I was a bit disturbed that you didn’t think white men and black women were supposed to hook up on movie screens. I’m nearly 49 years old and never thought that was bizzare when I first saw it on…Star Trek I believe.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 1:37 pm ¶
Asada wrote:
the minuet she shaved her eyebrows I know this was not an ordinary person I was dealing with. This is the reason she is one of my influences ( or at least, one of the handfull of ppl decades older than me who I feel okay for liking ). You cant put her in a box AND she is smart as hell.
Where does she get it from!!! where!!!!!
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 1:41 pm ¶
drispe wrote:
No, she didn’t hold a gun to Danson’s head. But she couldn’t have expected Blacks to find his stunt funny.
As for her film career, how many choices did a dark-skinned woman with locs, a broad nose and big lips have 15, 20 years ago? One decent flick followed by 2 embarrassments seems to be the right formula. Most of Halle Berry’s crowning achievements predate Monster’s Ball, but she was just named Esquire’s sexiest woman alive. Critical acclaim and an Oscar haven’t gotten her respectable parts either. Our societal climate has finally caught up with Whoopi, and she can rock a tomboyish fashion sense while arguing with Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Nobody was asking her to way back when, but how much do you want to bet that she’d have been labeled militant or problematic in some other fashion?
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 2:02 pm ¶
lizriz wrote:
Just to follow up on what Jess said, another Hollywood dynamic is that sometimes you hit a “do one for me, and I’ll do one for you” situation. For example, Sandra Bullock did “Speed 2″ and part of the deal was she got to do “Hope Floats.”
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 2:23 pm ¶
cdf wrote:
I finally got to see Jumpin’ Jack Flash in its entirety a few months ago (saw bits/pieces as youth). Same with The Color Purple…WHOOPI!!!
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 3:08 pm ¶
Atena wrote:
I have been disappointed by a number of Whoopi’s career moves, but at the end of the day, I’m okay with Whoopi.
I have always especially appreciated her ability to maintain a reasonably well-respected place in the spotlight without sexing up her image a whole lot, or straightening her hair. In a world of not-much-love for kinky-haired, dark-skinned girls, I really needed the Whoopi image to cling to as a young person, problematic as it may have been at times.
I won’t defend the blackface thing, though (though Danson is the dumbass who actually *did* it. That was not a smart decision to encourage or support.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 3:27 pm ¶
cinco wrote:
I’ve gone back and forth with trying to understand Whoopi. I’m often confused.
However, I appreciate her presence on the View because finally a female on the show has a backbone!
Her preference in dates is not my concern.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 3:38 pm ¶
Joseph wrote:
Huh. I hadn’t thought of Corinna Corinna that way. It has been a long time but I thought the point of her character was that she wasn’t a “mammy” but was stuck in that role because of the limited options available to her. Wasn’t she really a music critic? Am I remembering this all wrong?
I’m not disagreeing with your assessment at all–I just remembering having a different reaction to this performance. But maybe I just couldn’t see it at the time…
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 3:38 pm ¶
Renee wrote:
I think that what makes Whoopi great is that you cannot pin her down as one specific thing. In an age when so many are so conscious about keeping up with trends Whoopi is her own woman. Not many are able to be that comfortable in their own skin. No matter what mistakes she may make I will always lover her for playing Celie in my fav movie of all time.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 4:04 pm ¶
modest-goddess wrote:
I think that with her look she took what roles were offered to her. There just are not a lot of roles in Hollywood for dark brown women with natural hair. I feel that she has always been a strong confident woman but did what she had to do to stay employed in the industry.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 6:00 pm ¶
Witchsistah wrote:
Dammit, can we get off the whole interracial dating (especially in the cases of dating White men) as the litmus test of whether or not a sista is a “race woman?” I find it extremely sexist that a Black man can date, bed and marry a string of White women and still be considered a “race man” (ex. Frederick Douglas, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Sidney Poitier amongst many, many others), but if a sista dares step out with a White man (Goddess forbid actually date him seriously or marry him) we damn near need a blood sample to test her Blackness DNA! Either that or she’d better mea culpa like mad and spend the rest of her life coupled with nothing BUT the Blackest of Black men to get her Negro cred restored!
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 6:08 pm ¶
allheavens wrote:
I’m okay with Whoopi, her career and her life have been on point as far as I’m concerned. She is smart, not an idealogue, a true individual and she can see bullshit coming a mile away.
God knows life could not have been easy for a dark-skinned, dread wearing, big hipped tomboy in 80s and 90s Hollywood. So I have to give respect where respect is due.
Her standup was brilliant, her movie choices though uneven (see above paragraph) gave me two of my all-time beloved characterizations, Terry Dolittle in Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Celie Johnson in The Color Purple.
So keep on keeping on Whoopi.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 6:33 pm ¶
Jaye wrote:
I didn’t pay that much attention to Whoopi growing up…I saw her in Ghost when I was a kid, I remember her being on some game show. But I always thought it was weird that she was doing the kinds of films that were very silly and uninteresting, since to me she seemed to be so much MORE than that. The way she is now on The View is always who I thought she was…but I when I was younger I would wonder why she did those roles that didn’t seem like “her”, but I didn’t really follow her career arc or try to make sense of her roles. so I guess when I saw her on The View being who she is, it wasn’t a big surprise. It seemed very natural. It was who I always imagined she was.
I was an adult when I saw the Color Purple, and I remember being shocked by her, because in the film, she was so beautiful. She was really a very stereotypical idea of pretty, and I would look at her in real life and the way she would look very tomboy, and I was surprised at how she deliberately played down her looks. So she’s always been a very interesting person for me, but yeah, seeing her on The View, that’s who I imagined her to be even when I was confused about why she was playing these roles that in my mind, seemed beneath her.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 7:04 pm ¶
Kekla wrote:
I’m a huge fan of Whoopi, always have been, though I don’t always agree with her or even really get her. But that’s actually one of the things I like best about her. She’s doing her own thing, getting by the best that she can, and shaking up the establishment in the ways she chooses to. I don’t think she makes her career and relationship decisions based on any litmus test the black community might later try to hold her actions up to. That’s why she’s still revolutionary, even at the times when she doesn’t seem to be.
For the purposes of our own education and consciousness about race and gender, it’s useful to “deconstruct” her, but I, for one, wouldn’t want to judge her as a person based on how her life appears in this kind of analysis. To me, it just pushes us back toward believing that every successful black person needs to act in a particular way to advance “the race.” That’s too limiting for Whoopi, and too limiting for me.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 7:33 pm ¶
CVT wrote:
I enjoyed this article. The Whoopi phenomenon has always been a strange one for me, but I think I’m with drispe about the options she likely had back in the day. She could be a successful black actress in a time when there were none, the “one face” other dark women could look to when the media was decidedly lacking in them - while having to take on some less-than-stellar roles to keep alive. Or she could have been “that black woman in Jumping Jack Flash.” She chose the former - and now this post has been written about her decades later.
I think she made the right choice, overall.
Now, how about that post about Samuel L. Jackson and his role-choices . . ?
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 8:19 pm ¶
deb wrote:
Yeah! Even though it was Ted’s makeup malfunction it’s interesting how she appeared to take all the heat. Their relationship bit the dust after that.
I remember she dated Frank Langella for a while too. Whoopi gets the mens with her no- eyebrow-havin’ self.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 10:30 pm ¶
DJ wrote:
So happy to find someone who feels the way I do about the Whoopster. I tell have always been a Whoopi fan though there have been decisions she has made e that i would not have made. As far as some of her earlier work, i remember a interview she did back in the 80’s when she said after The Color Purple hollywood had no idea what to do with her so they tried to make her a female Eddie Murphy.
I think she is one of those people who’s years had to catch up with her inner self. While I might not follow her into the jaws of hell i would certanily follow her far enough where I could at least see the mouth.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 11:14 pm ¶
NancyP wrote:
I have to say that I have seen relatively few of her movies (Sister Act and The Color Purple). I’ve seen more of her in her bit pieces on Star Trek: TNG.
Posted 13 Oct 2008 at 11:46 pm ¶
Hilary wrote:
My first memory of Whoopi Goldberg is “Fontaine: Why Am I Straight?”, a brilliant stand up routine. Maybe I’m showing my age here, but there were great Reagan jokes in that show! I highly recommend checking it out. I am sure it sowed early liberal seeds in my head.
I have given everything she has done since then major leeway since that was such an intelligent show.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 7:44 am ¶
Shawna wrote:
My favorite Whoopi role was always teh bartender on Star Trek–wise, everyone and no one’s friend, mysterious and sly. I don’t know why, but she was always my favorite TNG character. I honestly never thought of her as black or not. She’s always seemed to transcend race to me and that’s part of what I found so appealing about her. I mean, she can stand for Blacks in America and the world, fight racial boxing, but never come across as “against” another racial group, which is where other intelligent and outspoken people (of color or not–and usually not) lose their appeal for me. She just seems like a smart human.
Very interesting article. I really enjoyed reading it.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 9:02 am ¶
aimerrouge wrote:
Looking at the comments, I am much older than many posting. Your collective (recent) memories of Whoopi are not that old. Whoopi was a “big deal” back then. As far as her roles she said (back then), I never audition for the role that asks for a Black woman, I audition for all roles that interest me, e.g. her role in the movie Ghost was not written for a Black woman. Whoopi killed the audition and got the part. As far as her dating habits, back then, it was not uncommon for Black people to publically criticize her appearance (too dark, nappy hair) and wonder why white men found her so attractive. It was very strange to me to hear Black people say they didn’t “want” her but then be upset Whoopi wasn’t involved with someone Black. Was she supposed to live her life with no companionship if Black men didn’t want her? Finally, the Friars Club, if you know anything about the history of the club, there was nothing unusual or inappropriate about Ted showing up in Blackface. Nothing is off-limits. It doesn’t make sense to everyone and everyone certainly won’t approve. But, its not supposed to, that’s why membership is limited. Ted’s Blackface Episode was due a papparazzi photo of him entering the club in Blackface. What I always thought he should of done was put on the makeup at the club. I also remember Montel Williams being so offended he left midperformance and subsequently telling everyone who would listen (how else would we have known he was there?). I’ve always wondered why Montel was even on the premises, he wasn’t a comic or an actor, just a talk show host.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 11:06 am ¶
Marge Twain wrote:
I love Whoopi and give her credit for great performances, whatever the script. Let’s remember that the most beautiful, popular white actors have some awful, even offensive movies under their belt (Kevin Klein in In and Out, Kate Hudson in lots of things)
Also, Whoopi made me want so badly to be a nun when I grew up. I was bummed when I found out you had to be Catholic.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 3:11 pm ¶
Anonymous wrote:
I have only been a semi-fan of Whoopi since she’s been on The View. And she hardly ever puts Elizabeth ” in her place” that role falls to Joy. Whoopi and Sherry are leery of really going after Elizabeth because they know that that could be the end of their gig. They go at her and then they stop short.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 3:58 pm ¶
M wrote:
“It’s like the Chinese. They have a different relationship to cats…. You and I would be really pissed if somebody ate kitty!”
WTF Whoopi?
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 6:58 pm ¶
Westerly wrote:
I’m not a fan of all of her work - I cringed through Corinna Corinna, but still adore Jumpin’ Jack Flash and appreciated her turn as Celie in TCP. I agree that her choices in Hollywood must have been severely constrained (they always are). But whatever the quality or merit of the work or the tone of the climate that she was working in (the 80’s were always trying to do heinous things with black comedians) she always seemed to be making her own choices and doing her own thing.
Whether or not I liked her choices she always came across as not just merely witty or clever but very, very, smart and comfortable in her own skin with her own set of politics. And I liked the way that she carried herself even as all kinds of people were willing to denigrate her and call her ugly, even as they couldn’t deny her talent.
I’ll always remember an episode of “The Simpsons” where Homer was at some kind of landfill (?) and ‘nude’ pictures’ of Whoopi Goldberg surfaced which ‘traumatised’ the white guy who discovered them and were consigned back to the tip, ‘never to see the light of day again’ ‘My-eyes! My eyes!’ *shudder* etc.
It was all very casual and fleeting of course and delivered in the voice of a cultural consensus, ranging from the arrogant, implicit notion that a male stranger wanting to see a nude woman is a subtle form of compliment, and that said stranger finding the very idea of her nudity distasteful or insulting (rather than alluring) then functions as the sole legitimate and bedrock standard of beauty: one that defines, strips away humanity and reduces a human being to the level of a joke (all in the name of entertainment of course. All of which amounted to:
“Whoopi Goldberg sure is one ugly black woman, and on that we can ALL agree.” *back-slap* *chortle*
Except not.
I’ve watched various people try to turn Whoopi into a symbol of ‘the unfeminine’, ‘the unattractive’ ‘the ghastly’ and the ‘too black’ etc.
And yet, through all of that I look at Whoopi
and I see an attractive, intelligent, intact human being at ease with herself and her place in the world. No weaves, no surgery, no skin lightening, no insane dieting, no desperate desire to win other people’s approval, no aspiration to be the generic pretty black girl.
Funnily enough, the only present-day American equivalent(s) I can think of, who have pervaded popular consciousness to a comparable extent are Venus and Serena who also have to do battle with some of this same sexist/racist/lookist nonsense. Yet I get the sense that the sisters (Venus in particular) tend to their own thing, live their own lives and like who they are.
Posted 14 Oct 2008 at 9:47 pm ¶
ms world wrote:
Witchsistah wrote:
Dammit, can we get off the whole interracial dating (especially in the cases of dating White men) as the litmus test of whether or not a sista is a “race woman?” I find it extremely sexist that a Black man can date, bed and marry a string of White women and still be considered a “race man” (ex. Frederick Douglas, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Sidney Poitier amongst many, many others),
FYI- Langston Hughes was gay, so I don’t think he was bedding white women (maybe white men though) but that’s a different conversation.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 6:32 am ¶
Princess wrote:
When I initially learned Whoopi would be joining The View, I thought this extremely talented, exceptional, brilliant, unique, and totally out-of the-box woman simply has some extra time on her hands. But now I see all that she is adds to the mix of women on the show. Their views may be different and sometimes there are disagreements, yet I don’t think Whoopi’s job is to go after Elisabeth. Also, I think Whoopi is one of the cast who is least worried about the gig ending if she had to take a stance on something she truly believes in. Whoopi has earned her credentials as veteran in the entertainment industry.
In my opinion, it’s her business who she dates and/or marries. Whoopi loves her daughter and grandchildren and gives back to the community. She has helped youth from her old neighborhood with college expenses.
In essence, Whoopi has exceeded expectations in spite of the challenges she has faced in her life. For this alone, from one WoC to another, I celebrate her.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:33 am ¶
Harry Allen wrote:
Two points, I’d like to raise:
1. It occurred to me, very early on, that, in the first part of her career, Caryn Johnson, aka Whoopi Goldberg, was the major Hollywood actress whose characters were most likely to be punched or hit by a male character in a film.
Indeed, I believe that, traditionally, this has been the case in media: That tolerance for the visual abuse of Black females is higher, generally, than the same for white females.
I haven’t proved this, or certainly concluded it. However, I hold that this is true in the case of Goldberg.
2. You may want to take a look at *Laughing Mad: The Black Comic Persona in Post-Soul America* http://www.amazon.com/Laughing-Mad-Persona-Post-Soul-America/dp/0813539854
The book contains an interesting analysis of Goldberg’s work and career, and also briefly discusses the Friar’s Club incident which, commentators noted at the time, pushed the war in Somalia off the front pages of New York and other newspapers at the time.
You can read some of that text on Google books, here:
http://tinyurl.com/4e7tvx
–HA
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 9:10 pm ¶
Laya wrote:
I don’t have a chance right now to read all of the comments, but does anyone else remember Whoopi’s short-lived sitcom? It may your missing link between her earlier movie roles and her current incarnation. It was honest, funny, and had a message without being preachy. It reminded me a lot of “Linc’s”, and just like that show, it was doomed from the start.
Posted 15 Oct 2008 at 11:35 pm ¶
steffafi wrote:
When i saw Sarafina as a young girl in the 90’s i fell in love with Whoopi’s role as the courageous teacher.
Whoopi is amazing, and her ability to change character types so easily is even more fascinating.
unfortunately we dont get the View in SA, but i’ve witnessed enough of her performance (from stand-up to her sitcom) to say that she is the ONE!
Posted 16 Oct 2008 at 7:26 am ¶
Ishtar wrote:
@ Steffafi
The View is now on SABC 3 at 11:15am weekdays (check the TV guides to confirm that).
@ Laya
I remember her sitcom and I loved it - it was sassy, witty and very Whoopi.
Posted 21 Oct 2008 at 7:25 am ¶
Katie wrote:
I haven’t thought about Whoopi a lot in terms of race - probably because I’m white. However, I have thought about her a lot in terms of gender presentation.
I didn’t get it - didn’t get her - in the same way you didn’t get her. “Wait, is that lady a lady?” That sort of thing.
I really love Whoopi for daring to be her own woman. She does what she wants - wears pants almost exclusively, for example - , but she is still a woman. In a time when I was convinced that I wasn’t a girl - that I wasn’t feminine enough to possibly be a girl - people like Whoopi reminded me that there are many ways in which to be a girl, a woman.
Posted 21 Oct 2008 at 12:46 pm ¶
Witchsistah wrote:
Thanks for the correction, ms world.
Posted 22 Oct 2008 at 12:45 am ¶
Yehudith wrote:
I remember a Caryn Johnson who briefly lived in St. Croix , Virgin islands, 1976, and hung out with a guy name Bird. She was a friend of David who I worked with. She also sang at my son’s eight day old party. She was from New York, she said she was going to Hollywood to become a singer and actress. The Caryn I knew looked just like Whoopie, same smile same hair same everything.
Posted 13 Nov 2008 at 3:47 pm ¶
Yehudith wrote:
I was wrong, the Caryn Johnson is not Ms. Goldberg. I am happy to have found out who’s who.
Posted 29 Apr 2009 at 10:52 am ¶