Whoopi Goldberg apologized for allegedly using an offensive slur for Romani people, commonly known as gypsies, on Wednesday’s episode of “The View.”
Goldberg used the term “gypped”—a slur for the Romani—to refer to former President Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The panel discussed Trump’s potential indictments related to allegedly bribing porn star Stormy Daniels to remain silent about their reported affair before the 2016 presidential election.
“The people who still believe that he [Trump] got gypped somehow in the election will still believe that he cared enough about his wife to pay … that money from his personal thing,” Goldberg said.
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Goldberg issued an apology for using the term.
A message from Whoopi Goldberg regarding today’s episode of #TheView. pic.twitter.com/PIvwYRWMsy
— The View (@TheView) March 15, 2023
“When you’re a certain age, you use words that you know from when you were a kid or you remember saying and that’s what I did today,” Goldberg said after the episode. “And I shouldn’t have. I should’ve thought about it a little longer before I said it, but I didn’t, and I should’ve said cheated, but I used another word and I’m really, really sorry.” (RELATED: Joy Behar Apologizes On-Air For Calling Religious Org Associated With Amy Coney Barrett A ‘Hate Group’)
Some believe that the term “gypsy” carries a negative connotation for the Romani people because it reportedly perpetuates the stereotype that they are “sneaky thieves.”
Goldberg came under fire in January 2022 for claiming the Holocaust “isn’t about race,” and later told late night host Stephen Colbert that the Nazis discriminated on the basis of ethnicity rather than race.
The Nazis, however, classified the Jewish people as a race. The Auschwitz Memorial tweeted historical documentation of Nazis identifying those with four German grandparents as “racially pure” and individuals with Jewish heritage as either Jews or “mixed-blooded.”