I have been thinking about the Whoopi Goldberg and the Joe Colon, I mean Rogan comments. What do the recent events around these two high profile personalities have in common? Everything and nothing.
When you get to the heart of the Whoopi Goldberg controversy, it’s that she indirectly challenged the notion that Jews are a race. Judaism is a religion that people of different colors around the world practice. There is nothing racial about being a Jew which MANY in America and the world do NOT know.
Much of the push back I have read from her comments are both directly and indirectly trying to make it appear as if Jews do make up a racial group.
Here is some sleight of the keyboard from Jonathan Greenblatt, of the Anti-Defamation League. Note what he implies. “No @WhoopiGoldberg, the #Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.” If he wanted to mention race he should have stated, “who they incorrectly deemed to be a race.” It’s a FACT, Judaism is a religion and not a race.
Whoopi was suspended from appearing on the show for a few weeks so she could “think about her statements,” I believe is how it was worded. She gave what seemed to be a heartfelt apology. She would likely have been booted off The View had she not done so.
Mr. Colon on the other hand. Sorry I can’t seem to get his name right because he spews so much racist $#!t, Mr. Rogan has used the word “Niggah” like it makes his teeth cleaner as Paul Mooney would say. For this he gave a clearly disingenuous, half assed apology stating it was taken out of context all those times. He should understand that no matter the context many Black people don’t even like it when other Black people use it so flippantly in public or private.
He did not however apologize for equating Black people with apes (his Planet of the Apes movie reference), and he did not apologize for stating “Unless you are talking to someone who is like 100% African from the darkest place where they are not wearing any clothes all day … the term Black is weird.”
No Mr. Colon (dang I did it again), Mr. Rogan, what’s weird is your sideways racism. Finally, unlike Ms. Goldberg, he suffered no consequences. Spotify has essentially said this repeated long term behavior is fine with them and we know it’s because Mr. Colon makes them so much money.
It’s also telling that he had a history of racist statements that went unnoticed and or unchallenged by most until inaccurate statements about covid put him in the spotlight.
On a side note, the small group of friends that make up the staff the Wakanda Sun have removed Spotify from our phones. We hope Black people, people of color, and anyone else who is against racism and objectification of people do so as well.
