<\/p>\n
The View<\/a><\/em>\u2018s cohosts had to take a beat to laugh out loud after one audience member spoke out about the first \u201cHot Topic\u201d presentation of the day.<\/p>\n Monday\u2019s (January 19) show featured the panelists \u2014 namely, Whoopi Goldberg<\/a>, Sara Haines<\/a>, Ana Navarro<\/a>, Sunny Hostin<\/a>, and Alyssa Farah Griffin<\/a> \u2014 celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a> Day with guests like Rep. Jim Clyburn, legendary actor Pam Grier<\/a>, and Black-owned business owners leading up the day\u2019s \u201cView Your Deal\u201d segment.<\/p>\n However, the true star of the show was someone viewers\u00a0couldn\u2019t<\/em> see, but could only hear.<\/p>\n Goldberg introduced the first \u201cHot Topic,\u201d which was Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s comments<\/a> on how white people were \u201cvery badly treated\u201d amid the Civil Rights movement, as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission\u2019s suggestion<\/a> that white men could possibly receive reparations as a result.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got jokes!\u201d the audience member then shouted, leaving Goldberg and the rest of the panel in stitches for several seconds before they could recover.<\/p>\n From there, the cohosts discussed the matter more seriously, with Goldberg pointing out some of the inequities that existed during the Civil Rights Movement, including the fact that her own mother couldn\u2019t get her own bank account.<\/p>\n \u201cEquality feels much like oppression when you have always had the privilege of being ahead even if you were mediocre,\u201d Hostin then offered. \u201cI think that\u2019s what we\u2019re talking about here. White men as of 2023 were 76% of the workforce and in all sorts of top positions, where People of Color and women were not. So what we\u2019re learning, I think, from this interview is that this administration kept on talking about a meritocracy and that things should be merit-based, and they felt that it never was. Now we really know that this attack against diversity, equity, and inclusion is based on white male grievance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnyone that is personally offended by the Civil Rights movement might be a racist,\u201d Haines added. \u201cThere could be debates on other things, but the Civil Rights movement itself was \u2026 if you have a problem with the Civil Rights movement\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re telling on yourself,\u201d Griffin agreed, finishing her sentence.<\/p>\n