Whoopi Goldberg defends Obama cartoon that included ‘watermelon’ joke
theGRIO REPORT - An editorial cartoon that was supposed to mock a White House security breach ended up just rehashing an age-old stereotype. And Whoopi Goldberg said she thinks it was all an innocent mistake...
An editorial cartoon that was supposed to mock a White House security breach ended up just rehashing an age-old stereotype.
And Whoopi Goldberg said she thinks it was all an innocent mistake.
The cartoon, published earlier this week in the Boston Herald, showed the White House intruder washing up in President Barack Obama’s bathtub and a joke caption of: “Have you tried the new watermelon flavored toothpaste?”
The artist of the cartoon said he had no intention of making a racial link between watermelon and the country’s first black president.
Whoop told her co-hosts on ABC’s The View she agrees with him. Not only that, she uses the watermelon flavored toothpaste described in the cartoon.
“We understand [the joke’s sensitivity] because we live with it,” Goldberg said on Thursday’s show. “But if it’s not something that’s in your consciousness that your parents haven’t explained to you that this has happened, no you’re not thinking about it.”
Rosie Perez wasn’t buying it.
She told Goldberg the cartoon looks “mad suspicious.”
The Herald offered an apology of sorts Wednesday:
Contributors to our Editorial and Opinion pages have the right to express their views, and satire is clearly used in Jerry Holbert’s cartoon today. That said, we sincerely regret if we inadvertently offended anyone and extend our sincere apologies.
“I don’t believe he did it on purpose because I don’t think he was thinking about it,” Goldberg concluded.
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