Source: Paul Bruinooge / Getty
Whoopi Goldberg recently missed The View‘s Season 27 premiere after contracting COVID-19, but now she’s back and she’s got some new jewelry.
On Monday’s episode, Goldberg wore a necklace with a folding chair pendant to commemorate last month’s brawl in Montgomery, Alabama, where a group of white people jumped a Black boat captain and got the Sonic coins beat out of them by surrounding Black people as a result.
“I have to lead this off by saying we do not condone violence on this show,” Goldberg said Monday. “But there was a story that happened last month in Montgomery, Ala. where a riverboat captain [with] 227 passengers was trying to dock his boat in the spot he’s supposed to be in, so the co-captain, who happened to be Black, went to confront this pontoon boat that was in the way. So a fight ensued and something happened that we have not seen.”
Now, obviously, Goldberg is tardy to the party on this one because Black people spent a good week or two in early August turning the viral event into an iconic moment in contemporary Black history by sharing memes, posts and parody videos related to the anti-Caucasity smackdown heard across America. But Goldberg and her fellow moderators at The View, Sunny Hostin, Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, and Alyssa Farah Griffin, still had a grand old time rehashing the moment that damn near had Black people officially renaming the Black National Anthem “Lift Every Chair And Swing.”
The co-hosts also shouted out Reggie Ray, the Black man who wielded the iconic (or infamous, depending on who you ask) folding chair that became somewhat of a symbol representing the cathartic moment for Black people who are sick and tired of white nonsense.
From Entertainment Weekly:
“The memes were off the hook. I am wearing a folding chair,” Goldberg added, holding up her necklace.
Though some folks have called the folding chair a “lethal weapon,” Hostin noted that she’d “rather have the folding chair than a gun,” adding, “That’s why no one died during this brawl.” Plus, she noted, Ray was the only one who wasn’t charged with assault but disorderly conduct, as his actions were considered defense of himself and others. Four of the white boaters have since been hit with misdemeanor assault charges and have pleaded not guilty.
The moderators shared some memes of the folding chair after, then Goldberg offered the following sentiment: “What we all take away from this is, if we don’t want to be hit, we do not hit other people. When somebody is doing their job, let them do their job. We’re making light of this,” she added, “but the truth of the matter is it didn’t go south because there were no guns. So let’s not do that again.”
And there it is: Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’. It’s that simple.
Relive the hilarious memes from the Montgomery brawl below:
