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Whoopi Goldberg and her co-hosts on “The View” tackled the racially fuelled attacks that have been hurled at HBO’s “House of the Dragon” and Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, with racist complaints about people of colour portraying silver-haired Targaryens in the former and elves, hobbits and other denizens of Middle Earth in the latter.
On Tuesday’s edition of “The View”, Goldberg explained why the arguments of those attacking the shows’ diversity simply don’t hold up to logic, explaining that both shows “are not real,” and “there are no dragons, there are no hobbits.”
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“Are you telling me Black people can’t be fake people, too?” she asked. “I don’t know if there’s, like, a hobbit club, I don’t know if there are gonna be protests. But people: What is wrong with y’all?”
CRITICS SLAM CASTING IN ‘LORD OF THE RINGS,’ ‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON’: #TheView co-hosts react to criticism of the #TheRingsOfPower and #HouseoftheDragon series casting diverse characters. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/4XrGBJQspt
— The View (@TheView) September 6, 2022
“What I think is fascinating is like, dragons are okay, fire-breathing dragons, and people with white hair that are born like that when they’re little, and violet eyes, but the Black people in it is just a bridge too far for these folks,” added Sunny Hostin.
“It’s just racist. Call it what it is,” declared Joy Behar.
Goldberg compared the furor to what she’s expecting when Disney’s new live-action “The Little Mermaid” is released, with Halle Bailey — who is Black — starring as mermaid Ariel.
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“Y’all are gonna lose your minds when you see the new Ariel. ‘Cause you know … there are many communities of mermaids of various colours,” Goldberg said. “And when I say ‘of various colours,’ I’m not playing. There are violet mermaids, there are pink mermaids, there are Black mermaids, there are Latina mermaids, there are mermaids of every ilk. And you know why there can be? Because it’s the world that we would like to see better.”
She concluded by circling back to the fantasy shows, with a message directed at those criticizing the show.
“All of y’all who have problems because there are Black hobbits? Get a job!” she said. “Get a job! Go find yourself, because you are focused on the wrong stuff.”