The panelists on “The View” weighed in on the debate surrounding the Confederate flag in South Carolina Monday, with co-host Whoopi Goldberg saying, “We have been having this conversation a long time and … the only other argument you can make against having this flag be as spectacularly shown as it is around the South is the Nazis.
“It would be like having the swastika flag flying on your next-door neighbor.”
Co-host Rosie Perez observed, “I still do not understand the pride behind the Confederate flag. It was a response to slavery. They wanted to separate themselves from the United States because they didn’t want to lose their cotton pickers. They didn’t want to lose their slaves. Period.”
Debate surrounding the flag, which flies over South Carolina’s capitol building, was renewed in the wake of the shooting that left nine people dead at a historically back Charleston church.
“How come [Presidential candidates] are scared to talk about race?” co-host Raven-Symoné asked. “You’re supposed to be the future president of the United States — you should not be scared to tackle these issues that your public is going through.”
“In my humble opinion I think that the reason why they’re afraid to talk about race is they’re going to alienate the races who are going to be potential voters,” Perez said.
“My god, listen, this debate has been going on for a while,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. “There was a TV show where the car had the confederate flag on there,” she said, referencing the 1970’s series “The Dukes of Hazzard.
“If it continues to fly, the statement that’s being made … is that ‘We miss this really crappy part of history,’ and that is where the conversation has to begin.”