Video: Whoopi Goldberg Burns Ben Carson’s ‘Immigrants’ on ‘Slave Ships’ Comments

During a speech on Monday, the Trump administration’s secretary of housing and urban development declared, “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less,” adding, “They too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”

“Were the slaves really thinking about the American dream?” Goldberg asked, incredulously on The View Tuesday morning, live from Walt Disney World. “No, because they were thinking, ‘What the hell just happened?!’” Immigrants, she explained to Carson, travel somewhere in search of a “better life.”

As Joy Behar added, “And it’s usually voluntary.” She also noted that Carson must not think slavery was all that bad because he also once compared it to Obamacare.

“I’m making jokes about it because I can’t believe—” Goldberg said, unable to finish the sentence. “I mean, am I crazy?"

“I’m making jokes about it because I can’t believe—” Goldberg said, unable to finish the sentence. “I mean, am I crazy?”

For his past, Carson issued a statement clarifying his comments Monday evening. “The slave narrative and immigrant narrative are two entirely different experiences,” he wrote. “The two experiences should never be intertwined, nor forgotten, as we demand the necessary progress towards an America that's inclusive and provides access to equal opportunity for all.”

Meanwhile, co-host Jedediah Bila defended Carson as a “nice, good-hearted guy” who “does care very deeply about the plight of people suffering in this country” and Sunny Hostin praised him for hosting a dinner for African-American residents at Johns Hopkins hospital.

“I have black friends, too!” Goldberg said in response to that. “How does he miss what slavery is?! How does he miss that no slave came to this country willingly?” She suggested Carson watch the miniseries Roots in order to obtain a base-level understanding of what happened in the slave trade.

Goldberg is just the latest African-American celebrity to denounced Carson’s comments. Previously, actor Samuel L. Jackson tweeted, “OK!! Ben Carson....I can't! Immigrants ? In the bottom of SLAVE SHIPS??!! MUTHAFUKKA PLEASE!!! #dickheadedtom.”

Filmmaker Ava Duvernay wrote: “Their dream? Not be kidnapped, tortured, raped, forced to mate, work for another's gain, torn from family + culture.”

And the NAACP went with a more concise response: