Celebrating Black History Month: February 23

My Hero

Today I would like to honor and pay tribute to Whoopi Goldberg. Goldberg is best known as an academy award winning actress, talk show hostess, and political activist. I was first introduced to Goldberg and fell in love with her in her one woman show, Direct from Broadway, in 1985. (If anyone knows how to rent or own this video, let me know. It is not available on Netflix.) In this brilliant show, Goldberg takes on issues of abortion, race, gender, and class with such aplomb and wit one cannot help to be in awe. The next time I saw her she was Miss Celie in The Color Purple. I cried so hard when she was robbed of  the Academy Award for that role. Again I fell in love with her when she was perhaps the ONLY voice that came out against George W., when even journalists were too fearful to question the president, in her NBC show Whoopi. In this show, Goldberg again tackles issues of race, gender, discrimination, and marriage equality. Enjoy the clip here.  I was quite sad when they cancelled her show, but not surprised. Americans don’t seem to want to hear the truth. More recently, I applauded her integrity in not engaging with the racist bully, Bill O’Reilly, on the View. In Whoopi Goldberg we see and hear a voice that has spent the better part of her life working toward social justice.