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Whoopi Goldberg says Bieber can use N-word because it ‘doesn’t mean anything in Canada’

Whoopi Goldberg says Bieber can use N-word because it ‘doesn’t mean anything in Canada’

Talk show co-host Whoopi Goldberg offered an odd summary of Canada in recent days when she suggested it was defensible that Justin Bieber used a racist word because he's Canadian and therefore somehow unaware of the plight of black people.

The View co-host suggested, much to the bemusement of her colleagues, that the n-word did not hold the same context in Canada as it does in America.

"Canadians words - I'm going to say the word so get ready to bleep me. N--- doesn't mean anything in Canada," she during a recent episode. "Black Canadians and black Americans are two separate groups of people."

Goldberg says she knows this because she filmed a movie in Canada last year.

The comment was an odd twist that comes after the recent release of a video capturing a 15-year-old Bieber using the n-word in a joke. Bieber, a Canadian, issued a heartfelt apology and said he has learned better in the years since the video was shot.

A second video has since been released in which Bieber uses the n-word as part of an offensive song.

Before the release of the second video, Goldberg said during a taping of The View that Bieber shouldn't be vilified for using the n-word because, as a Canadian, he didn't know better.

Goldberg continued to dig herself a hole through the segment, which aired on Monday. But her point was that the word didn’t hold the same power in Canada as it did in the U.S., where slavery was an issue and racism remains a prevalent and charged topic.

Unfortunately, and not just for Goldberg, racism doesn't stop at the U.S. border. It happens today and it is part of our history.

In the late 1800s, when American slaves were being smuggled to safety on the Underground Railroad, many found their way to Canada. Their families surely still feel the sting of the word.

The Ku Klux Klan became active in Canada as early as 1921 and had established a national presence by 1925, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia.

And in more modern times, Canadians have faced many of the same issues as Americans: the presence of neo-Nazis, white-power protests, confusion and controversy around race-based microaggression.

It is important to note that Goldberg is a talk show host and basically in the business of making controversial statements (like the time she said there was a difference between rape and "rape-rape.").

Indeed, if you watch the segment, Goldberg worked exceptionally hard to direct the conversation in the direction of Canada.

But her suggestion that the n-word is defensible when it comes from the mouth of a Canadian is reminiscent of another racially-charged Canadian standoff.

Last year, a Hamilton, Ont., barbecue restaurant called Hillbilly Heaven added the Confederate flag to its sign and hung the totem of racial segregation throughout its interior.

The argument was that, whatever it meant in the U.S., it didn't necessarily mean that here. Plus, the controversy brought the restaurant a great deal of business.

Should it worry Whoopi that her position on Canadians using the n-word sounds an awful lot like an entrepreneurial provocateur's reason for embracing the Confederate flag? It probably should.

But then again, that's just a Canadian talking.

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