Updated as of 9/22/2022 at 12:15 p.m. ET
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The View co-host Sunny Hostin stirred up a heated conversation after calling out former Trump official Nikki Haley for shortening her name, claiming she was attempting to hide her heritage, per The Daily Beast. Then, Twitter dragged Whoopi Goldberg into the drama when she tried to shut down the debate.
“I’m just going to kill this conversation. I am authentically myself. I am Whoopi Goldberg and we’ll be right back,” the co-host said at the end of the segment. And in came Twitter and the radical right with their nonsense.
For context, show host Alyssa Farah Griffin suggested Republicans should give up on Trump already and support other conservatives like Haley and Rep. Liz Cheney. Hostin then took a jab at the two. “Nikki Haley the chameleon and Liz Cheney the savior,” Hostin said. “There are some of us who can be chameleons and decide not to embrace our ethnicity so that we can pass.” Griffin then stepped in to try and defend Haley but the two continued to go back and forth.
More on The View’s segment from The National Review:
Continuing to hammer the former governor, Hostin then called on Haley to “lean into” being a woman of color. Co-host Sara Haines interjected at that point, focusing the discussion back on the list of potential GOP presidential candidates.
“Sunny, I don’t think that’s fair, you go by a different name,” [co-host Sara Haines] exclaimed.
“That’s because most Americans can’t pronounce Asunción because of the undereducation in our culture,” Hostin replied, defending her personal use of a nickname.
“Nikki is her legal middle name - Nimrata Nikki Haley. Meanwhile, Sunny Hostin (Asunción Cummings Hostin) and Whoopi Goldberg (Caryn Elaine Johnson) don’t use their legal names,” tweeted one reporter in response to Whoopi stepping in for the commercial break.
Other users shared the same sentiments, including Haley herself.
“Thanks for your concern @Sunny. It’s racist of you to judge my name. Nikki is an Indian name and is on my birth certificate—and I’m proud of that. What’s sad is the left’s hypocrisy towards conservative minorities. By the way, last I checked Sunny isn’t your birth name…” she tweeted.
The comment may not have been so much racist as it was hypocritical but Haley made a point. Whether she shortened Nimrata Nikki to just “Nikki” to fit the face of the conservative crowd is her business. Us melanated women do that often. Some of our names given to us at birth were intentional to help us conform to society’s standards and mask our race on paper.
To take power back into our own hands, some of us change our names. Like Whoopi did. She told Reuters her family game from religions she didn’t subscribe to. So, she combined the last name of her Jewish ancestor and a pun about her being “gaseous” and created Whoopi Goldberg.
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