Whoopi Goldberg Puts Clarence Thomas on Blast on ‘The View’: “You’re Full of It”

Whoopi Goldberg came after Justice Clarence Thomas this morning during a heated segment about affirmative action on The View. The Hot Topics table got fiery after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday to block affirmative action at Harvard and University of North Carolina. (Editor’s Note: This episode is a repeat that originally aired on June 29, 2023.)

Goldberg got emotional over the decision, which marks a victory for conservative activists but was ripped by liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose dissent accused the court of “further entrenching racial inequality in education,” per The Hill.

Thomas, who has long battled affirmative action, got the brunt of the criticism on The View. Goldberg ripped the conservative justice for his opinion, and called back Thomas’ 2022 comments in which he said he no “clue” what diversity means.

“He doesn’t know what diversity is, that’s what he said,” Goldberg said. “He doesn’t get it. Well, let me pose this question to you, Justice Thomas: Could your mother and father vote in this country?

“Because, had the 14th Amendment actually had us on equal footing, they would have been able to vote. And you know why that changed? Because people got out and made it change. If we didn’t have to, no one would do it,” she continued. “Who wants to get hit by water from a water hose? Nobody! But that’s what people did in order to get the vote.”

Continuing to passionately address Thomas, Goldberg added, “So when you say you don’t know what diversity is, I say, you’re full of it.”

Sunny Hostin agreed with her co-host, telling the panel, “It’s been harder for us, and I’m sorry, people may not agree with that. My father always taught me you had to work twice as hard to get half as far in this country, and that remains true.”

But Goldberg wasn’t done with Thomas. She brought the justice’s remarks up once more when she accused him of making minority students feel lesser than, saying, “When you have a Justice who says something as ridiculous as ‘I don’t get it,’ it just makes an Asian kid, a Native American kid, a Black kid feel like you don’t matter, like you don’t understand why my struggle is hard.”

She then asked, “Is this leading to no women in colleges soon?”

Thomas was one of the six-member majority to vote that affirmative action programs at UNC and Harvard violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^th Amendment, per The Hill. While reading his opinion Thursday, he argued previous decisions upholding affirmative action discriminated against university applicants, stating that the Constitution is “color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Watch this morning’s segment on affirmative action in the video above.