The women of "The View" got into it Tuesday over Ben Carson's controversial remarks about slavery.
While speaking to the Department of Housing and Urban Development on Monday, the new HUD Secretary made headlines for saying, "There were other immigrants who came here on the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less."
"Maybe we need to get him a history book," a shocked Whoopi Goldberg said. "Were the slaves really thinking about the American dream? No, they were thinking, 'What the hell just happened?!'"
"Slavery ... I'm making jokes about it because I can't believe ... am I crazy?" she said.
Conservative panelist Jedediah Bila stood up for Carson, saying he's a "really nice guy, a good-hearted guy," but admitted he "needs to think before he speaks."
"When you have moments like this, but the time you get the chance to make the correction, you've insulted people, you've hurt people, you've lost people and it's really really unfortunate," she added.
Co-panelist Sunny Hostin also tried to defend Carson, who mentored her husband at Johns Hopkins.
"I can tell you he feels very deeply about the African American community," she said. "He held dinner for the African American residents at Johns Hopkins hospital every single year and we looked forward to it because ..."
"I have black friends too!" Goldberg interrupted.
"Don't we all have that friend, they mean well and they say things and you go, 'Ohhh," Hostin continued. "That's who he is though. That's just Ben, he's one of those smart people that is extremely socially awkward. I would be more concerned if I didn't know him well."
"How does he miss what slavery is? How does he miss that no slave came to this country willingly? How does this get missed by this wonderful man?" a passionate Whoopi interjected. "I'm sorry, Ben, 'Roots.' Watch 'Roots.'"
Goldberg expressed a similar sentiment on Twitter yesterday. See hers and more celebrity reactions to Carson's speech below.
Ben Carson..please read or watch Roots, most immigrants come here VOLUNTARILY,cant't really say the same about the slaves..they were stolen
@WhoopiGoldberg
OK!! Ben Carson....I can't! Immigrants ? In the bottom of SLAVE SHIPS??!! MUTHAFUKKA PLEASE!!!#dickheadedtom
@SamuelLJackson
Ben, let's be straight. I'm guessing most Africans crossing the middle passage dreamt that everyone on that ship not in chains dropped dead.
@jfreewright
Don't care what he once did. I wouldn't trust Ben Carson to operate on a crawfish head. "Get out the kitchen, Ben. Step back from the pot."
@jfreewright
Ben Carson waxes poetic on the 'dreams' of slaves forced here. Revisiting history one insane, casually pompous denigration at a time. https://t.co/sheg9L0NIL
@DavidKHarbour
Yeh. He's an absolute sleepy idiot. @SecretaryCarson https://t.co/CNZxETM7bx
@WillChaseMe
So...Ben Carson called slaves "immigrants"..."working for less"...um...he clearly has great drugs.and uses them. Lots.
@antonystarr
"I apologize for referring to slaves as 'immigrants.' I meant to say 'interns.'" -- Ben Carson, tomorrow
@pattonoswalt
Did Carson start out as a self-hating coon, or did he develop his "coonery" over time? #QuestionsThatKeepMeAwake # https://t.co/N1Tgys6i25 https://t.co/rOqWTb4Q0R
@StarJonesEsq
Ben Carson is a MFn Idiot...
@FINALLEVEL
