Three Days' Criticism Hasn't Made Whoopi Goldberg Change Her Mind On The Jay Z/Solange Story
Jay Z and Solange Knowles may already be waiting for the waves of the elevator story to settle down, but there are still plenty of people sounding off on it and keeping the drama alive. Case in point: Whoopi Goldberg, who stirred the pot on Tuesday by saying that any man has the right to hit a woman, if she hits first. Stepping on her soapbox on The View, Goldberg defended Jay Z by saying: “"I think Solange was quite ready for him to do whatever he was going to do. This is the thing: If anybody hits you, you have the right."
That was enough to get viewers slightly on edge, but Goldberg didn’t stop there. She continued: "I know that many people are raised in a different way – but if a woman hits you, to me, you have the right to hit her back."
When Barbara Walters specifically asked if she believes it was okay for a man to hit a woman, Goldberg replied: "If I slap a man, he has every right to slap me back."
Naturally, this prompted some online ire, but the actress/talk show host defended her statements later in the week.
"Hey, I know everyone is freaking out like I said that they would when I said if someone hits you, you have the right to hit them back. I didn't say Jay Z should have hit Solange," she said in a video, posted on her Facebook page Thursday. "I said if you hit a man that man has the right to hit you back. That's what I said."
So, does that count as standing up for equality? The original video from the New York Standard elevator clearly shows that Jay Z stepped back and didn’t respond to Solange Knowles’ attack, so what do Goldberg’s comments mean for that situation? The made it clear that she hadn’t misspoken and that she still stands by the controversial opinion: “I stand by that. If you hit anybody, they have the right to hit you back. This idea that men aren't supposed to hit women -- if you slap a man he has the right to slap you back. Now, not everyone is going to agree and I'm okay with that. But that's how I feel. That's why I don't slap anybody.”
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