"The View" host Whoopi Goldberg recently sparred with actress Stacey Dash after the former "Clueless" star offered her unpopular opinion regarding the #OscarsSoWhite controversy Wednesday.
During an appearance on Fox News' "Fox & Friends", Dash, 49, commented on the outrage over the lack of black nominees for Academy Awards for the second year in a row, arguing that people need to make up their minds between segregation and integration.
"If we don't want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the (NAACP) Image Awards, where you're only rewarded if you're black," she said. "If it were the other way around, we would be up in arms. It's a double standard."
During Thursday's segment of "The View," Goldberg criticized Dash's comments but suggested that outrage over the lack of diversity seen at the Academy Awards may be misguided.
"The issue is not the Academy," Goldberg, 60, said. "Even if you fill the Academy with black and Latino and Asian members, if there's no one on the screen to vote for, you're not going to get the outcome that you want."
She used her own Oscar win as an example. "I won once," recalled Goldberg, who received the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1991 for her role in Ghost. "So it can't be that racist."
However, the comedian went on to explain why networks and initiatives focusing on black people are so important, after one of her co-hosts asked, "Is [Black History Month] subconsciously, whether we realize it or not, creating a divide amongst us, and pitting one group against the next?"
After asking her co-host what she knows about black history besides slavery, Goldberg said, "[Black history] is not taught. Asian history is not taught in school as it pertains to America. American history holds all of us, and [Dash] is right in that, yes we are all Americans, but we're not all treated like Americans. One of the reasons that there is a BET is because networks wouldn't take a lot of shows that has an all black cast."
Despite such backlash, Dash, who comes from an African-American and Latino background, has refused to renege her comments, referring to the outrage against the Oscars "ludicrous" in a follow-up blog post titled "How BET Lies to Black People".
In the blog post published Thursday, Dash first criticized BET's low ratings: "Well, here's the thing. Thank you for reminding me, since most people have never heard of that show," she wrote. "Why? It's on BET. Quick. Name the top shows on BET. Drawing a blank? I think I've made my point."
After expressing her gratitude for the many acting jobs she's been given -- including a role on BET -- she reiterated, "I look forward to the day when people don't self-segregate based on skin color, while loudly complaining about a segregated society."
The "Clueless" actress then criticized Stephen Hill, a BET executive, for his comments declaring that the Oscar nominees should reflect the percentages of moviegoers from all ethnicities.
"Oscars are awarded to the actors and actresses who excel ... not the audience," Dash wrote in response. "BET lies to American black people by telling them that the rest of America is racist, so stick close to your own kind. Anything that promotes segregation is bad! And they're absolutely mortified that someone like me - an independent-thinking black woman - dares call their bluff."
