Whoopi Goldberg on Viola Davis' 2015 Emmy Speech: "There's Been Plenty of Opportunity"

Actress and The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg doesn't understand why actress Viola Davis thinks there's little opportunity for women of color in Hollywood. 

When Davis became the first African-American woman to accept an Emmy for best lead actress in a drama in September for her role in How to Get Away with Murder, she asserted in a powerful speech that "the only thing separating women of color from anybody else is opportunity." The speech was received with admiration by many, but Goldberg told BET in an interview on Sunday that she doesn't necessarily agree with Viola's statements.

"The truth of the matter is, is that there's been plenty of opportunity," Goldberg told BET, highlighting the television show Scandal, for which African-American actress Kerry Washington was nominated for best lead actress in 2014. 

"So maybe the question is, what do you have to do to get voted on?" Goldberg added, referring to actually winning an Emmy award. 

Goldberg may have thought Davis' message referred to African-American women's opportunity to win an Emmy rather than their opportunity to get casted in Hollywood. Either way, she does not endorse the speech.

This comes after Raven Symone, Goldberg's co-host on The View, stunned Goldberg when she confessed on Monday's show that she wouldn't hire someone with a "ghetto black name." The hosts were discussing a study's findings that Americans make racist assumptions based on names.

"I am very discriminatory against words like the ones they were saying in those names," Symone said. "I'm not about to hire you if your name is Watermelondrea. It's just not going to happen. I'm not going to hire you." Goldberg's jaw dropped.