Whoopi Goldberg educated her 'View' co-panelists about why black voter suppression matters

Whoopi Goldberg spoke with passion on Friday's installment of The View about the issue of voter suppression, The Root reported. 

During the discussion, some of Goldberg's co-hosts attempted a comparison between the black struggle to vote and women's struggle to vote, which prompted a fiery speech from Goldberg. 

"Black people vote because we earned the right to vote," she said. "We had to take tests and figure out philosophical discussions in order to get the right to vote. We worked really hard to get this vote, to become citizens like everybody else." 

Goldberg is referencing the many challenges that black voters faced before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, including literacy tests and grandfather clauses. But, as she points out, voter suppression is still a major problem in the United States. 

Goldberg draws a larger distinction between black Americans and women, namely the history of slavery. 

"Women were not thought of as a desk or chattel. We were chattel," Goldberg said. She continued: "We weren't considered to be human. So us getting the right to vote after dogs attacked us, after people were killed, hung, blown up. ... Voting is real. This is not a game." 

Goldberg began to tear up as she talked about her grandmother's recollections of the Jim Crow era of segregation. 

"I just think back to all the stuff my grandmother talked about, and it just enrages me, you know,  that people are being talked about this way, like they didn't earn this right to vote," Goldberg said. 

The women of The View's comparison between women's rights and black American's rights is a common fallacy. In fact, many early suffragettes made some extremely racist comments comparing the plight of the white woman and the black man. Heck, a 2008 episode of 30 Rock even had main characters Jenna and Tracy fighting over whether black men or white women had it harder in modern America. 

Of course, when discussing whether women have it worse for dealing with sexism or black people have it worse for dealing with racism, it's important to remember that black women deal with both — it's called misogynoir.