Sunny Hostin suggested that First Lady Jill Biden might have some “racial blindspots” after she said she’d like to invite both NCAA women’s basketball finalists to the White House following Louisiana State University’s victory over the University of Iowa.
During today’s episode of The View, the panel broke down Biden’s statements, which were met with backlash from LSU star player Angel Reese, who believes “if the roles were reversed” and LSU had lost, they would not be invited to the White House to celebrate.
However, Whoopi Goldberg was skeptical that Biden’s suggestion was a race issue.
“Maybe she doesn’t know — as her husband knows — that only the winning team gets to go,” Goldberg said. “Knowing her as I do, I don’t think she wanted the white kids to come and not the Black kids.”
She added, “I think it was more, ‘I’m a teacher and I’m trying to make nice with everybody. Everybody should win.'”
Meanwhile, Hostin said she believes it was merely “ignorance” on Biden’s part, before pointing out that “everyone doesn’t get a trophy and if the team lost,” then they “don’t get to go to the White House.”
“I don’t know that she knew it or not, but it was clearly a blindspot. She’s got a Black Vice President to lean on, she spent eight years with the Obamas,” Hostin said. “I think at this point, there still could be some racial blindspots and some unconscious bias.”
She continued, “I think that this player is saying what a lot of people are thinking. Had it been the Black team that lost, perhaps the First Lady wouldn’t have said that,” to which Goldberg fired back, “But you don’t know that. You’re making the same assumption.”
While Joy Behar agreed with “the idea of unconscious bias,” she didn’t think it could be applied in this case. She said, “[Biden’s] a big supporter of Black Lives Matter, she’s very much about getting the Black vote out, etc.”
The View airs on weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.