Whoopi Goldberg had a sharp history lesson for 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on this morning’s episode of The View. Haley — who stepped in controversy last month when she failed to name slavery as the cause of the Civil War — dug herself into a deeper hole when she flat-out denied America’s racist roots in a recent interview.

“We’re not a racist country … we’ve never been a racist country,” Haley said during a Fox News interview on Tuesday (Jan. 16), per CNN.

Her words did not sit well with Goldberg, who delivered an impassioned response to Haley’s remarks at the top of Wednesday’s show.

“I don’t understand why it’s still so difficult to just admit racism is and has been part of U.S. History,” Goldberg said. “When you think back, 1849, 1869, they lynched 20, 30 Italians because they were Italian.”

She was likely referring to mass 1891 lynching of Italian immigrants in New Orleans.

Goldberg continued, “They lynched Black folks. Black folks didn’t climb up into the trees and lynch themselves, you know? People were angry and came and burned them out.”

Invoking one of the most powerful moments of the civil rights movement, Goldberg told the panel, “Emmett Till did not do that to himself. That was done to him because somebody was angry because he overstepped, in their mind, what he was supposed to do as Black person.”

She added, “So you can’t tell me it hasn’t existed, doesn’t exist. Yeah, we are trying to get it better, but stop trying to whitewash, because every time they say, ‘We’re going to take away Black history, we’re going to take away women’s history,’ what do you think that says?”

Haley has felt the ire of The View in recent weeks as the 2024 presidential race begins to heat up. The former South Carolina governor, who is challenging one-term POTUS Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, was condemned by the Hot Topics table for her Civil War remarks and subsequent apology.

After Haley tried to defend herself by claiming she grew up with Black friends, she was dragged by Sunny Hostin on The View‘s Jan. 5 episode when Hostin remarked, “Non-Black people, when you are trying to convince someone that you are not racist, do not say, ‘I have Black friends.’ Ever.”

Hostin later accused Haley of “tokenism to the extreme,” adding, “And the fact that you are trying to convince me that you have Black friends just tells me that you don’t, OK? And it’s insulting.”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC.