I'm Gonna Stake My Claim, I'll Guess I'll Change My Name

The annual winter solstitial holiday that must not be named is rapidly approaching, which means it’s time for the new puritans of the left to kvetch and moan from now until December 25th:

There’s nothing like tuning into an episode of “The View” for a little exploration of social sensitivities in the modern American culture.

In keeping with that tradition, on Black Friday, a term used to describe the Friday following Thanksgiving, which is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season, the use of the word “black” to mark this occasion was a topic of discussion on “The View” for its potential “racist” implications.

Co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, who has her own primetime HLN cable show, debated the use of “black” on the Nov. 27 pre-recorded broadcast. Goldberg, a black woman, took the meaning to be a positive and that there was nothing wrong with it used that way. Behar, however, was trouble with the word “black” used in conjunction with Friday, taking the meaning as a negative (emphasis added):

GOLDBERG: Oh, hello and welcome to ‘The View.’ Today is Black Friday, all day long,” Goldberg said.  “And I’m going to stay black all day because of it.
BEHAR: Isn’t it a little racist to call it Black Friday?
GOLDBERG: Well, I would have called it African American Friday, but that’s taking something away from it.
BEHAR: But there’s a negative connotation to it? Or does it mean something else?
GOLDBERG: No, it’s like when you make all the money – you’re in the black.
BEHAR: So it’s positive?
GOLDBERG: Yeah. It’s in the black, so it’s a huge great thing.
BEHAR: A lot of times, like blackmail is negative, black sheep.
GOLDBERG: Black people.
BEHAR: No, not black people.
GOLDBERG: But it used to be, it used to be.

Wow, when even Whoopi Goldberg doesn’t see a conspiracy in something, you’re really going into unexplored PC territory. Or to be fair, territory previously charted by Bryant Gumbel, as the New York Times noted in an otherwise fawning profile back in 1990:

The writer-producer Allison Davis, who is also black, notes that Gumbel does many subtle things on the air to help change images. One example, she says: ”Bryant Gumbel does not say ‘Black Monday’ when talking about the stock market. He’s constantly qualifying and looking at stories where the issue of race may or may not be germane.”

Which is a nice way to say that he’s obsessed with the topic and constantly looking for new grievances to mine; one of the many fixations that made him too toxic even for a network morning TV mindset that’s kept shows such as The View on the air.