Blacks fail to see humor in Ted Danson's blackface tribute to Whoopi Goldberg - Cover Story

Jet, Nov 1, 1993

New York Mayor David Dinkins, who also attended the roast, told reporters that the humor "was way, way over the line."

Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of the Rainbow Coalition, said he agreed with the mayor as well as the remarks expressed by Montel Williams. He only wondered why the press would focus so much attention on the Goldberg/Danson affair and virtually ignore the racial flap over the AT&T in-house newsletter. In that newsletter, a monkey was used to depict African customers. Drawings showed several characters on different continents using telephones. On all continents except Africa, the customers were human.

Actress Anne Marie Johnson, co-star of the Fox TV hit "In Living Color," blasted both Danson and Ms. Goldberg. "I'm very upset with Whoopi. She said she helped write it. That image has caused death. It would be like my showing up to a Jewish function dressed like Hitler. Just because it's a Friars roast doesn't mean you can insult a whole race."

Those sentiments were echoed by comic Thea Vidale, star of the ABC sitcom "Thea." "I wouldn't let my man show up anywhere in blackface," she said.

Writer Karen Grigsby Bates wrote a syndicated column: "God only knows what possessed Danson, in a time of racial tension in too many American cities, to entertain his ladylove by becoming a living stereotype that has haunted African Americans for a century. And God only knows what possessed her to laugh at him and angrily defend his right to demean her people."