Editing Whoopi Goldberg (section)

==Early life==
Caryn Elaine Johnson was born in [[Manhattan]], New York City,<ref>{{cite web|title=Whoopi Goldberg Biography and Interview|website=achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/#interview|access-date=April 19, 2019|archive-date=January 15, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190115050204/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg#interview|url-status=live}}</ref> on November 13, 1955,<ref name="CBS">{{cite web|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whoopi-goes-square-on-us/|title=Whoopi Goes Square On Us|date=February 9, 2000 |publisher=CBS News|access-date=November 7, 2019|archive-date=November 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107124314/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/whoopi-goes-square-on-us/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Huff">{{cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/happy-60th-birthday-whoop_b_8565494|title=Happy 60th Birthday, Whoopi Goldberg! Our Favorite Quotes From The Actress|date=November 14, 2015|website=HuffPost|access-date=November 7, 2019|archive-date=May 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514073316/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/happy-60th-birthday-whoop_b_8565494|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="GH">{{cite web|url=https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a24795806/whoopi-goldberg-net-worth/|title=Whoopi Goldberg's Real Name Will Actually (Not Exaggerating!) Blow Your Mind|first=Kayla|last=Keegan|date=November 8, 2018|website=Good Housekeeping|access-date=November 7, 2019|archive-date=November 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191107124324/https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a24795806/whoopi-goldberg-net-worth/|url-status=live}}</ref> the daughter of Emma Johnson ([[née]] Harris),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JT28-744 |title=Emma Johnson: United States Social Security Death Index |website=Family Search |access-date=June 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304225102/https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/JT28-744 |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref> a nurse and teacher,<ref name="clergyman">{{cite book|last=Clark Hine|first=Darlene|title=Black Women in America|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|edition=Second|year=2005|location=Oxford; New York|page=531|oclc=192019147}}</ref> and Robert James Johnson Jr., a [[Baptists|Baptist]]<ref>Whoopi Goldberg: her journey from poverty to megastardom by James Robert Parish Carol Pub. Group, 1997 – 390, p. 282</ref> clergyman. She was raised in a public housing project, the [[Chelsea-Elliot Houses]], in New York City.<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff Writer |url=https://www.amny.com/news/whoopi-ing-it-up-for-hudson-guild/ |title=Whoopi-ing it up for Hudson Guild |work=amNY - The Villager |publisher=Schneps Media |date=June 21, 2005 |accessdate=February 3, 2022 |archive-date=February 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220203172107/https://www.amny.com/news/whoopi-ing-it-up-for-hudson-guild/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Goldberg described her mother as a "stern, strong, and wise woman" who raised her as a single mother with her brother Clyde ({{Circa|1949}}&nbsp;– 2015).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Birkinbine|first1=Julia|title=Whoopi Goldberg Absent from The View After Brother Dies of a Brain Aneurysm|url=http://www.closerweekly.com/posts/whoopi-goldberg-absent-from-the-view-after-brother-dies-of-a-brain-aneurysm-58351|website=Closer Weekly|access-date=November 15, 2016|date=May 13, 2015|archive-date=November 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116103524/http://www.closerweekly.com/posts/whoopi-goldberg-absent-from-the-view-after-brother-dies-of-a-brain-aneurysm-58351|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Whoopi Goldberg Brother Dead|url=http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/whoopi-goldberg-brother-dead-the-view-clyde-k-johnson-death-brain-aneurysm|year=2015|access-date=July 8, 2016|archive-date=August 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816020326/http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/whoopi-goldberg-brother-dead-the-view-clyde-k-johnson-death-brain-aneurysm/|url-status=live}}</ref> She attended a local [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] school, St Columba's. Her more recent forebears migrated north from [[Faceville, Georgia]]; [[Palatka, Florida]]; and [[Virginia]].<ref name="bookref1">{{cite book|last=Gates|first=Henry Louis Jr.|title=In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past|publisher=Crown|date=January 2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/insearchofourroo00gate/page/225 225–241]|isbn=978-0-307-38240-5|url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofourroo00gate/page/225}}</ref> She dropped out of [[Washington Irving Campus|Washington Irving High School]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Gerstel|first=Judy|date=January 4, 1994|title=Whoopi Goldberg Offers No Apologies|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1994/01/04/whoopi-goldberg-offers-no-apologies/|newspaper=Orlando Sentinel|access-date=November 30, 2013|archive-date=November 13, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113175812/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994-01-04/lifestyle/9312310424_1_whoopi-goldberg-negative-publicity-goldberg-offers|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/whoopi-goldberg.html |title=Whoopi Goldberg Biography |publisher=The Biography Channel |access-date=November 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203071810/http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/whoopi-goldberg.html |archive-date=December 3, 2013}}</ref>

She has stated that her stage forename ("Whoopi") was taken from a [[whoopee cushion]]: "When you're performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So if you get a little [[Flatulence|gassy]], you've got to let it go. So people used to say to me, 'You're like a whoopee cushion.' And that's where the name came from."<ref>{{cite news|author=Solomon, Deborah|author-link=Deborah Solomon|title=Making Nice|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/magazine/20wwln_q4.html|work=The New York Times|date=August 20, 2006|access-date=May 17, 2008|archive-date=May 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504014805/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/magazine/20wwln_q4.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

About her stage surname, she claimed in 2011, "My mother did not name me Whoopi, but Goldberg is my name—it's part of my family, part of my heritage, just like being black," and "I just know I am Jewish. I practice nothing. I don't go to temple, but I do remember the holidays."<ref name=JC>[http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/48817/whoopi-goldberg-im-jewish-and-i-talk-god Whoopi Goldberg: I'm Jewish and I talk to God] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919085602/http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/48817/whoopi-goldberg-im-jewish-and-i-talk-god |date=September 19, 2016 }}, ''[[The Jewish Chronicle]]'', Jessica Elgot, May 12, 2011</ref> She has stated that "people would say 'Come on, are you Jewish?' And I always say 'Would you ask me that if I was white? I bet not.'"<ref name=JC/> One account suggests that her mother, Emma Johnson, thought the family's original surname was "not Jewish enough" for her daughter to become a star.<ref name=JC/> Goldberg has said that her family is "Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist, and Catholic."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Whoopi Goldberg |url=https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/whoopi-goldberg/ |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |language=en-us |author=David Ferrell |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608123609/https://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/whoopi-goldberg/ |archive-date=June 8, 2024 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Researcher [[Henry Louis Gates Jr.]] found that all of Goldberg's traceable ancestors were black, that she had no known German or Jewish ancestry, and that none of her ancestors were named Goldberg.<ref name="bookref1" /> Results of a [[DNA]] test, revealed in the 2006 [[PBS]] documentary ''[[African American Lives]]'', traced part of her ancestry to the [[Papel people|Papel]] and Bayote people of modern-day [[Guinea-Bissau]] of West Africa.<ref>{{cite news|author=Lei, Hsien Hsien |title=Whoopi Goldberg's DNA Hails from W. Africa |url=http://www.geneticsandhealth.com/2007/02/10/whoopi-goldbergs-dna-hails-from-w-africa |work=Genetics and Health |date=February 10, 2007 |access-date=May 17, 2008 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513134512/http://www.geneticsandhealth.com/2007/02/10/whoopi-goldbergs-dna-hails-from-w-africa/ |archive-date=May 13, 2008}}</ref> The show identified her great-great-grandparents as William and Elsie Washington, who had acquired property in northern Florida in 1873, and mentions they were among a very small number of black people who became landowners through homesteading in the years following the Civil War. The show also mentions that her grandparents were living in Harlem, and that her grandfather was working as a Pullman porter.<ref>{{cite web|title=African American Lives . Profiles . Whoopi Goldberg {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/aalives/2006/profile_goldberg.html|access-date=February 7, 2022|website=www.thirteen.org|archive-date=February 6, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206195236/https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/aalives/2006/profile_goldberg.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to an anecdote told by [[Nichelle Nichols]] in ''[[Trekkies (film)|Trekkies]]'' (1997), a young Goldberg was watching ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'', and on seeing Nichols' character [[Nyota Uhura|Uhura]], exclaimed, "Momma! There's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!"<ref>{{Cite AV media|people=[[Nichelle Nichols|Nichols, Nichelle]]|title=Trekkies|medium=DVD|publisher=Neo Motion Pictures|year=1997}}</ref> This spawned Goldberg's lifelong ''Star Trek'' fandom. Goldberg lobbied for and was eventually cast in a recurring guest starring role as [[Guinan (Star Trek)|Guinan]] on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]''.

In the 1970s, Goldberg moved to [[San Diego, California]], where she became a waitress, then to [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]],<ref>{{cite web|work=Berkeleyside|url=http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/06/22/whoopi-goldberg-is-selling-her-berkeley-house-for-1-275m|title=Whoopi Goldberg selling her Berkeley home for $1.275M|date=June 22, 2015|access-date=April 14, 2018|archive-date=April 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415190321/http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/06/22/whoopi-goldberg-is-selling-her-berkeley-house-for-1-275m|url-status=live}}</ref> where she worked odd jobs, including as a bank teller, a mortuary cosmetologist, and a bricklayer.<ref name=berkeley>{{cite web|work=CBS San Francisco|url=http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/06/22/whoopi-goldberg-sells-berkeley-home-she-bought-when-she-was-still-caryn-johnson/|title=Whoopi Goldberg Sells Berkeley Home She Bought When She Was Still Caryn Johnson|author=Mabry, Jan|date=June 22, 2015|access-date=April 15, 2018|archive-date=April 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415191406/http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/06/22/whoopi-goldberg-sells-berkeley-home-she-bought-when-she-was-still-caryn-johnson/|url-status=live}}</ref> She joined the avant-garde theater troupe the Blake Street Hawkeyes<ref name=berkeley /> and gave comedy and acting classes; [[Courtney Love]] was one of her acting students.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.glamour.com/story/whoopi-goldberg-icons|title=Whoopi Goldberg Really, Really Doesn't Care|last=Fitzsimons|first=Amanda|website=Glamour|date=September 21, 2018|access-date=January 1, 2020|archive-date=May 30, 2020|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200530083936/https://www.glamour.com/story/whoopi-goldberg-icons|url-status=live}}</ref> Goldberg was also in a number of theater productions.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5maGpPv6F94| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/5maGpPv6F94| archive-date=December 11, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Maher, Hitchens Goldberg on Communism, Socialism and Capitalism| date=October 13, 2011|via=YouTube|access-date=May 3, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 1978, she witnessed a [[Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182|midair collision of two planes in San Diego]], causing her to develop a fear of flying and [[post-traumatic stress disorder]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thefix.com/glenn-close-and-whoopi-goldberg-discuss-mental-health|title=Glenn Close And Whoopi Goldberg Discuss Mental Health|first=David|last=Konow|date=April 17, 2018|website=The Fix|access-date=May 24, 2019|archive-date=May 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524060256/https://www.thefix.com/glenn-close-and-whoopi-goldberg-discuss-mental-health|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/04/12/whoopi.goldberg.piers.morgan/index.html|title=Whoopi Goldberg's 'one really major regret'|publisher=CNN|access-date=May 24, 2019|archive-date=May 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190524021715/http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/04/12/whoopi.goldberg.piers.morgan/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref>