Terrie Williams, owner of a public relations agency that bears her name, was among the black women who said they failed to see the humor in bearing the brunt of racial slurs.

"If it is not O.K. for rappers to refer to black women as bitches, even though they say they don't really mean it, then how is it O.K. for a white man to appear in blackface?" Ms. Williams said.

Richard Greene, owner of Crown and Glory Hair Salon on Lexington Avenue, said the couple's "little stunt" has been a subject of heated conversation among his predominantly black, female clientele.

"A lot of people feel she's just covering up for Ted and not looking at it as an insult to a race of people," Mr. Greene said. "She may say, or think, that comedy has no limits. In reality it does, and what they did exceeded those limits."

Stan West, host of a radio talk show on WVON-AM in Chicago, said that all but one of the callers to his show on Monday lashed out at the couple.Other people have said that the couple had crossed the boundaries of civility by airing thoughts and intimacies that should have remained private. Others said the incident pointed to the sensitive lines crossed when jokes shared among members of a group -- Jews, women, homosexuals, blacks -- are spoken by someone outside the group, taking on a different meaning and sharper edge.

Yet, there are those who fiercely defend Ms. Goldberg. She is considered by some blacks, especially urban black youths, as a down-to-earth "sister," with her dreadlocks and counterculture fashions, and is respected by others as an iconoclast who marches to her own drummer.

Ms. Goldberg's defenders say she commands and deserves respect as an actress and as someone who has supported a number of human rights issues, ranging from AIDS awareness and gay rights to homelessness. They point out that she fought for and won respect among Hollywood's powerful elite, enabling her to move beyond the role of sidekick to romantic leading woman, and that she was the first black actress to win a Best Supporting Actress award (for her role in "Ghost") since Hattie McDaniel won it for "Gone With the Wind" in 1940.