Whoopi Goldberg is apologizing after her βinsensitiveβ comments about the Holocaust caused an uproar online following Monday morningβs episode.
Suggested Reading
According to People, The View co-host made the comments in conversation with her fellow co-hosts about a Tennessee schoolβs decision to ban the comic book Maus, written by Art Spiegelman, that details his fatherβs experience as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. It was then that Goldberg asserted that the Holocaust was βnot about race, βbut rather βmanβs inhumanity to man.β
After being challenged and corrected by co-hosts Joy Behar and Sarah Haines, the Color Purple star doubled down, adding:
βThe minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Letβs talk about it for what it is. Itβs how people treat each other. Itβs a problem. It doesnβt matter if you are Black or white because Black, white, Jews, Italians β everybody eats each other. So if you are uncomfortable if you hear about Maus, should you be worried? Should your child say, βOh my God, I wonder if thatβs me?β No. Thatβs not what theyβre going to say. Theyβre going to say, βI donβt want to be like that.β
Naturally, her comments garnered swift backlash from many online. The nonprofit Stop Antisemitism wrote: βNewsflash @WhoopiGoldberg 6 million of us were gassed, starved and massacred because we were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis. How dare you minimize our trauma and suffering!β
Added the US Holocaust Museum in a tweet: βRacism was central to Nazi ideology. Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.β
Well, no less than 24 hours later, Goldberg issued an apology late Monday night for her comments:
βOn todayβs show, I said the Holocaust βis not about race, but about manβs inhumanity to man.β I should have said it is about both,β the statement began. βAs Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, βThe Holocaust was about the Naziβs systematic annihilation of the Jewish people - who they deemed to be an inferior race.β I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. Iβm sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg.β
Straight From
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.