Whoopi Goldberg Breaks Silence After Her Comments On The View Spark Widespread Outrage
Whoopi Goldberg is in hot water with both fans and friends in the industry for her recent comments about the Holocaust on "The View." The actor and co-host, who's usually a crowd favorite, insisted that the Holocaust, a dark and tragic piece of history, "isn't about race" during their discussion about "Maus."
On the January 31 episode of "The View," the panel zeroed in on the banning of "Maus" from the English curriculum in schools due to its inclusion of "rough, objectionable language" and an image of a nude woman. Goldberg's co-hosts agreed that the book makes for essential reading so kids could have a deeper understanding of an event that killed six million Jews, but the EGOT winner disagreed, saying that it was never about race. "Let's be truthful about it because Holocaust isn't about race," she said. "It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man."
Co-host Ana Navarro tried to reason with her, saying that the Holocaust was about white supremacists' desperate attempt to annihilate Jews, but Goldberg cut her off to say there are "two white groups of people." "The minute you turn it into race it goes down this alley. Let's talk about it for what it is," she said. "It's how people treat each other. It doesn't matter if you're Black or white, Jews, it's each other." But now, Goldberg's taking responsibility for her hasty remarks.
Whoopi Goldberg apologized for the 'hurt I've caused'
It didn't take long for Whoopi Goldberg to receive backlash for her comments. Stand With Us, an organization devoted to fighting anti-Semitism, issued a statement saying that the "Holocaust was driven by multiple factors, and there is no doubt that one of them was Nazi racism against Jews. Nazis back then and white supremacists today consider Jews to be a different and inferior race." Political commentator Ben Shapiro also offered his two cents, tweeting, "Whoopi Goldberg explaining that the Holocaust wasn't about race because these were 'two groups of white people' isn't just insipid, it's insidious. It's downplaying the minority status of Jews in order to uphold bullshit intersectional arguments that justify anti-Semitism today.
Goldberg's name became a trending topic on Twitter that same night, with thousands of people tweeting about how disappointed they are over her comments. She then posted her "sincerest apologies" and backtracked her statement. "On today's show, I said the Holocaust 'is not about race, but about man's inhumanity to man.' I should have said it is about both," Goldberg wrote. "I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver."
She ended her apology by saying, "I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused." But will the public accept Goldberg's words of remorse?