Whoopi Goldberg Apologizes for Saying the Holocaust Was ‘Not About Race’ Following Immense Backlash
Whoopi Goldberg apologized on Monday evening after she claimed earlier in the day on The View that the Holocaust was “not about race.”
During a segment in which the show’s panelists discussed a Tennessee school board’s removal of the Holocaust graphic novel Maus from its eighth-grade curriculum, Sunny Hostin accused members of the board of “banning discussions about race.”
Co-host Joy Behar agreed, while Goldberg shared a peculiar take.
Goldberg said, “If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race.”
“No, it’s not about race,” Golberg added after some back and forth. “It’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man. That’s what it’s about.”
Goldberg doubled down after some pushback.
“These are two White Groups of people,” she claimed. “Let’s talk about it for what it is, it’s how people treat each other. That’s the problem. It doesn’t matter if you are Black or White, because Black, White, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other.”
Following a backlash online, Goldberg issued an apology from her Twitter account on Monday evening:
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. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s [sic] systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.” I stand corrected.
The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver [sic]. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.
Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg
Goldberg’s initial comment was characterized by some on Twitter as insensitive and ignorant.
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.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 31, 2022
Whoopi Goldberg attempts to “All Lives Matter” … the Holocaust https://t.co/4Uf4BPh9wl
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) January 31, 2022
Dear Whoopi Goldberg,
If the Holocaust wasn’t about race why did the “master race” murder six million European Jews?
— Matthew Kolken (@mkolken) January 31, 2022
Did Whoopi Goldberg attempt to “All Lives Matter” the Holocaust? Sure seems like it!https://t.co/SGcvLgbb0E
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) January 31, 2022
Shame on Whoopi Goldberg, apparently she could use some education on the Holocaust.
Hitler’s entire propaganda machine spewed the message that Jews were an inferior race to Germans who were a pure “Aryan race.” And then they murdered six million Jews based on this belief. https://t.co/U3U5nGTRPP— Ellie Cohanim (@elliecohanim) January 31, 2022
Watch the segment above, via ABC.
