Liberal comedian Whoopi Goldberg said Monday that the Holocaust was “not about race,” because Germans and Jews are both White.
In a segment Monday on “The View” that prompted both immediate pushback from her co-hosts and social-media backlash, Ms. Goldberg made the comments — for which she apologized Monday evening — in the context of a segment about the Holocaust-allegory book “Maus” being limited in a Tennessee school district.
Her co-hosts noted that a Florida bill, targeted at Critical Race Theory, could impede teaching about Nazi Germany’s murder of 6 million Jews, and many others, during World War II.
“The Holocaust isn’t about race,” the Black comedian said. “No, it’s not about race.”
Sparks fly as The View panel confronts Whoopi after she says “the Holocaust isn’t about race. No. It’s not about race.”
“Well, the considered Jews a different race,” Joy Behar says.
“But it’s about white supremacy. It’s about going after Jews and Gypsies,” Ana Navarro adds. pic.twitter.com/GZwZSi2qXi
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 31, 2022
A surprised Joy Behar pointed out correctly that Nazi Germany “considered Jews a different race.”
But Ms. Goldberg reiterated that “it’s not about race,” prompting Ms. Behar to reply “what is it about?”
“It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about,” she said in a reply sarcastically analogized on social media to an “All Lives Matter” response.
“It’s about a White supremacist going after Jews and Gypsies,” co-host Ana Navarro said, prompting her colleague to reply “but these are two White groups of people.”
Ms. Goldberg was unpersuaded when told that Nazis didn’t consider Jews to be “White.”
“You’re missing the point,” she insisted. “The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black, or White, cause Black, White, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other.”
On Monday evening, Ms. Goldberg apologized for her remarks and said she stood corrected.
“On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it was about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘the Holocaust was about the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected.”
She concluded her statement, which she posted on Twitter at 8:15 p.m. Monday, by saying it was “written with my sincerest apologies.”
