“The View” host Whoopi Goldberg has apologized for saying the Holocaust was “not about race” on Monday.
While discussing how a Tennessee school district banned the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus,” Goldberg said, “The Holocaust isn’t about race. No, it’s not about race”. “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man”.
Some of the other co-hosts quickly disagreed with Goldberg. “Well, it’s about white supremacy. That’s what it’s about,” said Ana Navarro. “It’s about going after Jews and Gypsies”.
“But these are two groups of white people,” Goldberg responded. “You’re missing the point. 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 because black, white, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other”.
Many were quick to call out Goldberg’s remarks on Twitter.
Liora Rez, executive director of the group StopAntisemitism, tweeted, “I am the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors on both sides of my family. To say that the Holocaust was not about race when everything the Nazis did was to ensure the purity of the Aryan race is blatantly untrue, and it is reprehensible”.
“Dear Whoopi Goldberg, If the Holocaust wasn’t about race why did the ‘master race’ murder six million European Jews?” said immigration lawyer Matthew Kolken.
Rabbi Mike Harvey tweeted, “Whoopi Goldberg’s comments reinforce how many see Jews and Judaism as simply a concept, a subject of academia or history, not real people with real families and real pasts. We are but a concept or subject of discussion for so many, and that’s it”.
On Monday night, Goldberg tweeted her apology, including a quote from Jonathan Greenblatt.
“As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected,” she said.
“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused,” she concluded.
She then appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” saying “I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me and I don’t want to fake apologize…I’m very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying”.
“Most of the Nazis were white people and most of the people they were attacking were white people. So to me, I’m thinking, ‘How can you say it’s about race if you are fighting each other?'” she said to Colbert.
“I thought it was a salient discussion because as a black person, I think of race as being something that I can see. So I see you and I know what race you are,” Goldberg explained.
“I get it. Folks are angry. I accept that and I did it to myself. This was my thought process and I will work hard not to think that way again,” she added.