Whoopi Goldberg The View Co-Host Suspended For Holocaust Comments
Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from her co-hosting position on The View for two weeks, effective immediately, according to yesterday’s statement from ABC News President Kim Godwin.
Godwin said she suspended Goldberg for two weeks because of her “wrong and hurtful comments.” In her statement, the ABC president acknowledged that, while Whoopi did apologize, she also asked her to “take time,” “reflect,” and “learn about the impact of her comments.” The statement ended with Godwin assuring that the entire organization stood in solidarity with their Jewish colleagues, friends, families, and communities.
The suspension of Goldberg comes after the co-host claimed on Monday’s show that the Holocaust was “not about race.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and some prominent organizations quickly condemned her assertion. Goldberg later issued a written apology.
At the time of writing this article, Whoopi Goldberg was only suspended without pay from “The View,” not fired. The speculation that she will be fired, however, has been fervently circulating on media sites since her comments first aired.
Goldberg appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” that evening in an effort to clarify her thinking on the matter. “As a Black person,” she said, “I think of race as something I can see.” When talk of the Holocaust came up, she said she thought of it more of “man’s inhumanity to man” than about race.
As a Black person, I think of race as something I can see.
Whoopi Goldberg
During the conversation with Colbert, Goldberg said that since her controversial statement aired on The View, people had come up to her and said “no, no, we are a race,” and that she now understood and felt differently. Colbert noted that during the Holocaust, Jews were forced to wear yellow stars because Nazis couldn’t immediately identify what race someone was just be looking at them. He also suggested the American experience regarding race tended to be about “skin.” Whoopi agreed, adding “that is what race means to me.”
Goldberg emphasized that she now “understood” what people were telling her concerning her ignorance about the issue, and willingly accepted responsibility for her actions. “I get it. Folks are angry, and I did it to myself.”
Several pundits have drawn correlations to comments made by former The Mandalorian star, Gina Carano. Carano was fired for her social media posts that said being a Republican today is like living as a Jew in Holocaust-era Germany.
In her now-deleted Instagram post, Carano described the treatment of Jews, who were “beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children” and asked, “How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” Carano was fired from her lead in the Walt-Disney-Co-owned Lucasfilm TV series.
Goldberg is widely known and lauded for her charity during a distinguished long career that has earned her Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards.
She is equally well-known for her humanitarian efforts on behalf of children, the homeless, human rights, education, substance abuse and the battle against AIDS, as well as many other causes and charities. Among her many charitable activities, Whoopi is a Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations.
Elizabeth Taylor’s AIDs Foundation
Questions of “reverse racism” and a cancel culture double-standard are also circling ABC’s handling of Goldberg, garnering additional attention for occurring at the onset of Black History Month.
Award-winning journalist Ernest Owens, has voiced concerns over the difference in Meghan McCain’s treatment for controversial statements and Goldberg’s.
And Conservative pro-Trump author, Nick Adams raises the question of leniency in handling Goldberg asserting that things would have been different if she weren’t Liberal.