Whoopi Goldberg suspended at ‘The View’ over ‘Hurtful’ Holocaust comments

The Oscar winner has been suspended from ‘The View’ for two weeks over comments she made on Monday’s show.

Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from “The View” for two weeks over comments she made on Monday’s show about the Holocaust.

“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a statement. “The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”

On Monday, while discussing a Tennessee school district banning the graphic novel “Maus,” Goldberg said, “If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race.”

Goldberg said instead it was about “man’s inhumanity to man” and that both groups of people were white. The longtime host of the talk show apologized on Monday night, saying on Twitter she had spoken to the head of the Anti-Defamation League about her comments.

pic.twitter.com/KUpdyhQnho

— Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg) February 1, 2022

After Goldberg’s comments, critics pointed out that race was central to the genocide, with the Nazis believing themselves to be a master race.

“No @WhoopiGoldberg, the #Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people - who they deemed to be an inferior race,” tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League.

“They dehumanised them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering six million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous,” he added.

No @WhoopiGoldberg, the #Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race. They dehumanized them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous. #ENOUGHhttps://t.co/koS1kuspqV

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) January 31, 2022

The US Holocaust Museum posted on Twitter that “racism was central to Nazi ideology.” “Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fuelled genocide and mass murder,” it said, without referencing Goldberg’s comments.

She was speaking on her ABC show The View during a discussion about a Tennessee school banning the 1986 graphic novel “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale,” about life at the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning book, which depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats, has long been heralded as a powerful and accurate depiction of the Nazi murder of millions of Jews during World War II.

However, sources have told the New York Post that staffers and fellow hosts on The View, as well as insiders at Disney, are furious that Goldberg has not been disciplined.

“ABC staffers and Disney Network execs are saying Whoopi went way too far. And board members are not happy with her apology and want a fuller retraction. The word is that Whoopi is in ‘deep s–t,’” one ABC insider told the Post.

“Why does Whoopi seemingly get a pass when others don’t? Perhaps this time she won’t. Many at the network – including her fellow hosts – believe Whoopi is too controversial now for the show.”

A separate TV insider added, “Whoopi may benefit from the fact that people are tired of cancel culture. But it is still astonishing that it’s one rule for Whoopi and another for everyone else.”

AFP