The outspoken actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg has provoked controversy by making remarks about the Holocaust that may jeopardize her career. During an episode of The View, Goldberg claimed that the Holocaust “wasn’t racist,” despite there having been enough evidence to show that Nazis and others who caused millions of deaths considered Jews to be an inferior race. Nonetheless, Goldberg maintained that the Nazi’s crimes were between “two groups of white people,” therefore it was not about “race” but rather “inhumanity.”
Goldberg issued a Facebook apology on Monday, blaming “human misunderstanding” for the earlier remark. Following international outrage, she amended her statement to include the words “both race and inhumanity.” During The View’s Tuesday episode, Goldberg delivered an on-air mea culpa and interviewed the president of The Anti-Defamation League before moving on to other topics for the program.
“Yesterday on our show, I misspoke. I tweeted about it last night, but I kind of want you to hear it from me directly. I feel a responsibility,” Goldberg said. “My words upset so many people, which was never my intention. I understand why. The information I got was really helpful. I said the Holocaust wasn’t about race and was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. It is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be the inferior race. Words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, and I stand corrected.”
Some ABC employees feel as if Goldberg is not being punished hard enough for her remarks, especially in contrast to Barr who was fired for racist comments.
“These comments are absolutely abhorrent and outrageous, and it’s time Disney and ABC grew a pair and fired her,” a senior ABC News stated. “Disney took swift action and fired Roseanne Barr when she posted the awful tweet about Valerie Jarrett, yet Whoopi made her vile comments on ABC’s air, and they do nothing about it? Where is the leadership from within Disney?”
“[Disney content chairman] Peter Rice needs to step up and do his job and fire Whoopi. How is this appropriate at all? What message do we send as a company? Why is there one rule for Whoopi Goldberg – who gets a pass on everything and another rule for everyone else?” stated the source. “There is a blind spot on The View when it comes to anti-Semitism. It is never a big enough hate crime for them.”
Goldberg has often courted controversy during her time on The View. Most recently, she caused an uproar when she came to the defense of Bill Cosby, who has been accused of rape by multiple women.
“We were all outraged when Whoopi was defending Bill Cosby, and ABC had to bring [legal analyst] Dan Abrams on the show to help her understand that her views surrounding Cosby were extremely problematic,” added the source. “This was after fifty women, FIFTY, had come forward with serious allegations about him. People are livid within the news division as it completely undermines our credibility.”
Piers Morgan was not mincing his words when he criticized ABC for their leniency towards Goldberg’s racist statements.
“Sharon Osbourne was fired from The Talk for defending me against a fake charge of racism,” Morgan stated. “Whoopi Goldberg said on The View yesterday that the Holocaust ‘wasn’t about race,’ which for Jewish people is about as racist a comment as anyone could make. Bet she doesn’t lose her job.”
After Morgan made racist comments about not believing Meghan Markle’s account because she was a Black woman, Osbourne came to his defense.
Is it time for Goldberg to be removed from The View?
