Whoopi Goldberg has received some pointed criticism after claiming that the Holocaust, where an estimated six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazi party, was “not about race.”
Goldberg, along with the other co-hosts of The View, discussed how the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel “Maus” was banned in a Tennessee school district. The banning led to the book becoming a bestseller recently.
“It’s not about race,” Goldberg said, before claiming that it’s about “man’s inhumanity to man.”
“But it’s about a White supremacist going after Jews and Gypsies,” cohost Ana Navarro said.
“But these are two White groups of people,” Goldberg responded.
The co-hosts then tried to point out that Jewish people weren’t considered white by the Nazis.
“You’re missing the point,” Goldberg said. “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.”
The comments were not well received online, and Goldberg was trending high on Twitter soon after.
Jon Levine, a writer for the New York Post, said that Goldberg tried to “All Lives Matter” the Holocaust. Check out the exchange below.
Anti-Semitism groups also chimed in on her comments.
The official Auschwitz Memorial page shared a history lesson, as well as a chart about how the Nazis separated the races.
Journalist Eve Barlow said Goldberg was “Perfectly capturing the absolute ignorance of the non-Jewish world, encouraged by mainstream media, when it comes to understanding the Holocaust. Scary. Whoopi, open a goddamn book.”
Another journalist, Sara A. Carter, also tweeted that Goldberg’s comments were uninformed.
“Wow, @WhoopiGoldberg is so wrong on this – the failure of understanding our history is one of the reasons why Anti-Semitism is still growing like a cancer – prejudice and hate in all its forms must be extinguished and called out.”
Piers Morgan, who’s no stranger to public snafus, also took the opportunity to call out Goldberg.
“WTF? This is insane. The extermination of 6 million Jews wasn’t about race??? Will any rock stars or renegade royals now boycott Whoopi Goldberg and/or ABC for this dangerous misinformation?”
Gossip blogger Perez Hilton pointed out that Goldberg’s co-hosts were trying to help her out during the segment, to no avail.
“I love Whoopi Goldberg, but this take of hers on the Nazis and the Holocaust is… not it. Her The View cohosts were trying to guide her out of this hole. She just dug in even deeper!”
Others posted uncomfortable pictures of Holocaust atrocities to remind Goldberg how things went down.
Goldberg has yet to respond to the backlash she’s received.
