ABC, the US TV network, has suspended Whoopi Goldberg from hosting the show The View for two weeks, following the row over the actor’s comment on the Holocaust.
In a statement on Tuesday, ABC News President Kim Godwin said, “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologised, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organisation stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
Goldberg received severe backlash for her comments on the Holocaust on The View. In the show that aired on Monday, while discussing the recent ban on the Holocaust-based graphic novel, Maus, by a US school district, she had stated that the mass persecution of Jewish people by the Nazis was not about race.
“If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race,” she said, adding that it was about “man’s inhumanity to man.”
The actor further went on to say that both groups of people were white. Goldberg continued to reiterate this point, despite a co-host mentioning that the Nazis themselves looked at the Jews as a separate race.
Soon, the critically-acclaimed performer received criticism for her statements.
Jonathan Greenblatt, leader of the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate organization, said on Twitter, “No Whoopi Goldberg, the Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race. They dehumanised them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous.”
Meghan McCain, a former co-host of The View, tweeted, “Antisemitism is a cancer and a poison that is increasingly excused in our culture and television – and permeates spaces that should shock us all.”
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Amid growing criticism, Goldberg apologised on Monday, and wrote on Twitter, “On today’s show, I said, ‘The Holocaust is not about race but man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both.” She went on to quote Greenblatt’s tweet, and added, “I stand corrected.”
“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I am sorry for the hurt I have caused,” she further said.
The following day, Goldberg invited Greenblatt on the show to explain the politics of race that was inherent in the Holocaust.
However, netizens were unsatisfied with Goldberg’s apology, which they termed ‘tone-deaf’.
Goldberg later appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and in an attempt to clarify her comment, said, “Being Black, when we talk about race, it’s a very different thing to me. As a Black person, I think of race as being something that I can see.”
The actor then went on to say, “The Nazis lied. It wasn’t (a racial issue). They had issues with ethnicity. Not with race because most of the Nazis were white people and most of the people they were attacking, were white people. So, to me, I am thinking, ‘How can you say it’s about race if you are fighting each other?'”
This caused further outrage and Goldberg had to apologise a second time on The View. Her suspension from the channel then followed.