UPDATED 2/1, 10:10 p.m. ET: Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks, ABC News President Kin Godwin announced in a statement.
“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,” Godwin wrote. “While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve ask her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
See original story below.
Whoopi Goldberg expressed her “sincerest apologies” on Twitter Monday after saying that the Holocaust wasn’t “about race” in a recent segment on The View.
Her comments came as the show’s hosts were discussing a Tennessee school district banning Art Spiegelman’s poignant graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus. After the panelists focused on whether nudity—cited as a reason to cease teaching the comic—was even an actual concern, Whoopi added a new layer.
“Well also, if you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it, because the Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s not about race,” she said.
Joy Behar shot back and asked her what she thought it was about, and Whoopi said “man’s inhumanity to man,” since it was “two white groups of people.”
On Twitter, Goldberg wrote she stands “corrected” after scholars on the topic began to reach out to her. “I’m sorry for the hurt that I have caused.” She wrote, “The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never [waver].”
Goldberg’s apology follows numerous public figures and organizations correcting her online, including ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, the Auschwitz Memorial, and (indirectly) the U.S. Holocaust Museum. The Memorial sent Whoopi a seven-chapter online course about the Holocaust.
“No @WhoopiGoldberg, the #Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race,” Greenblatt wrote on Twitter. “They dehumanized them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous.”
Goldberg also opened up about her comments during a Tuesday episode of The View, inviting Greenblatt on the show as she again apologized and corrected her statement. Greenblatt spoke with the hosts about the importance of education surrounding the topic, and Whoopi further explained she is “grateful” for being informed by so many.
“I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined, because my words upset so many people, which was never intentional and I understand why now. For that, I’m deeply grateful,” she said. “The information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.”
Goldberg also appeared on the Late Show on Monday night, which the Hollywood Reporter noted was taped before she shared her apology. On Colbert, she reiterated her statement but shared that she thought race was something she “could see.”
“It upset a lot of people, which was never ever, ever my intention,” Goldberg said. “I feel, being Black, when we talk about race, it’s a very different thing to me. So I said I thought the Holocaust wasn’t about race. And people got very angry and still are angry. I’m getting a lot of mail from folks and a lot of real anger. But I thought it was a salient discussion because as a Black person I think of race as being something that I can see. So I see you and know what race you are. I thought it was more about man’s inhumanity to man…people said, ‘No, no, we are a race.’ I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me.”
