Whoopi Goldberg is apologizing.
On Monday, the 66-year-old TV personality was speaking with her co-hosts on The View about troublesome trends around the nation in which books — including Maus and To Kill A Mockingbird — are being pulled from schools and banned from kids’ required reading lists.
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While commenting on Maus — a 1980s graphic series about the Holocaust — being pulled from a Tennessee school curriculum, Whoopi lamented about how educational leaders there claimed it was yanked because it “contained some nudity and some bad language.”
Disagreeing with the idea that it should get pulled, she said:
“I’m surprised that’s what made you uncomfortable, the fact that there was some nudity. I mean, it’s about the Holocaust, the killing of six million people, but that didn’t bother you?”
Co-host Joy Behar responded, noting (below):
“I’m not sure that they don’t use the naked part as a kind of a canard to throw you off from the fact that they don’t like history that makes white people look bad.”
Good point.
To which Goldberg responded:
“Maybe. Well, this is white people doing it to white people. Y’all go fight amongst yourselves.”
Uhhh… what?
As the rest of the hosts discussed the situation, Whoopi later added:
“If you’re going to do this, now let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race. No. It’s not about race.”
Wow.
Here’s the full controversial clip:
Hours after the show aired, and amid a major social media firestorm regarding her comments that the Holocaust was “not about race,” the Sister Act star owned up to how harmful those on-air statements were and apologized.
Acknowledging the mess by saying “I stand corrected” in a Twitter message in response on Monday evening, Goldberg shared:
— Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg) February 1, 2022
The full text image reads:
“On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg”
Whoopi’s comments come amid a rise of anti-Semitic attacks here in the United States. Per the American Jewish Committee’s findings, 1 in 4 Jewish Americans were subject to anti-Semitic behavior in 2021 alone.
The committee’s CEO David Harris said in a statement this past October:
“This critical report confirms that American Jews are deeply concerned about antisemitism in America—and many are limiting their behavior as a result. That one in four American Jews has been the target of antisemitism over the past year alone, and that four out of ten have taken steps to conceal their Jewishness or curtail their activities as a result, should alarm all Americans. Now is the time for American society to stand up and say ‘enough is enough.’ American Jews see antisemitism on the far right and the far left, among extremists acting in the name of Islam, and elsewhere throughout America. It is 2021, and a disturbing number of Jews in America are afraid of identifying openly as Jewish for fear of attack. Where is the outrage? Where is the recognition that antisemitism may begin with Jews but, ultimately, targets the fabric and fiber of any democratic society?”
To learn more about antisemitism and how you can combat it, CLICK HERE or CLICK HERE.
[Image via The View/YouTube]
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