Whoopi Goldberg suspended. Should View host be cancelled for Holocaust not about race but humanity comments? Debate ignites on social media as outrage ensues for ‘insensitive’ and ‘anti-semitic’ remarks.
###Update: Whoopi is put on suspension for 2 weeks by her employer, ABC following open outcry for her ‘insensitive’ and ‘derogatory’ comments. Others continue to call for the outspoken star’s cancellation and firing as the war on what is permissable and passable in digital media wages on.
Original story: In the face of incongruous comments about the extermination of Holocaust Jewish victims at the hands of Nazi’s ‘not necessarily’ being racist, View host Whoopi Goldberg has found herself at the centre of a social media storm as demands are now made to have the ABC long time staffer fired.
During Monday’s View program, Whoopi, 66, made seemingly spurious comments when she referred to Jews and Nazis as ‘two groups of white people’ and as a result of ‘both being white,’ the drive to exterminate Jews and other victimized groups was not about race but rather ‘inhumanity’.
It wasn’t immediately clear what motivated the often outspoken View host to make the remarks off the heels of a panel discussion regarding a Florida bill pertaining to race or gender.
The comments come amid the tenuous themes of the Holocaust, anti-semitism, along with the subject matter often a no go zone for prime cable programs.
Sparks fly as The View panel confronts Whoopi after she says “the Holocaust isn’t about race. No. It’s not about race.”
“Well, the considered Jews a different race,” Joy Behar says.“But it’s about white supremacy. It’s about going after Jews and Gypsies,” Ana Navarro adds. pic.twitter.com/GZwZSi2qXi
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 31, 2022
‘I stand corrected- but not really…’
Goldberg’s remarks sparked outlash from NY’s Israeli Consular General along with the Auschwitz Memorial and Antidefamation League in which she was accused of minimizing Jewish suffering.
ABC to date has refused to comment on their star host’s comments while ‘outraged’ staffers at ABC saying the cable network having a ‘blind spot’ towards anti-semitism. The outlet come Tuesday night suspended Whoopi Goldberg for her comments, saying in a release despite having ‘apologized’ for her ‘hurtful’ comments, she needed nevertheless, ‘to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.’
Amid public fissure and outrage, Whoopi on Monday night posted an apology on Twitter saying the Holocaust was about ‘both’ race and inhumanity.
Uttered the no longer funny woman, ‘I stand corrected’ and apologized. But it was not to be.
Whoopi instead appeared on the Colbert show later that evening (see below) where she doubled down on her earlier comments, saying that she had been ‘misunderstood.’
‘I understand,’ she said. ‘I felt differently. I respect everything everyone is saying to me and I don’t want to fake apologize…I’m very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying.’
‘It upset a lot of people which was never, ever, ever, ever my intention… I thought we were having a discussion.’
Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended by The View following her controversial comments about the Holocaust when she said 'it was not about race'@Baddiel tells @susannareid100 and @adilray that Goldberg's comments reveal 'a lot about the confusions people have around anti-semitism' pic.twitter.com/63VR5SV9BD
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) February 2, 2022
Social media demands View host be fired
As a Black woman, Goldberg explained that her perception of race is based on skin color, but it’s become apparent to her that people feel ‘very differently.’
‘I think of race as being something that I can see,’ Whoopi told Colbert. ‘So, I see you and I know what race you are.’
Nevertheless, to the chagrin of social media commentators, Goldberg continued to positioned the Holocaust as ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ instead of racism.
‘This wasn’t based on the skin,’ she told Colbert. ‘You couldn’t tell who was Jewish. They had to delve deeply to figure it out… My point is, they had to do the work.’
Posted one commentator: ‘Whoopi Goldberg has spread more actual disinformation in the last 24 hours than Joe Rogan has in the last year, and not a single cokehead hippie millionaire musician or washed up has-been Hollywood celebrity has asked for her to be censored or fired.’
Contemplated another: ‘Why are liberals allowed to say & do racist & derogatory things, always getting away with it by simply saying I’m sorry or I didn’t mean it.’
Why are liberals allowed to say & do racist & derogatory things, always getting away with it by simply saying I’m sorry or I didn’t mean it. That liberal blimp of a woman Whoopi Goldberg says something racist about the Holocaust & is allowed to say I’m sorry. She should be fired
— TONEMAN 2.0 🇮🇹🇺🇸Italian- American (@0Toneman) February 1, 2022
What should be tolerated in media discussion?
While another responded, ‘Consequences only go one way folks. You should know this by now.’
Ahead of The View’s show on Tuesday, a senior ABC News source told the dailymail that staff are stunned by the network’s hands off response, especially when the cable outlet had been quick to fire Roseanne Barr over racist comments towards Valerie Jarrett.
‘There is a blind spot on The View when it comes to anti-Semitism. It is never a big enough hate crime for them, ‘ the source said.
‘These comments are absolutely abhorrent and outrageous and it’s time Disney and ABC grew a pair and fired her,’ the source told the dailymail.
‘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? 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?’ added the source.
Monday’s comments follow other contentious claims made by Whoopi in recent months that angered staff, including Whoopi previously having defended Bill Cosby who had served time for sexual assault only to then have his sentence over-ruled.
‘People are livid within the news division as it completely undermines our credibility.’ the source continued.
The source also alleged that former host Meghan McCain previously pitched the victim of a Jewish hate crime as a guest on the show but that she was told to conduct the interview for online only.
The race vs humanity comments come in light of recent efforts to ‘censor’ Joe Rogan on the Spotify podcast platform for what many decried as false and misleading information, while Rogan and many of his supporters continue to maintain that a free society should be able to entertain discussions of difficult themes and from all voices and points of views- not those necessarily of the prevailing and dominant group.
