Actor Whoopi Goldberg has offered her “sincerest apologies” after saying that the Holocaust “isn’t about race”.
It came after Goldberg, who hosts The View on ABC, said that the atrocity was instead “about man’s inhumanity to man” in a discussion about the Pulitzer-winning Holocaust novel Maus, which has been banned by a school board in Tennessee.
In the original discussion, Goldberg commented: “Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race, it’s not. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about. These are two groups of white people.”
Goldberg later said Jewish people “always had my support” in a statement that addressed the backlash to her comments online.
She added: “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 of 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 (waver). I am sorry for the hurt I have caused.
“Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”
— Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg) February 1, 2022
Thanks @WhoopiGoldberg for correcting your prior statement and acknowledging the #Holocaust for what it was. As #antisemitism surges to historic levels, I hope we can work together to combat ignorance of that horrific crime and the hate that threatens all. https://t.co/ltsHrwmLCG
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) February 1, 2022
Greenblatt, the national director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, an organisation who aims to combat antisemitism and secure justice for Jewish people, later thanked Goldberg for “acknowledging the Holocaust for what it was” in a tweet.
He added: “Thanks WhoopiGoldberg for correcting your prior statement and acknowledging the #Holocaust for what it was.
“As #antisemitism surges to historic levels, I hope we can work together to combat ignorance of that horrific crime and the hate that threatens all.”
Goldberg appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on the same day as the show aired, and said it was “never [her intention]” to upset people with the remarks.
She said: “I thought it was a salient discussion because as a Black person I think of race as being something that I can see. People were very angry and they said ‘no no we are a race’ – and I understand.”
Goldberg continued: “People, you know, decided I was all these other things I’m actually not. I’m incredibly torn up by being told these things about myself. And I get it, folks are angry. I accept that and I did it to myself.
“This was my thought process and I’ll work hard not to think that way again.”
