The comedian and longtime moderator of the staple gabfest was suspended from the View panel on Feb. 1, 2022, after claiming on the show that the Nazis’ slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust wasn’t about race so much as a lack of empathy. Her remarks came during a discussion about some schools banning the book Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust using mice and cats to stand for Jews and Nazis. ABC News president Kim Godwinsaid in a Feb. 1 statement, “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked 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.” Keep reading for more on what we know about Whoopi Goldberg’s suspension from The View.
Why isn’t Whoopi Goldberg on The View today?
Goldberg is absent from The View due to her suspension, which took effect beginning Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022.
Why isn’t Whoopi Goldberg on The View this week?
Goldberg’s suspension is for two weeks, so you won’t see her back at the View table until after Valentine’s Day 2022.
What did Whoopi Goldberg say about the Holocaust?
Goldberg expressed some misunderstanding about the role of race in the Nazis’ genocide of Jews in Europe. “Let’s be truthful about it because [the] Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s not about race,” she said on The View’s Jan. 31 episode. “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.” When her co-hosts dissented, noting that Nazis’ white supremacist ideology means considering Jews to be of a different race, she stood fast in her view, saying, “These are two white groups of people.” You can see the initial exchange below. Later that day, Goldberg appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, where she tried to explain her position and clear the air. “It upset a lot of people, which was never, ever, ever my intention. I thought we were having a discussion because I feel being Black—when we talk about race, it’s a very different thing to me,” she said. “So I said that I feel the Holocaust wasn’t about race, and people got very, very, very angry—and still are angry. I’m getting all of the mail from folks and the very real anger because people feel very differently. But I thought it was a salient discussion because as a Black person, I think of race as being something I can see. So I see you and I know what race you are.” She continued, “The discussion was about what I felt about that. I felt that it was really more about man’s inhumanity to man and how horrible people can be to people, and we’re seeing it manifest itself these days. But people were very angry and they said, ‘No, no, we are race.’ And I understand. I understand. I felt differently, I respect everything everyone is saying to me, and you know, I don’t want to fake apologize. I was very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying. And so because of it they’re saying that I’m anti-Semitic and I’m denying the Holocaust and all these other things which, you know, would never occur to me to do.” Goldberg and Colbert discussed how whiteness was a colonial construct, with Goldberg emphasizing that her idea of racism is based on visual appearances. “When you talk about being a racist, I was saying, ‘You can’t call this racism. This was evil. This wasn’t based on the skin. You couldn’t tell who was Jewish. [The Nazis] had to delve deeply to figure it out,’” she said, later adding, “The Nazis lied. It wasn’t [about race]. 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’m thinking, ‘How can you say it’s about race if you are fighting each other?’ So it all really began because I said, ‘How will we explain to children what happened in Nazi Germany?’ I said, ‘This isn’t racial, this was about white on white.’ And everybody said, ‘No, no, no, this was racial.’” She concluded with a joking plea for no one to write her any more letters, noting, “I’m going to take your word for it and never bring it up again.” Goldberg also apologized for her comments on Monday evening, tweeting a quote from Anti-Defamation League CEO JonathanGreenblatt that read, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people—who they deemed to be an inferior race.” She added, “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.” On The View’s Feb. 1 episode, she offered another mea culpa. “So yesterday on our show, I misspoke, and I tweeted about it last night, but I kind of what you to hear it from me directly,” she told the audience and viewers (via Variety). “I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined, because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention. And I understand why now and for that, I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things. And while discussing how a Tennessee school board unanimously voted to remove a graphic novel about the Holocaust, I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. But it is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race.” Just before introducing Greenblatt as the show’s first guest of the day, she concluded, “Now, words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments as I said and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know, and as you all know because I’ve always done that.” Next, find out who will fill in for Meghan McCain on The View this season!
