Whoopi Goldberg Receives Backlash After 'The Holocaust Isn't About Race' Comment | Did She Apologize About It?

ABC's "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg received backlash for repeatedly asserting that "the Holocaust isn't about race" despite the systematic killing of around six million Jews and five million others as a result of the Nazis' racist ideology.

Her comments came during a segment of the talk show on Monday that focused in part on a Tennessee school district's decision to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel "Maus," which depicts the horrors of the Holocaust and experiences of a Holocaust survivor.

Earlier this month, the book was removed from the eighth-grade English language arts curriculum in McMinn County, Tennessee, citing "rough, objectionable language" and a drawing of a naked woman.

During the roundtable conversation, Goldberg said she was surprised that the school board seemed to be more concerned about the nudity in "Maus" rather than the Holocaust itself.

The discussion then shifted to how some people attempt to prevent schools from teaching controversial aspects of the country's history, notably those dealing with race and racism, CNN reported.

Goldberg responded, "Let's be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn't about race." Her co-hosts appeared stunned.

She went on to say that the Holocaust was about "man's inhumanity to man," and that it involved "two White groups of people."

Whoopi Goldberg Says Holocaust Is About 'How People Treat Each Other'

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Adolf Hitler addressed this very issue in 1919 as he referred to the Jews "as a race and not a religious community." He defined their presence as a "race-tuberculosis of the people.'"

Fox News reported that some of her co-hosts began challenging her statements when Goldberg again insisted that the Holocaust was not about race.

The Nazis regarded Jews to be a different race, according to Behar, while Ana Navarro noted that the Holocaust was "about White supremacy," with both Jews and Roma people killed by the Nazis. The Nazis, according to Sara Haines, did not view Jews as White.

The interview ended after Goldberg continued to assert that the underlying issue was how people treat each other.

"It's how people treat each other. It's a problem. It doesn't matter if you're Black, or White, cause Black, White, Jews, Italians, everybody eats each other," Goldberg said.

Whoopi Goldberg Apologizes After She Receives Backlash

Shortly after Whoopi Goldberg's statements began to circulate, among those who slammed her was the non-profit organization Stop Antisemitism, which tweeted that six million of them were gassed, starved, and massacred because they were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis, Daily Mail reported.

"How dare you minimize our trauma and suffering!" the organization said.

The U.S. Holocaust Museum also tweeted that racism was central to Nazi ideology. It noted that Jews were not defined by religion but by race, adding that Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.

Goldberg's views were also slammed by the Anti-Defamation League's CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, saying that the Holocaust was about the Nazi's systematic annihilation of the Jewish people, who are deemed to be an inferior race.

"Holocaust distortion is dangerous," Greenblatt noted. It was not the first time that Whoopi Goldberg has made a controversial statement.

In 2010, she had previously defended convicted sex offender Bill Cosby and actor Mel Gibson after he was heard in an audio recording calling a Latino member of staff a "wetback."

Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg posted a statement on Twitter expressing her "sincerest apologies" later on Monday.

She wrote: "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. 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."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Jess Smith

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