Whoopi Goldberg proved that she learned nothing after claiming that the Holocaust wasn’t about race earlier this year, when she doubled down on similar comments in a recent interview.
Goldberg first made the controversial remarks that the Holocaust was “not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man,” on the Jan. 31 episode of “The View.”
When co-host Ana Navarro tried to shut her down by insisting the Nazi’s committed genocide of six million Jews over “white supremacy,” Goldberg insisted it wasn’t true, because they were white.
“But these are two white groups of people,” she responded. “This is white people doing it to white people, so y’all going to fight amongst yourselves.”
Goldberg was blasted by the Anti-Defamation League and Holocaust Museum amongst many others, but was given a slap on the wrist by ABC for her “hurtful comments.”
“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,” Kim Godwin, president at ABC News, said at the time.
“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” Godwin continued.
“The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
Apparently Goldberg didn’t take enough “time to reflect and learn,” because less than a year later, she repeated the ill informed claims and stirred up a new scandal.
In a press push for her latest film Till, which explores the aftermath of 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till, Goldberg revisited her initial Holocaust comments.
“My best friend said, ‘Not for nothing is there no box on the census for the Jewish race. So that leads me to believe that we’re probably not a race,'” she told a reporter.
When The Sunday Times interviewer pointed out that Nazis targeted European Jews with racial laws, the Sister Act star repeated that the mass genocide was “wasn’t originally” about race.
“Yes, but that’s the killer, isn’t it?” Goldberg stated. “The oppressor is telling you what you are. Why are you believing them? They’re Nazis. Why believe what they’re saying?
“Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical,” she doubled-down.
“They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And then they made this decision.”
The reporter noted that the Nazis tried to prove that Jewish people belonged to a separate race by measuring their skulls and noses, but Goldberg scoffed back.
“They did that to Black people, too. But it doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them,” she insisted.
“That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked.”
Goldberg was once again called out by the Anti-Defamation League for her misguided remarks, which CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called “deeply offensive and incredibly disappointing, especially given that this is not the first time she had made remarks like this.”
“In a moment when antisemitic incidents have surged across the U.S., she should realize that making such ignorant statements can have real consequences,” he continued.
He called for her to apologize to the Jewish community and educate herself about how antisemitism was the driver behind “the systemic slaughter of millions.”
“She shouldn’t do it for the ratings — she should do it simply because it’s the right thing to do,” he charged.
“Failure to address the issue would raise serious questions about her sincerity and solidarity with her Jewish viewers and all those who experience hate.”
Goldberg issued another apology on Tuesday night, in which she expressed that she was trying to explain her initial remarks about the Holocaust.
“Recently while doing press in London, I was asked about my comments from earlier this year,” she said in a statement. “I tried to convey to the reporter what I had said and why, and attempted to recount that time.”
“It was never my intention to appear as if I was doubling down on hurtful comments, especially after talking with and hearing people like rabbis and old and new friends weighing in.”
“I’m still learning a lot and believe me, I heard everything everyone said to me.”
Goldberg insisted that she now understands that the Holocaust actually was about race, after her latest controversial comments.
“I believe that the Holocaust was about race, and I am still as sorry now as I was then that I upset, hurt and angered people,” she concluded.
“My sincere apologies again, especially to everyone who thought this was a fresh rehash of the subject. I promise it was not.”