Whoopi Goldberg Suspended From ‘The View’ Show Following her wrong Holocaust comments

Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from ABC and The View over her controversial Holocaust comments on Monday’s episode of the daytime talk show.

Appearing alongside her hosts Joy Behar, Sara Haines, and Ana Navarro, Whoopi Goldberg was discussing a Tennessee school board choosing to ban Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, in which around 6 million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany.

Maus depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats and has won numerous literary awards. The school board said they opted to pull the book from shelves as it features profanity, nudity, and depiction of suicide that they deemed to be inappropriate for 13-year-olds.

Commenting on this, 66-year-old Whoopi said;

“Let’s be truthful about it because Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s not about race. It’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.

These are two white groups of people! The minute you turn it into race it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black or white, Jews, it’s each other.”

Her response caused an uproar which brought about several tongues lashing so she released an apology hours later. But on CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Monday night, while attempting to clarify her comments, she said the Nazis had lied and actually had issues with ethnicity, not race, which caused further offense.

Having misspoken, Whoopi tendered the third apology. She said;

“Yesterday on the show I misspoke.

[The Holocaust] is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race.

Now, words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments and 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.’

‘Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg.”

Whoopi’s initial comments led ABC News president Kim Godwin to suspend her for two weeks after some ABC insiders insisted that her apology wasn’t enough and demanded she should be fired.

ABC News president Kim Godwin said Goldberg would be off-air for two weeks after her “wrong and hurtful comments”.

The statement read;

“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. These decisions are never easy, but necessary.

Just last week I noted that the culture at ABC News is one that is driven, kind, inclusive, respectful, and transparent. Whoopi’s comments do not align with those values.”