Whoopi Goldberg's Suspension From The View Was Not Necessary (But Not For The Reason You Might Think)

On the January 31, 2022 episode of ABC's "The View," the hosts were discussing the recent decision by a Tennessee school district to ban Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning serialized nonfiction graphic novel "Maus." Spiegelman wrote "Maus" by interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and survivor of the Holocaust, depicting Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, Americans as dogs, the English as fish, the French as frogs, and the Swedish as deer. The district banned the book on grounds of "inappropriate language and nudity," an absurd claim to make regarding a book about the mass genocide of over six million people, and a clear act of antisemitism.

During the discussion of the book banning, co-host Whoopi Goldberg made the ill-informed comment, "Let's be truthful about it because Holocaust isn't about race," she said. "It's not about race, it's not about race, it's about man's inhumanity to man." "The View" co-host Ana Navarro immediately corrected her, stating, "But it's about white supremacists going after Jews." Goldberg disagreed and replied, "But these are two white groups of people!" She continued, "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." Goldberg's comments immediately came under fire for being antisemitic, and as of Tuesday night, ABC News president Kim Godwin had announced to staff that Goldberg would be suspended for two weeks "for her wrong and hurtful comments."

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— ABC News PR (@ABCNewsPR) February 2, 2022

Antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise not just in the United States, but around the world, and they have been, steadily, for some time. It's impossible to fathom just how deeply embedded antisemitism is in our global society, as it isn't just an act of discrimination or bigotry, but is linked to and birthed out of dangerous conspiracy theories that cause legitimate harm, continually putting the Jewish people in danger.

We (meaning Americans in this instance) frequently apply America's perspective of racism onto other countries and time periods, discussing them as if we're making a one-to-one comparison, which is not always applicable, and fosters ignorance. Jewish educational professional, essayist, and TikTok creator Shekhiynah Larks offered an important and nuanced dissection of how Goldberg came to her incorrect conclusion, noting that we often forget that whiteness in America has changed over time, where people who weren't considered "white" during the turn of the 20th century (Jews, Italians, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, Slavs, etc.) are typically seen as white today as many of us benefit from white supremacy due to our lack of melanin and eurocentric features. But the Holocaust was absolutely about race, as the Jewish people were not only viewed as "not white," but subhuman and often compared vermin or disease.

While I cannot speak on behalf of Goldberg nor will I ever attempt to do so, it appears that her statements are rooted in ignorance on the subject matter from a history of misinformation, and perhaps most importantly, her own lived experiences as a Black woman in America. "The core of the problem is that people don't realize we're working with two definitions of race," Larks said in another video. "White supremacy and Aryanism define race in different ways."