On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg, who’s long called out others on The View for insensitive comments, made insensitive comments on The View. During a discussion involving the Holocaust, Goldberg made the historically incorrect claim that the Nazi’s round-up and extermination of Jewish people was “isn’t about race.” After being roundly condemned, she apologized, but that hasn’t shielded her from further trouble.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, Goldberg has now been suspended from the daytime chat show for two weeks. In a statement, ABC News president Kim Godwin, said, “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.”
Goldberg’s comments came during a discussion of Maus, Art Spiegelman’s seminal graphic novel, which depicts the story of the Holocaust with groups represented by different animals, including Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Americans as dogs, etc. Published between 1980 and 1991, when collected it became the first (and so far only) graphic novel to win the Pulitzer Prize. Recently it was banned by a school board in Tennessee, partly for its depiction of nudity (involving cartoon animals, trying to survive the Holocaust). The backlash has made the two-part collection a bestseller all over again.
Earlier it was reported that, despite her apology at the beginning of Monday’s show, Goldberg was in “deep s*it” with ABC brass, who were demanding a “fuller retraction” than the one she gave.
(Via THR)
