Whoopi Goldberg suspended after Holocaust remarks

Whoopi Goldberg, an actress and one of the co-hosts of the popular US talk show "The View," has been suspended from the program for two weeks following controversial Holocaust remarks, parent network ABC said Tuesday.

"While Whoopi has apologized, I've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments," ABC News President Kim Godwin said in statement posted on Twitter.

"The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities," she added.

What did Whoopi say?

During a Monday broadcast of "The View," Goldberg claimed that race was not a factor in the Holocaust because it primarily involved "white people doing it to white people."

The remarks are inaccurate, as the Nazis openly believed they were a superior race to the Jews and other groups of people.

Goldberg later apologized for the comments and said she "misspoke," saying that as a Black person she often thought of racism as being based on skin color. But she said in a statement that she had learned from the experience. 

"It is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race," she said. "Now, words matter, and mine are no exception. I regret my comments and, as I said, I stand corrected." 

How did Jewish groups react to the comments?

Jewish groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League, criticized the remarks. Some social media users also called for Goldberg to be fired. 

Likely in response, the US Holocaust Museum tweeted that "racism was central to Nazi ideology."

"Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder," the tweet said.

Jewish-American podcaster Katie Halper told DW Wednesday that Goldberg's comments show an "Ameri-centric perspective. She said "The View" co-host adheres to a "presentist" definition of racism based on her experiences as a Black woman in the United States.

She said Goldberg's suspension shows a "double standard." 

"You're allowed to say really offensive things and outright hateful things about people. But if you say something that's kind of clumsy or ill-informed or shows that you haven't really delved into this enough, that it's about Jewish issues, then you're not allowed to fumble," Halper said.

She described Goldberg's remarks as "ignorant" and "dense" but did not characterize them as antisemitic.

Goldberg made the original comments during a discussion about a Tennessee school board banning "Maus," a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman that revolves around the Holocaust.

wd/msh (AP, Reuters, AFP)