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By Robyn Autry
Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” set off a firestorm when she insisted on Jan. 31, 2022 that the Holocaust was “not about race.” Hands outstretched, she went on to describe the genocide as a conflict between “two white groups of people.”
As someone who writes and teaches about racial identity, I was struck by the firmness of Goldberg’s initial claim, her clumsy retraction and apologies, and the heated public reactions.
Her apology tour on her own show the next day, on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and on Twitter
raised more questions about her views on race, antisemitism and the Holocaust. Goldberg also seemed unaware of the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis. By the end of the week, the president of ABC News described Goldberg’s remarks as “wrong and hurtful” and announced that she was suspended from the show for two weeks.
How did a conversation about the controversial banning of the Holocaust graphic book “Maus” by the Tennessee Board of Education, which Goldberg opposed, turn into such a media spectacle? And what does it tell us about the social norms guiding how we talk about race and violence?
Filling the void
Sociologist and American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jonathan Markovitz defines “racial spectacles” as mass media events surrounding some racial incident that is passionately debated before dying down.
Think of Colin Kaepernick taking a knee or Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s apology to the Cherokee Nation after taking a DNA test. Markovitz argues that the lack of ongoing public conversation about racism fuels these events, leaving Americans to react intermittently to shocking violence and salacious confessions. While it’s not bad that these events get people talking about race and racism, Markovitz worries that what is learned is limited because emotions tend to run high and these moments quickly fade from the news cycle.
In the absence of sustained national dialogue, shows like “The View” and comedians like Goldberg can easily become lightning rods. The American public often overestimates their ability to unpack complicated social issues. Are they public intellectuals or entertainers? Critics might also ask why someone like Goldberg, who has already demonstrated odd thinking about racial identity and a willingness to defend racist acts, would have such a huge platform in the first place. But this isn’t just about Whoopi Goldberg.
Let’s clear up a few points: Race is an elastic social category, not a fixed biological one; Jewish identity and experience are not synonymous with whiteness; and Jewish people have historically been treated as a distinct racial group. The Holocaust was the systematic genocide of some 6 million Jews from 1941 to 1945, fueled by the Nazis’ belief that they were an inferior race. Other victims included Poles, Roma, gay men, lesbians and others.
The Holocaust is one of the most extreme and tragic examples of what sociologists Michel Omi and Howard Winant referred to as “racial projects.” In their work on racial formation, they used that term to describe how racial categories are formed, transformed and destroyed over time. In other words, the fact the Jewish people themselves may disagree over whether they are a racial or ethnic group does not undo their long history of being categorized and marginalized as such.
Still, it is unsurprising that an American, perhaps especially a Black one like Goldberg or myself, would think that race is about skin color given how it plays out in our lives. As a graduate student studying racial violence and collective memory, I was stunned to learn how ideas about racial difference varied wildly across societies and how those ideas could morph within the same society over time.
I learned that race is a social idea that is propped up by observable traits, only one of which is skin color. The racialization of Jewish people may not be about complexion, but physical markers are still often used to differentiate and stereotype the Jewish body.
It is also important to understand ongoing antisemitism in the U.S. and efforts to deny that the Holocaust even happened. Goldberg’s remarks were clearly the sort of “excitable speech” that gender theorist Judith Butler writes about, disorienting us by bringing violent histories to bear on us today. The way we talk about the past matters – as does the way people are held accountable for misrepresenting it – because so much of it helps to explain the contours of existing conflict.
Another lesson
At the same time, dismissing Goldberg’s comments and the backlash would mean missing an opportunity to appreciate what can result. For example, in light of the recent controversy, the Anti-Defamation League announced it will revise its definition of racism to include both race and ethnicity.
In this moment, people are talking about Jewish identity, racism and a violent history we’re meant to “never forget.” But they’re also talking about Blackness.
What can we make of the frenzied rush to chastise and publicly ridicule a Black woman for talking about race in the wrong way? On the one hand, this is similar to other celebrities condemned for racist speech whose apologies get scrutinized.
Yet, the Goldberg affair feels different to me. It reignites a recurring suspicion that Black people, while oppressed, suffer from twisted bigoted racial thinking – that Black people are not innocent victims after all. When a Black celebrity makes racist remarks, suspicions reawaken that perhaps it is a collective failing. This sort of projection of individual acts onto an entire group as if it were a shared trait is anti-Black.
Yes, many of us think Goldberg got it horribly wrong. And yes, her apologies made matters worse. There are better ways to think and talk about race and racism.
But observers shouldn’t be surprised when these conversations go awry, considering how little time is spent openly having them in the first place.
Robyn Autry is Associate Professor of Sociology at Wesleyan University.
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Laura Shaver says
I am a part of the “baby boom” generation. My father was in the army and part of the company that went into Auschwitz after the battle was over. I grew up with pictures of what our army found. Naked bodies, stacked like fire wood against the fences. Is it any wonder our men came home alcoholics?
I came to believe my Grandmother was Jewish. After my grandmother and my mom passed away I found a Torah packed in her cedar chest.
On Friday nights I was always sent to bed early. I heard people come into our apartment. Of course I would sneak out of bed to see what was going on. They would go into our living room and I would hear quiet singing. Saturday morning we always had matzah, cream cheese and grape jelly.
We lived in Baltimore MD. Not Germany! Why did they have to hide and sneak around to worship and pray? This was the USA, full of hate.
End of rant
Percy's mother says
Laura,
Thank you for sharing your story. I know the stories from our respective generational pasts can be very painful.
Your comment was not a rant.
I also have my own stories about what happened during WWII.
What happened during that time should always be remembered and certainly never trivialized, negated or swept under the rug.
Thank you again for sharing.
Dennis says
She should be fired. If she was not black, she would have been fired. Rosanne got fired for less because she was white. Stop the racist acts in America and treat all the same.
C.J. says
I heard only one conclusion she made, ” it was Man against Man” and that is correct. “Man” always finds a way to define and elevate himself and put down another. Until we recognize that defect in any context in which we engage each other, we will never achieve the ability to respect all “Man”. (“Man” here is gender neutral.)
ASF says
If that were the case, then “Racism”, Islamophobia”, “Anti-Semitism” , “Homophobia” and “Sexism” (etc.) would all be treated with equal attention and they aren’t. Some Democrats just put forward a Bill that singled out “Islamophobia” as its sole focus of condemnation and attention–and that was in reaction to perceived threats against Ilhan Omar by Lauren Boebert.
We’ve become an increasingly divided nation, with different groups pitted against each in the “Hate Crimes Olympics.” Although the differences in this case may appear to be largely a matter of semantics, this is not a political game that anyone can win, on any level.
Been There says
But they should be. They should all be treated equally. Any action of hateful prejudice against anyone different than ourselves and based on those differences should be categorized as hateful anti-human behavior. We should have “hateful anti-human” laws.
R. S. says
I hate to point this out, but she was and is NOT wrong. Germans blamed the Great Depression on Jewish bankers. Heinrich von Treitschke chimed in on anti-Jewish sentiments already in 1871, claiming that the Jews are Germany’s downfall. From medieval times already, Jews were not permitted to do “Christian” trades and were forced into the financial business. Many–such as the Rothschilds and the Bethmanns–succeeded in this business admirably. For the NAZIs, they became a scapegoat for the maladies of the capitalist system. That is what singled them out, not a racist look-unlike-us factor, as US racism evolved when it was not sufficient to blame the “other” for not being Christian, as per the Doctrine of Discovery. The issue became more racial when Jews were singled out to “purify” the nation’s values. But it certainly did not BEGIN as an issue of racism; that “honor” belongs completely to us here. Remember, please, that Jesse Owens in his own words claimed NOT to have been slighted by Hitler; but he claimed having been slighted by FDR when he–like all the rest of the black athletes who won gold–were not invited to the White House. And Hitler’s personal pilot, Hanna Reitsch, having refused de-NAZI-fication, went to Ghana to teach Ghanaian women to fly.
Whoopi may have a point. says
This social construct of race is a creation of whiteness. Before this classification we were about cultural and religious differences. Here we go again reclassifing to accommodate the white power structure. Whoopi is not wrong. We can bring up Ireland and say white killing wjite. When tribal distinction are made can we now say it was racial? Can we talk about Bosnia or is there a distinction? This controversy is hypocritical.
Been There says
Agreed. Well stated.
DaleL says
I have relatives who are Jewish. They look pretty much the same as I do. However, a few years ago while attending my grandniece’s Bat Mitzvah, I noticed the security (armed guard) for their Synagogue. One of my oldest friends, whom I met 50 years ago, was born in China, but grew up mostly in Illinois. With the Covid pandemic, he and his family have taken more safety precautions. Just recently in Orlando a couple of dozen “fine” people decided to publicly demonstrate their hatred of others as Nazis!
Whoopi Goldberg did not deny the Holocaust. As such, I don’t think it is fair to lump her in with Holocaust deniers. However, the horror of the Holocaust must never be minimalized.
Land of no turn signals says says
She should get a pass,after all she’s from the far left.
JimBob says
The Holocaust was a uniquely Christian event as we all know. The only reason anyone hates Jews is for religious reasons. Like the “very good people” who marched in Charlottesville.
Geezer says
Whoopi Goldberg also defended Michael Vicks’s (retired NFL football player) funding of a pit-bull
dogfighting ring on his property in Virginia. She sure talks a lot of sh**.
Leave it to Whoopi Goldberg to say something stupid and inflammatory…
Jewish organizations have come out publicly to forgive her—what a wonderful thing to be able to forgive.
I only wish that I could be as gracious…
Zei gezunt y’all!
Whoopi may have a point says
Michael Vick??? Another victim of the hypocracy in America. He sucked up because of money! He apologized much like Whoopi after America destroyed him all because of retribution He had to pay for his greatness! He had to get back what he worked so hard for. Dogs or Human rights-poverty-neglictful government-redlining? Meanwhile Washington smells of dead fish. We have a criminal X President, a criminal enterprise at the height of power and a whole lot of traitors in government thworting the system. Can’t get basic human rights done denying people the right to choose there leaders and black people are being killed by law enforcement as they sleep having their doors busted down for no reason. There is nothing for Whoopi to be forgiven for. History cannot be changed. Eugenics originated in Europe and America by white men clasifying race. Jewish wasn”t one of the races. Palestinians and True Israelies that grew up togetther have religious difference but lived together with less strife until Europian Jews were granted their Zionist movement. Western religion with the belief that the second coming a Religious State of Israel must happen. The oldest Jewish TRIBE is in Ethiopia. Jews who are black also exist in Southern Africa. BTW Ethiopian Jews in Israel are treated like crap. Change is in the hands of the powerful and the stories they choose to tell. They burn books and miseducate. She don’t need your forgiveness!
Geezer says
It’s a gray, wintery day here, and I admit to having felt somewhat downcast.
Well, no more!
Your reply triggered an eruption of laughter that made my eyes roll back into my head!
I’d love to send you some Silly Putty out of appreciation. You can roll some dinosaur eggs
and impress your friends…
A dank
אַ דאַנק
Jane Gentile-Youd says
Whoopi’s comment was downright stupid and thoughtless but she had no malice. She did however display her lack of knowledge of Hitler’s defining Jewish people as a ‘race’ and his insane obsession with ‘ethnic cleansing’
Had wWhoopi studied the history of World War II she would not have made her dumb comment. But, hey, she has enough money to retire and spend time in the library studying what she should have known before opening her mouth..