While Whoopi Goldberg posted an apology on Twitter yesterday evening, it came after taping an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
The Late Show posted the clip of their conversation on YouTube.
One comment that Goldberg makes is that the Nazis couldn’t tell who was Jewish. Colbert asked her if the Nazis saw it as race. It’s very clear that Goldberg sees race through an American lens because her response was “Most of the people they were attacking were white people. How can you say it’s about race when they were fighting each other?” I don’t know how many times I have to say this but Jews are an ethno-religious people and are not white. Do I need to say this again?
I don’t know how many times I see progressive friends refer to Jews as white. We aren’t white. The Nazis certainly didn’t see us as white. Even today, the far right doesn’t see us as white while the far left view us as white supremacists. Which is it? You cannot be having it both ways. Then again, the far left decides to view Jews at white while–at the same time–erasing Jews of a different skin color. Would you tell a Sephardi or Mizrahi Jew that they are white? I’m guessing no. It was certainly not white on white crime as Goldberg suggested on The View and The Late Show. One can acknowledge that light-skinned Jews can benefit from white privilege on the basis of skin tone but at the same time acknowledge that Jews are not white.
I tweeted this yesterday but will use this opportunity to say it here, too:
If you believe that the Holocaust was two groups of white people, I'm sorry but you're wrong. One, this completely erases Black and Brown Jews. hey exist. Asian Jews also exist, too. When I fill out the race/ethnicity form, I check other and write in ASHKENAZI JEWISH.
— Danielle Solzman ✡️?✡️??️? (@DanielleSATM) January 31, 2022
Goldberg says she got the message and knows how people feel. She said that she’ll never bring it up again. To this, I say she should bring it up again by speaking with Jewish educators and Holocaust historians. Go to Yad Vashem. Go to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Talk to David Baddiel, Dara Horn, Ben M. Freeman. The list of people goes on and one. Something that came up yesterday–a suggestion I strongly agree with–is to bring such people onto The View. Whoopi Goldberg should use this as a real moment to educate viewers because it’s clear that viewing through an American-centric lens leads to seeing it differently.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs weeknights on CBS at 11:35 PM ET/PT.
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