Comedian says she is “still learning a lot” and did not intend to “rehash” her claims that the Holocaust wasn’t racist.
By World Israel News Staff
Days after once again reiterating her belief that the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust was not racist but actually an example of “white on white” violence, comedian Whoopi Goldberg issued an apology and said she hadn’t intended to double down on her remarks.
In January 2022, Goldberg – who is not Jewish but intentionally adopted a Jewish-sounding name at the beginning of her entertainment career – was suspended from her role as co-host of daytime talk show The View, after she denied that the Jews were the victim of racially-based slaughter by the Nazis.
Goldberg said that both Jews and Nazis were white, so the violence directed at Jews shouldn’t be considered racist.
Shortly after her suspension, Goldberg issued an apology claiming that her remarks had been misinterpreted.
But last week, while speaking about the incident with the Sunday Times of London, Goldberg repeated many of the comments she had made, suggesting that her apology at the time had not been sincere.
She said that because “you can’t tell a Jew on the street” they should not be counted as having a racial or ethnic identity separate from that of white people, and suggested that the backlash to her comments had been out of proportion and overblown.
That interview sparked another round of controversy, for which Goldberg apologized in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday.
“It was never my intention to appear as if I was doubling down on hurtful comments,” Goldberg said, adding that her perspective had changed after “talking with and hearing people like rabbis and old and new friends weighing in.”
She said that she is “still learning a lot” and that she does “believe that the Holocaust was about race.”
Goldberg said she had simply been trying to clarify her comments during the Times of London interview, not double down on them.
“I am still as sorry now as I was then that I upset, hurt and angered people,” she said. “My sincere apologies again, especially to everyone who thought this was a fresh rehash of the subject. I promise it was not.”