Whoopi Goldberg Apologizes After Claiming ‘Holocaust Isn’t About Race’

The View host Whoopi Goldberg prompted outrage Monday when she insisted the “Holocaust isn’t about race.” Her comments followed a segment on the show discussing a Tennessee school district’s decision to ban Maus, a the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel centering on the horrific experiences of a Holocaust survivor.

On Monday night, Goldberg addressed her comments.

“On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both,” the comedienne wrote on Twitter. “As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi systematic annihilation of the Jewish people — who they deemed to be an inferior race.’ I stand corrected.”

According to CNN, Goldberg observed that the McMinn County School Board cited nudity found in Maus, rather than its depiction of the Holocaust, as the reasoning behind the ban. Cohost Joy Behar scoffed at that explanation, calling it “a canard to throw you off from the fact that they don’t like history that makes white people look bad.”

“Well, this is white people doing it to white people, so y’all gonna fight amongst yourselves,” Goldberg said, referring to the Holocaust. While that statement flew by without anyone else commenting, her next one did not. The topic moved to the issue with banning problematic moments in U.S. history being addressed in schools — especially where racism is concerned.

“If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it because the Holocaust isn’t about race,” Goldberg said, adding it was about “man’s inhumanity to man” involving “two white groups of people.” Her cohosts did push back on this statement, with Ana Navarro noting that the Holocaust was “about white supremacy.” An estimated 6 million Jews were killed by Nazis over the course of the Holocaust.

“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waver,” Goldberg wrote in her Twitter apology. “I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies.”