Los Angeles, California
February 10, 2022
(Today’s Date)
February 7, 2022
(Original Date)
*Denotes a change in the original blog, either addition or deletion, or both.
**UPDATE (Denotes NEW information or material added after publishing of the original blog)
This blog is submitted and contributed as part of the War on Racial Discrimination in California (and the United States)
Last week, Whoopi Goldberg, *who is Black, and is a member of ABC’s “The View”, had the unfortunate circumstance of making a statement she felt comfortable in making, but, resulted in upsetting some Jewish people, who apparently felt that Whoopi misspoke , and was insensitive to Jewish people and particularly those Jewish people or their ancestors who had suffered the effects of the Holocaust. And, while I believe it is understandable that some Jewish people might be sensitive to any statement that might tend to detract from the enormity of the atrocity of the Holocaust, objectively, and by meaning or definition, Whoopi is right, and there was no need for her to apologize; further, ABC should not have suspended her without pay.
The statement made by Whoopie : that the Holocaust was not about race; rather, it was about “man’s inhumanity to man”.
I believe that when Whoopi made the statement that the Holocaust was not based on race , she was referring to the scientific definition or concepts of race, that is, Caucasoid (Aryan, Semitic, Hamitic) or Caucasian or white; Negroid (African Negro, Australoid, Melanesian, Negrito), or Black; and Mongoloid (Chinese, Korean & Japanese, Tibetan & Burmese), or mixed race. Therefore, if Hitler ordered the execution of the Jews based on their race, he would have also ordered execution of the non-Jewish Germans as well, because both the Jewish Germans and the non-Jewish Germans were Caucasians or white. The Jews suffered the Holocaust not because of their race, as Whoopie said, but because of their religion and/or ethnicity. “Some scientists spoke of three races of mankind : The Caucasian race living in Europe, North Africa and West Asia; the Mongoloid race living in East Asia, Australia , and the Americas, and the Negroid race living in Africa south of the Sahara. Other scientists had different ideas and spoke of four or five races.” Wikipedia, “Historical Race Concepts”. And, clearly, the Holocaust was about “man’s inhumanity to man”. Again, Whoopi was right. So, there was no need for Whoopie to apologize. But, she did , nevertheless.
Yet, even after Whoopi apologized, ABC suspended her, without pay. So, what would have happened if she didn’t apologize ? Would she have been fired ? Probably, for simply stating her opinion, which is supported by scientific definition and historical facts. If Whoopi was a non-Jewish white person, would she have been suspended, with or without pay ? I doubt it, especially if she apologized, as Whoopi did. So, was Whoopie discriminated against because she’s Black? Does ABC owe Whoopi an apology ? And, backpay ? *I think so.
Finally, the L.A. Times, through an Op-Ed entitled “What we can all learn from Whoopi’s Holocaust ignorance”, February 3, 2022, by Karin Klein, which stated , in part, “She (Whoopi) had been wrong, downright inaccurate, but now she had learned.” But, the problem is, Whoopi wasn’t wrong, or inaccurate, and Klein’s op-ed only supports that fact. First, Whoopi stated that the Holocaust was not about race, and Klein supports that notion, “it didn’t matter to the Nazis whether people with obvious disabilities were Aryan; they were nonetheless deemed ‘unworthy of life’ and 200,000 of them were systematically killed”. That statement demonstrates that the Holocaust was not about race. Incidentally, Klein admits, “Certainly, most (but not all) Jewish people are white”(BUT, at the time of the Holocaust, in Germany, they ALL were white).
Whoopi states the Holocaust was about “man’s inhumanity to man”. Klein supports that notion, “the Holocaust was a particularly gruesome and awful example of bias and hatred toward certain groups of people simply because of an aspect of their identity.” That’s “man’s inhumanity to man.” Klein : “In U.S. history, that kind of hateful prejudice has most affected the Indigenous, Black, Latino, and Asian populations”, “groups that are enslaved, attacked and mistreated.” That is, “man’s inhumanity to man”. Lastly, Klein : “The Holocaust was an almost unbelievably massive mass murder of targeted groups. Though Jews were killed in much larger numbers than others, the Nazis also targeted the Roma, gay people and others considered ‘subhuman’ ”. That is, “man’s inhumanity to man”. Whoopi was right.
THE BOTTOMLINE : Whoopi Goldberg did not intend to offend anyone when she offered her opinion as to what the Holocaust was about. And, even though some found her opinion to be offensive, her opinion and statement as a whole is correct. And even though she didn’t need to do so, she apologized. Yet, even with the apology, she was suspended without pay. Not only was the suspension unwarranted, but, it also begs the question as to whether or not *Whoopi has been mistreated for merely expressing an opinion, which is clearly supported by facts and scientific theory.
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