Whoopi Goldberg, The Holocaust is Not Simply White on White Crime

After watching Whoopi Goldberg's speech on the TV show, The View, a number of times (how could I not- it was replayed over and over on MSM) I disliked it more and more, each time I watched it. 

It wasn't her insistence of Jews being a race. After all, there is much debate about that within our own faith. It was her comment about the Holocaust being nothing more than 'white on white crime'.  Sure on the surface, it might seem innocuous because the Nazi's were mostly white and most of the Jews in Europe were also white. An obvious exception was the evil Amin al-Husseini who was the leading Arab leader at the time. He helped Hitler by leading Muslim troops in Bosnia. I doubt that she even knows who he is. Or maybe she considered him white. But what does skin colour have to do with the Holocaust?

I and many others found it offensive. Why? Because the vile murder and attempt to exterminate an entire people (let's leave race out of it), the Jews of Europe, was not some minor incident. It wasn't 2 white guys fighting. To try to label it simply white on white crime is to insult the deaths of 6 million Jews. 

So why did she say it? Especially during Holocaust Memorial Week? What was the point she was trying to make? So what if it was white on white crime? If it was, that was certainly the least important aspect of the Holocaust. No doubt that one cannot find that description of the Holocaust in any of the tens of thousands of Holocaust books written to date. 

I think because it moved the focus away from her constant love affair with being a black victim (albeit temporarily). People like her, and there are many, have a need to constantly point out the injustices they face. Yes of course, there is obviously black discrimination in the world. But they are not the only ones being discriminated against or attacked. The statistics in practically every country in the world show that Jews have the highest rate of racist incidents committed against them. And unlike blacks, ours is trending upward. We are also a tiny fraction compared to the black population. The Jewish homeland, Israel, has been facing existential threats from her modern statehood, not to mention horrific terrorists acts committed on her Jewish citizens daily! The tiny Jewish population has been persecuted for thousands of years. 

This is not a competition for who suffers the most. To me it sounded like that was her beef. If so,  her point is somewhat nefarious. She has every right to stand up for her people and so she should and does. But she has no right to diminish the memory of the most abhorrent stain in humanity that happened to our people (my parents) in even the slightest way in order to try to make her point. 

If she said it out of ignorance I could forgive her easily. But she is not ignorant. She and her mother knew that giving her a Jewish sounding name might help her succeed in show business. Not sure if it did or didn't. But the point is she 'knows' who we are or at least thinks that she does. She even claimed to be Jewish at one point. Not that I approve of her lying about it but her general comments she makes remind me of the common rebuttal to an antisemite being called an antisemite 'Some of my best friends are Jewish'. 

Can you imagine what she would say if I said that slavery is nothing more than black on black crime? After all, the slave trade was mostly inspired and made possible by certain black tribes in Africa taking other blacks as slaves. One can argue that it was they who were the primary slave offenders. Had I been on the View and said that, you can bet that she would lose her mind over my comments as would the rest of the yentas there and I would not only be thrown off the show, but probably be charged with a hate crime. 

The next day she was interviewed by Colbert on the Late Show. She was trying to explain what she said earlier on the View. I'm paraphrasing: 'If I was walking along the street with a white friend and we ran into the KKK, I would have to run for my life but my white friend wouldn't.'

I wish I could have asked her: What if your white friend was wearing a kippah? Who would have to run away faster?

How myopic was her thinking?  I could also ask her what if I (a white Jewish male) was walking with my black friend) and we ran into a group of black thugs in Harlem? Chances are I'd have to run for my life and my black friend might not. But what are we to learn from any of these examples? Nothing!

Yet there are many things we can learn about her and others like her, from her statements and her digging in her heels via defensive 'apologies'. I am not calling her an antisemite because I don't think that she is one.  And even if she might be, her comments here don't prove that point. But I don't trust her to define what the Holocaust was.  Clearly she doesn't know.  Everyone needs to be very careful about the context used when discussing the Holocaust. Most people are. She wasn't.  At the very least, if you don't know what you are talking about, then stop talking. I sincerely hope that she used her 2 weeks off the show to learn about the Holocaust. Greenblatt from the ADL (not my favourite organization) should have offered to take her to the camps in Auschwitz and let her get an up close look at what the Holocaust was. Sadly I think she used her time off the show to get more PR for herself and make her case. She really is digging herself into a deeper hole. 

The real problem is that she has many fans. She is/was a famous actress and TV personality. Her fans (some at least) will no doubt buy into her ignorant statements that dangerously bordered on antisemitism. I'm glad that she was at least given a 2 week suspension. She deserved to face some sort of consequence for what she said. The Holocaust is sacrosanct.  How would she like a rule that people like her can't even say the word Holocaust just like many blacks have the rule that only they can use the N word?