In a recent episode of “The View,” co-host Whoopi Goldberg made a comment that has drawn ire by saying that the Holocaust was not about race.
Regardless of how Whoopi views Jews racially, or how the Nazis imposed specific racial laws and discriminated against Jews, leading to the Holocaust, I do not consider myself as part of a distinct race. Neither Whoopi nor the Nazis define my identity. My religion and belief system is Jewish. My ethnicity is Jewish. The fact that some of us are black, whether Ethiopian or Jews-by-choice, undermines Whoopie’s simplistic view. It’s unfounded to think that one can convert to become part of another race.
My view on Whoopi’s statement is different from many in the Jewish community who feel that she did something egregiously wrong. Whoopi may be a talented actress and comedian, but being famous does not make her qualified on things like the Holocaust about which she had the misfortune to opine.
Among the things I have learned building bridges between Jews and Christians is that despite all the foundational things about which we share tremendous common ground, we do so from different perspectives, through a different prism. Many times even our best friends often don’t know a lot about Jews, Judaism, what we believe and why we believe it, our practices, and our history. In essence, our world views are colored by the experiences we have during our lives, which is very basic sociology.
That’s the issue with Whoopi’s comments. Despite adopting the name “Goldberg,” Whoopi looks at the world through the perspective of Caryn Johnson, a black American woman born in 1955. How could she not? If she were really a Goldberg, one of her parents, or at least one of her grandparents, would likely have been Holocaust survivors whose family was murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices. If Whoopi were really a Goldberg, the Holocaust would be part of her ethnic DNA, not just about evil white people murdering other white people.
I don’t blame Whoopi for her view, and I don’t particularly criticize her for it. Is it insensitive? Sure. Should she open her mouth and speak about things that she really doesn’t know about? Probably not, unless she doesn’t mind putting her foot in it. Should she have apologized, even if she seemed to walk that back right after? Maybe that’s nice and will unruffle some feathers. But just as I don’t particularly care about what she thinks, her apology doesn’t mean much either.
I look at all this as an opportunity. When she’s reinstated to “The View,” I’d love to talk with her about it. I have no reason to believe that Whoopi is antisemitic. I don’t believe her comments were made out of anything other than ignorance for which she cannot be faulted because she grew up as Caryn Johnson. That’s her world view.
If Whoopi cares, there’s a lot she can do to reframe the whole conversation. This can be an important teaching moment. I volunteer. Albeit not a Goldberg, I can share my view, my family history, and how my Jewish relatives were butchered for being Jews, regardless of whether the Nazis considered us a race, or if she considers us just a subset of white people.
I’ll give Whoopi a pass, and hope that this becomes a teaching moment, especially because she views the issue of race as a black woman. Let’s dialogue and learn from one another, not shoot first and ask questions later. That’s my view.
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