When you are a leftwing media figure, you are essentially bulletproof. Things that would get Republicans fired in the blink of an eye are tolerated as long as they are mouthed by a loyal Democrat, and one repeated beneficiary of that reality has been Whoopi Goldberg.
The longtime co-host of The View on ABC has stepped in it, for lack of a better phrase, many times. You’ll probably remember her defense of Roman Polanski back in 2009 where she asserted that his alleged sexual assault of a woman wasn’t “rape, rape.”
But while that’s just one example, Goldberg, ever the enterprising type, has added another to the list. Social media is exploding with news that the actress and commentator, during an ill-informed discussion about the book “Maus” being removed from a Tennessee school district’s curriculum, launched into a rant about how the Holocaust “wasn’t about racism” but was “white people doing it to white people.”
Here’s what that looked like.
Sparks fly as The View panel confronts Whoopi after she says "the Holocaust isn't about race. No. It's not about race."
"Well, the considered Jews a different race," Joy Behar says."But it's about white supremacy. It's about going after Jews and Gypsies," Ana Navarro adds. pic.twitter.com/GZwZSi2qXi
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 31, 2022
Here's a closer look at what Whoopi says in the second video about the Holocaust: "Well, this is white people doing it to white people. So, this is y'all go fight amongst yourselves." pic.twitter.com/YfSgieEN5s
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 31, 2022
This kind of racialism is disgusting. It also happens to be historically ignorant. The Nazis absolutely saw Jews as a separate race unworthy of their humanity. It was not just “white people doing it to white people,” nor would that be relevant anyway. Genocide is genocide, and it’s objectively evil.
What Goldberg is doing, though, is repeating a common trope among the woke, which is to assert that racism and other types of prejudice are somehow diminished if they are not pointed at specific, preferred minorities.
The intersectional argument is that Jews are white people, and that Jews are disproportionately successful thanks to "white supremacy." Because racism is "animus plus power," and Jews are powerful because they are white, anti-Semitism from non-white supremacists isn't bigotry.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 31, 2022
Let’s also note that this gross commentary came about while Goldberg and her cohorts were trying to completely distort the facts around “Maus” being removed from a Tennessee middle-school reading list. At no point was the school district attempting to not teach the Holocaust anymore. All they were doing was looking for a more age-appropriate book that didn’t contain, nudity, profanity, and suicide in it.
Yes, students should learn about all the graphic details of the Holocaust, but it is not out of line for parents to want to wait to gradually expose their children to that, introducing the more adult themes as they get older. Somehow, that common sense approach from a local school board turned into a week-long, national freakout.
Why? Because everything must be blamed on “white supremacy,” and that was the undergirding for Goldberg’s ridiculous remarks. She just happened to say the quiet part out loud that many, many anti-Semites believe.
As to any coming punishment, you can bet there will be none. Goldberg may apologize, but she’ll keep her job and her unearned sense of moral superiority. Of course, Disney (who owns ABC) treated Gina Carano, formerly of The Mandalorian, in a completely different manner. When Carano made what was, at worst, a slightly insensitive Holocaust comparison, she got the boot and weeks of media reprisals. Yet, Goldberg, who has done something objectively far worse, likely won’t even get a slap on the wrist.
In the end, the left doesn’t actually care about antisemitism. They only feign concern when they feel it gains them something politically. In fact, they celebrate the virulent anti-Semites in their midst. There are no consequences for such, and there won’t be any for Goldberg either.