Whoopi and the Jews

I have a Jewish friend whose writings I have published on my blog before.  Here he is again.

Whoopi Goldberg and the Jews

Less than two weeks ago, Whoopi claimed on her TV show The View that the Holocaust was not racist ("it was one group of white people against another group of white people; it was a case of man's inhumanity to man").  It got her into a heap of trouble.  Here is my perspective.

The Nazis – or the German people of the time – called themselves the “Master Race.”  The Master Race was not white people or European people, it was the Aryan race, the Nordic race.  Blond hair blue eyes, just like Hitler himself (whoops!).  They professed to consider the Jews an inferior race, meant for extinction (maybe the Nazis feared the Jews for being superior to them).  But I never heard anyone accuse the Nazis of "racism," no one ever called them "racists."  I never heard the words “racist” or “racism” until the Civil Rights movement here in the USA.  So, there seems to be an interesting disconnect between the word "race" and the words "racism" and "racist."

When one fills out a questionnaire, there is often a question about race and Jewish is never an option.  Other questionnaires ask about ethnicity and Jewish is typically an option.

Anti-Semitism seems closer to the mark; but is that word adequate to cover genocide, the extermination of an entire people?

Whoopi Goldberg is a made-up stage name.  Whoopi named herself.  What is the likelihood that she would choose a clearly German Jewish surname and be an anti-Semite at the same time?  Whoopi has spoken of her identity as Jewish, and I think we need to take her at her word.  Maybe she is not Jewish, but she feels a kindred spirit with Jews.  Before we leave the subject of Judaism and race, consider that Israel has welcomed two waves of (Black) Ethiopian Jews into their country who now account for 160,000 Israeli Jewish citizens.  Are they the same "race" as Israeli Jews of European ancestry?  I don’t think the main-stream Israeli cares.

And Whoopi grew up during the Civil Rights movement.  It is fair to assume that she saw how Jews – among all white groups – acted in solidarity with Black people at the time (surely NOT all, but a very visible many).  Rabbis walked with Martin Luther King, Jr.  Of the three lads who were murdered during Freedom Summer in 1964 in Mississippi – Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner – two were New York Jews.

It (“was the Holocaust racist?”) might make for an interesting discussion, if that were all it was.  But it offended the network honchos, and Whoopi was suspended for two weeks.  She apologized the next day for her part in the misunderstanding.  I don't believe she said anything that called for an apology.

I wonder if the network will eat any crow.  I am glad they are sensitive to anti-Semitism, but I do not believe that Whoopi Goldberg has an ounce of anti-Semitism in her that needs to be bled off.  If I were Whoopi, I wonder what my demands would be of the network.  I believe she deserves more than a pro-forma apology for how they dealt with her.

Bill Maher on Whoopi and her gaffe.