Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View following her controversial comments about The Holocaust.
The Sister Act star received immense backlash after she claimed on the talk show that the Holocaust ‘wasn’t about race’, during a discussion about a US school district banning the graphic novel, Maus, which depicts Jews as mice and Nazis as cats and features ‘inappropriate language’.
Amid mounting calls for Whoopi to be fired, ABC News President Kim Godwin announced the network was taking action.
‘Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments,’ Godwin said in a statement released to People.
She continued: ‘While Whoopi has apologised, I’ve asked her to take time and reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organisation stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family, and communities.’
During the debate on Monday’s episode of The View, Whoopi told her co-hosts: ‘Let’s be truthful about it because Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s not about race. It’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.
‘These are two white groups of people! The minute you turn it into race it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black or white, Jews, it’s each other.’
The 66-year-old later issued an apology via Twitter and said: ‘I should have said it is about both. As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race”. I stand corrected.
‘The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.’
She concluded: ‘Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg.’
On Tuesday, the Oscar-winning actress then issued an on-air apology and told viewers: ‘I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention.
‘And I understand why now, and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and it helped me understand some different things.’
She continued: ‘While discussing how a Tennessee school board unanimously voted to remove a graphic novel about the Holocaust, I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man.
‘But it was indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.
‘Now, words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people as they know and y’all know because I’ve always done that.’
Piers Morgan was among those criticising Whoopi and called for the star to ‘lose her job’ like Sharon Osbourne did on The Talk following a race row last year.
Whoopi has hosted The View since 2007 and currently appears alongside Joy Behar, Sarah Haines and Sunny Hostin, with Ana Navarro as a guest host.
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