December 28, 2022 - 8:00am
Whoopi Goldberg, a two-time Oscar winner and co-host of the daytime talk show The View, ended the year much as she began it: defending her claim that the Holocaust was white-on-white violence, a clash of white ethnic groups that resulted in the deaths of millions of Jewish people in Central and Eastern Europe. Back in January, Goldberg earned a suspension from The View after arguing that “these are two white groups of people” and “everybody eats each other” during a discussion about a Tennessee school district’s decision to remove Art Spiegelman’s Holocaust-themed graphic novel Maus from its curriculum.
Now, in a career-spanning interview published last week in The Times, Goldberg doubled down on those remarks, noting that Jews had an easier time blending in with other whites in Germany than blacks did in Germany. “It doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them. That was the point I was making,” the actor — whose real name is Caryn Elaine Johnson — told interviewer Janice Turner.
Predictably, Goldberg’s January remarks attracted criticism from the Jewish community, with the Anti-Defamation League and other groups accusing her of minimising Jewish suffering and demanding an apology, which she offered on-air. Once again, some have gone so far as to call for her termination, a fate she managed to avoid back in January (a number of other hosts on the show, which has generated plenty of juicy headlines despite its banal daytime-TV content, have met this ignominious fate)
Long-time followers of Goldberg likely aren’t surprised that she is making waves for these incendiary remarks. Her career is full of such moments, including writing the material for blackface-wearing boyfriend Ted Danson’s starring role in her 1993 Friars Club roast, defending Mel Gibson from allegations of anti-Semitism, supporting Bill Cosby until his rape allegations became nearly undeniable, downplaying the severity of award-winning director Roman Polanski’s statutory rape charge (“I don’t believe it was rape-rape”), and arguing that NFL star quarterback Michael Vick’s federal dogfighting charges were unfair.
What is surprising, however, is that Goldberg has remained a mainstream figure despite decades of ‘speaking her mind’, avoiding the kind of show-business death sentence that rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) received after making numerous outré remarks about the Jewish community while passing through the Right-wing talk show circuit a few months ago. Goldberg’s remarks admittedly aren’t tied to the various colourful conspiracy theories that informed Ye’s statements, nor has she praised Adolf Hitler’s accomplishments, but she has nevertheless slain a sacred cow by appearing to aggrandise black suffering at the expense of Jewish suffering.
Goldberg, despite her show-business surname, has no Jewish ancestry. Nevertheless, Goldberg has said of her identity — somewhat echoing Ye’s remarks about the Jewishness of black people — that “Goldberg is my name; it’s part of my family, part of my heritage, just like being black…I just know I am Jewish…I don’t go to temple, but I do remember the holidays.” In the same Jewish Chronicle article in which that tortured explanation appears, the author notes that the actor’s mother, Emma Johnson, may have influenced her daughter’s surname change in order to optimise the acting prodigy’s Hollywood prospects.
Despite the justification for her unusual name and apparent appropriation of Jewish identity, Goldberg will likely weather this storm, much as fellow long-time Hollywood headliner Mel Gibson and liberal comedians Dave Chappelle and Bill Maher have done. There is a thin but clear line that separates contrarians who can trigger Left-wing consciences while remaining safely within the boundaries of the mainstream beau monde from those irredeemably “bad” actors consigned to the Right-wing demimonde that contains media like Alex Jones’ InfoWars and the Mike Lindell-backed The Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson.
Goldberg will likely remain on the inside, able to keep finding work even as she occasionally incites controversy, while Ye, Putin-sympathising action star Steven Seagal, and various others are forced to fend for themselves.
Oliver Bateman is a historian and journalist based in Pittsburgh. He blogs, vlogs, and podcasts at his Substack, Oliver Bateman Does the Work
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SubscribeNon-whites never get called for their anti-semitism. It’s long been known from polling and hate crime statistics that the most anti-semitic groups in the West are blacks and Muslims. The left will never call them on it b/c Jews are white and successful. The same reason they don’t call out violence against Asians; they’re so successful they’ve be deemed “white adjacent”. It’s sickening.
According to the left, only white people are racist. Asian success will put them with us eventually, but only white people can be deemed invaders.
Non-whites who forced white people out of their country are freedom fighters. White people doing the same in their country are despicable racists.
Before anyone gets their nickers in a knot about the above sentence, not every white person displaced a non-white person. And white people did not simply march in and take over while the locals stood their picking their noses. I find this left-wing comedic appraisal of history more demeaning than anything a far right racist could ever utter.
Up until recently that was certainly true. But what about Kanye West? Or is that just because he’s connected to Trump? If that’s the reason, then your theorem has a corollary: maybe something like “all associates of Trump identify as white”?
But is Kyrie Irvin also a Trump fan? Blacks do get “called” on it pretty often, but the social and professional consequences are more severe for whites.
To determine whether someone deserves to be thrown to the Wolves you must cross-reference the victim hierarchy with the woke virtue index
Yes. An upward sloping demand curve plotted on a graph perhaps, with victim hierarchy being the y-axis, and woke virtue the x-axis. A useful tool for Trust and Security Specialists at social media companies.
Yes. An upward sloping demand curve plotted on a graph perhaps, with victim hierarchy being the y-axis, and woke virtue the x-axis. A useful tool for Trust and Security Specialists at social media companies.
To determine whether someone deserves to be thrown to the Wolves you must cross-reference the victim hierarchy with the woke virtue index
I suspect that his in every way admirable* wearing of a “White Lives Matter” t shirt put him beyond the woke pale, his blackness, sorry I mean Blackness notwithstanding.
*Not meaning to imply that there is anything remotely acceptable about his antisemitism. There isn’t. It’s utterly revolting.
Exception that proves the rule?
But is Kyrie Irvin also a Trump fan? Blacks do get “called” on it pretty often, but the social and professional consequences are more severe for whites.
I suspect that his in every way admirable* wearing of a “White Lives Matter” t shirt put him beyond the woke pale, his blackness, sorry I mean Blackness notwithstanding.
*Not meaning to imply that there is anything remotely acceptable about his antisemitism. There isn’t. It’s utterly revolting.
Exception that proves the rule?
No traction, no action!
If white people want to worship Jews, thats their business. Why do you expect blacks, Muslims, or any other group to be the same as white people
SWPL
With rare exceptions, Jews have always been accepted throughout the Muslim world, even as they were the victims of Christians for centuries, victims of the Inquisition, and of countless pogroms long before being nearly annihilated in the Holocaust. Even Jews like Abba Eban have acknowledged this. Islam REQUIRES Muslims to accept Jews and Christians as fellow monotheists, “People of the Book” (revealed religion).
Muslims are NOT accepting, though, of the Zionist state of Israel, and the West’s support of it. The West, the US in particular, is purchasing remission of its sins of genocide at the price of the land and blood of Palestinians (who are Christian as well as Muslim), which it has no right, of course, to do. What is casually referred to in the West as “anti-Semitism” is a protest against the genocide of a Third World people by the West, using Israel as its proxy. Calling Muslims “anti-Semitic” is merely an attempt to smear Muslims with the West’s own bigotries, and is especially ironic given that Arabs are ALSO Semites. (It should be pointed out that “Arab” and “Muslim” are not synonymous.)
But, of course, Jews have appropriated the term “Semite” as in “anti-Semite” entirely for themselves, an interesting instance of linguistic imperialism, which supports their imperialism on the ground in Palestine.
Caution is advised when casually accusing Muslims of something about which you know nothing. The charge of “anti-Semitism” is one cooked up by the Zionist-controlled press, and parroting those words without understanding anything of the history of the Middle East marks one as a supporter of imperialism.
According to the left, only white people are racist. Asian success will put them with us eventually, but only white people can be deemed invaders.
Non-whites who forced white people out of their country are freedom fighters. White people doing the same in their country are despicable racists.
Before anyone gets their nickers in a knot about the above sentence, not every white person displaced a non-white person. And white people did not simply march in and take over while the locals stood their picking their noses. I find this left-wing comedic appraisal of history more demeaning than anything a far right racist could ever utter.
Up until recently that was certainly true. But what about Kanye West? Or is that just because he’s connected to Trump? If that’s the reason, then your theorem has a corollary: maybe something like “all associates of Trump identify as white”?
No traction, no action!
If white people want to worship Jews, thats their business. Why do you expect blacks, Muslims, or any other group to be the same as white people
SWPL
With rare exceptions, Jews have always been accepted throughout the Muslim world, even as they were the victims of Christians for centuries, victims of the Inquisition, and of countless pogroms long before being nearly annihilated in the Holocaust. Even Jews like Abba Eban have acknowledged this. Islam REQUIRES Muslims to accept Jews and Christians as fellow monotheists, “People of the Book” (revealed religion).
Muslims are NOT accepting, though, of the Zionist state of Israel, and the West’s support of it. The West, the US in particular, is purchasing remission of its sins of genocide at the price of the land and blood of Palestinians (who are Christian as well as Muslim), which it has no right, of course, to do. What is casually referred to in the West as “anti-Semitism” is a protest against the genocide of a Third World people by the West, using Israel as its proxy. Calling Muslims “anti-Semitic” is merely an attempt to smear Muslims with the West’s own bigotries, and is especially ironic given that Arabs are ALSO Semites. (It should be pointed out that “Arab” and “Muslim” are not synonymous.)
But, of course, Jews have appropriated the term “Semite” as in “anti-Semite” entirely for themselves, an interesting instance of linguistic imperialism, which supports their imperialism on the ground in Palestine.
Caution is advised when casually accusing Muslims of something about which you know nothing. The charge of “anti-Semitism” is one cooked up by the Zionist-controlled press, and parroting those words without understanding anything of the history of the Middle East marks one as a supporter of imperialism.
Non-whites never get called for their anti-semitism. It’s long been known from polling and hate crime statistics that the most anti-semitic groups in the West are blacks and Muslims. The left will never call them on it b/c Jews are white and successful. The same reason they don’t call out violence against Asians; they’re so successful they’ve be deemed “white adjacent”. It’s sickening.
Goldberg is an ill-informed celebrity with poor reasoning skills. She’s frickin stupid if she thinks Jews could just blend in. Everyone knew who the Jews were. Everyone.
The most shocking thing is people actually watch the View. I believe it’s the top-ranked show in its time slot. Frightening.
Whoopie and her Ilk are the fruit flies hovering over the fruit bowl, you know the rot is set in down there out of sight.
Whoopi is engaging in “presentism”, and is actually licensed by the redefining of “racism” by many, the ADL included, to apply only when non-whites are being racialized by whites. Anyone with passing knowledge of the Nazis’ racist policies would be aware that it wasn’t colour-based. Jews, Slavs, Roma and Blacks were deemed under Nazi ideology to be “sub-human”, whereas pretty dark skinned Persians were classed as fellow “Aryans” and the Japanese and Arabs were valued allies.
Hitler’s antisemitism was color-based. Just look at the propaganda disseminated by him and his coterie. Virtually all of it vilified Jews for being dark-skinned, Asiatic foreigners.
That Nazi Germany had a realpolitik alliance with the Arab world and Japan doesn’t alter the fact that Hitler persecuted Jews for not being white. Hitler didn’t like Arabs either, for the record. He simply saw them as useful.
Hitler’s antisemitism was color-based. Just look at the propaganda disseminated by him and his coterie. Virtually all of it vilified Jews for being dark-skinned, Asiatic foreigners.
That Nazi Germany had a realpolitik alliance with the Arab world and Japan doesn’t alter the fact that Hitler persecuted Jews for not being white. Hitler didn’t like Arabs either, for the record. He simply saw them as useful.
Whoopie and her Ilk are the fruit flies hovering over the fruit bowl, you know the rot is set in down there out of sight.
Whoopi is engaging in “presentism”, and is actually licensed by the redefining of “racism” by many, the ADL included, to apply only when non-whites are being racialized by whites. Anyone with passing knowledge of the Nazis’ racist policies would be aware that it wasn’t colour-based. Jews, Slavs, Roma and Blacks were deemed under Nazi ideology to be “sub-human”, whereas pretty dark skinned Persians were classed as fellow “Aryans” and the Japanese and Arabs were valued allies.
Goldberg is an ill-informed celebrity with poor reasoning skills. She’s frickin stupid if she thinks Jews could just blend in. Everyone knew who the Jews were. Everyone.
The most shocking thing is people actually watch the View. I believe it’s the top-ranked show in its time slot. Frightening.
And once again the double standard is laid bare – Whoopi, the unthinking-liberal’s liberal, will no doubt apologise, say she simply misspoke and all will be forgotten. At worst she will say she is educating herself and “doing the work”.
Yet if a right-of-centre TV presenter, or anyone in the public eye, pushes back against the liberal orthodoxy, they will face the threat of cancellation, they’ll lose their job and/or their sponsors, and no quarter will be given, regardless of circumstance.
Joe Rogan was targeted simply for allowing people onto his platform who hold views that challenge orthodoxy.
Of course the attempt to cancel Rogan was a failure.
Thankfully. Others have been less fortunate, of course.
Sure – possibly the only protection against cancellation is to become “Too big to cancel”.
But the idea that a broadcaster/journalist/podcaster/writer, should face a backlash simply for talking to someone whose ideas are deemed problematic is fantastically stupid and narrow-minded, yet the activist left seem to think this will lead society to the light.
Like J.K. Rowling, too big to cancel successfully, though not for lack of trying.
Thankfully. Others have been less fortunate, of course.
Sure – possibly the only protection against cancellation is to become “Too big to cancel”.
But the idea that a broadcaster/journalist/podcaster/writer, should face a backlash simply for talking to someone whose ideas are deemed problematic is fantastically stupid and narrow-minded, yet the activist left seem to think this will lead society to the light.
Like J.K. Rowling, too big to cancel successfully, though not for lack of trying.
Of course the attempt to cancel Rogan was a failure.
And once again the double standard is laid bare – Whoopi, the unthinking-liberal’s liberal, will no doubt apologise, say she simply misspoke and all will be forgotten. At worst she will say she is educating herself and “doing the work”.
Yet if a right-of-centre TV presenter, or anyone in the public eye, pushes back against the liberal orthodoxy, they will face the threat of cancellation, they’ll lose their job and/or their sponsors, and no quarter will be given, regardless of circumstance.
Joe Rogan was targeted simply for allowing people onto his platform who hold views that challenge orthodoxy.
It’s simple, without the inner city black vote the Democratic Party is in deep trouble – so as long as Whoopi and other black thought leaders remain loyal they can be as stupid and bigoted as they like. As soon as they demonstrate any scepticism about progressivism, however, they’re put straight in the stocks.
It’s simple, without the inner city black vote the Democratic Party is in deep trouble – so as long as Whoopi and other black thought leaders remain loyal they can be as stupid and bigoted as they like. As soon as they demonstrate any scepticism about progressivism, however, they’re put straight in the stocks.
Who cares what stupid people think? These showbiz types get far too much attention. Being a good actor is not an indication of intellectual or political prowess.
She is not a good actor she is black
..
I do. Stupid people are why we have the woke skum.
It’s only because people are stupid enough to listen to them.
It’s only because people are stupid enough to listen to them.
She is not a good actor she is black
..
I do. Stupid people are why we have the woke skum.
Who cares what stupid people think? These showbiz types get far too much attention. Being a good actor is not an indication of intellectual or political prowess.
Jeez please don’t put Maher and Goldberg in the same category of provocateurs – he has a brain that he uses; she just opens her mouth to let whatever thought is in her head dribble out.
Jeez please don’t put Maher and Goldberg in the same category of provocateurs – he has a brain that he uses; she just opens her mouth to let whatever thought is in her head dribble out.
An interesting ‘Reaction’. I’d offer a UK version of Whoopi Goldberg… Jo Brand. Perhaps just as ‘controversial’, just as unattractive (I know, I know), just as prejudiced against an ‘out group’, but somehow still in public life. And also a woman – perhaps women are held to a lower standard?
Whoopi is nowhere near as generally repulsive as Jo Brand.
I dunno . . . Sisters from another mister, more like.
Hear hear!
Not to mention one Billy Connolly, but that is another story.
I dunno . . . Sisters from another mister, more like.
Hear hear!
Not to mention one Billy Connolly, but that is another story.
Yeah, but she likes kittens, so all is forgiven.
What’s most repulsive about Jo Brand is that she always looks so damned smug. Yuk.
Whoopi is nowhere near as generally repulsive as Jo Brand.
Yeah, but she likes kittens, so all is forgiven.
What’s most repulsive about Jo Brand is that she always looks so damned smug. Yuk.
An interesting ‘Reaction’. I’d offer a UK version of Whoopi Goldberg… Jo Brand. Perhaps just as ‘controversial’, just as unattractive (I know, I know), just as prejudiced against an ‘out group’, but somehow still in public life. And also a woman – perhaps women are held to a lower standard?
Whoopi is an embarrassment wrapped in a gaffe. Please, ignore this hypocrite.
Whoopi is an embarrassment wrapped in a gaffe. Please, ignore this hypocrite.
Whoopi as misguided as she is, is actually better than her co-hosts of the view – maybe because is have some fond memories of her in Ghost. The View has floated into my consciousness sometimes on YouTube and it is truly chock full of shrieking awful women.
Whoopi as misguided as she is, is actually better than her co-hosts of the view – maybe because is have some fond memories of her in Ghost. The View has floated into my consciousness sometimes on YouTube and it is truly chock full of shrieking awful women.
Goldberg was helped by the ADL’s definition of racism which declared that it was always something perpetuated by whites on non whites.
Goldberg was helped by the ADL’s definition of racism which declared that it was always something perpetuated by whites on non whites.
I would like an opinion about the Roseanne Barr incident. I feel it was very unfair and if not for people in high places, she would not have been fired from HER show.
I would like an opinion about the Roseanne Barr incident. I feel it was very unfair and if not for people in high places, she would not have been fired from HER show.
The Hollywood fantasy industry has moulded the American mind so that it can no longer distinguish between an acting role and the person behind it. Since the one in question played an endearing, spiritual and heroic role in Sister Act and elsewhere, she is presumed to be a “good” person, albeit with some charming, forgivable flaws – and beloved of mother superior, bishop and Pope! How can the public not forgive her?
The Hollywood fantasy industry has moulded the American mind so that it can no longer distinguish between an acting role and the person behind it. Since the one in question played an endearing, spiritual and heroic role in Sister Act and elsewhere, she is presumed to be a “good” person, albeit with some charming, forgivable flaws – and beloved of mother superior, bishop and Pope! How can the public not forgive her?
I thought she was dead.
Brain-dead, perhaps.
Brain-dead, perhaps.
I thought she was dead.
Blacks in the 1940s clearly understood the genocidal impulse of whites directed towards them based on skin color. They discovered during the war that genocide could be carried out by whites against fellow whites. In talking with a group of highly decorated Black WW II veterans from the 761st tank battalion (AKA the “Black Panther”s) I was told the following story. “We happened to see at one time a railroad car filled with Jews that the Nazi’s had murdered. You looked at them and couldn’t believe they had been human beings. A number of the Black soldiers cried like babies. I know I did. It just was just beyond the thought how a human being could do what the Nazis did. And the Jews, their complexions were Caucasian. So if they did that to them, what could they do to us? We were hated by the Germans because of our skin. That was understood and we had to put it on the back burner and do what we had to do.”
The reality is that race has no biological meaning. Biologically we are all equally human, i.e. homo sapiens– with minor variations (e.g. pigmentation). However, the illusion of “race” has been, and still is, used to justify the domination and extermination of the less powerful minorities by powerful majorities. Whites claimed Blacks as an inferior “race” to justify slavery and lynching; and charged Indians as savages to massacre them and seize their land. Hitler charged Jews with being subhuman to rationalize the Holocaust. Hindus oppress Muslims in India, Jews dominate Arabs in Israel, Serbians “ethnically cleansed” Muslims in Bosnia Sinhalese oppress Tamils in Sri Lanka, Hutus committed genocide in Rwanda against Tutsis etc, etc. etc. The myth of race serves oppression and murder throughout the world. When Whoopi Goldberg said the Holocaust is an example of “man’s inhumanity to man,” she was right on target.
Blacks in the 1940s clearly understood the genocidal impulse of whites directed towards them based on skin color. They discovered during the war that genocide could be carried out by whites against fellow whites. In talking with a group of highly decorated Black WW II veterans from the 761st tank battalion (AKA the “Black Panther”s) I was told the following story. “We happened to see at one time a railroad car filled with Jews that the Nazi’s had murdered. You looked at them and couldn’t believe they had been human beings. A number of the Black soldiers cried like babies. I know I did. It just was just beyond the thought how a human being could do what the Nazis did. And the Jews, their complexions were Caucasian. So if they did that to them, what could they do to us? We were hated by the Germans because of our skin. That was understood and we had to put it on the back burner and do what we had to do.”
The reality is that race has no biological meaning. Biologically we are all equally human, i.e. homo sapiens– with minor variations (e.g. pigmentation). However, the illusion of “race” has been, and still is, used to justify the domination and extermination of the less powerful minorities by powerful majorities. Whites claimed Blacks as an inferior “race” to justify slavery and lynching; and charged Indians as savages to massacre them and seize their land. Hitler charged Jews with being subhuman to rationalize the Holocaust. Hindus oppress Muslims in India, Jews dominate Arabs in Israel, Serbians “ethnically cleansed” Muslims in Bosnia Sinhalese oppress Tamils in Sri Lanka, Hutus committed genocide in Rwanda against Tutsis etc, etc. etc. The myth of race serves oppression and murder throughout the world. When Whoopi Goldberg said the Holocaust is an example of “man’s inhumanity to man,” she was right on target.
If I was to convert to Catholicism or Islam is that different to what the author calls Jewish Appropriation? When Cassius Clay became Mohamed Ali would you call that Islamic Appropriation?
I’m not expressing a view. I’m just asking the question.
No. The author is talking about pretending to have a certain background when you don’t, which is more like “fabrication”. For example: saying you were raised in a strict Protestant home when you were actually raised by agnostic wolves.
Some American blacks could be said to have appropriated Islam, but it’s fair to note that a rather white-first version of Christianity was often imposed on them in earlier times, and the KKK considered themselves good anti-Catholic Christians.
I guess you are right AJ. I thought it was not unlike where a man changes his name to Mary, declares that he is a woman and wears a frock to prove it. And then goes on to say “Even as a child I knew I was a girl”. You could call that Gender Appropriation. (joke)
Haha. Good point underneath the robes of that joke actually. Why is self-identification away from biology never (or rarely) called Appropriation?
I do call that Gender Appropriation (not joking)!
Haha. Good point underneath the robes of that joke actually. Why is self-identification away from biology never (or rarely) called Appropriation?
I do call that Gender Appropriation (not joking)!
Or, as in the case of Elizabeth Warren, claiming to have American Indian ancestry to get a leg up in academia is perfectly fine if you’re in the Cool Kids Club.
Yeah, that was a shabby move to say the least.
Yeah, that was a shabby move to say the least.
I guess you are right AJ. I thought it was not unlike where a man changes his name to Mary, declares that he is a woman and wears a frock to prove it. And then goes on to say “Even as a child I knew I was a girl”. You could call that Gender Appropriation. (joke)
Or, as in the case of Elizabeth Warren, claiming to have American Indian ancestry to get a leg up in academia is perfectly fine if you’re in the Cool Kids Club.
No. The author is talking about pretending to have a certain background when you don’t, which is more like “fabrication”. For example: saying you were raised in a strict Protestant home when you were actually raised by agnostic wolves.
Some American blacks could be said to have appropriated Islam, but it’s fair to note that a rather white-first version of Christianity was often imposed on them in earlier times, and the KKK considered themselves good anti-Catholic Christians.
If I was to convert to Catholicism or Islam is that different to what the author calls Jewish Appropriation? When Cassius Clay became Mohamed Ali would you call that Islamic Appropriation?
I’m not expressing a view. I’m just asking the question.
Retire Whoopi
Retire Whoopi
Okay, dear Writer, where’s the “Why…”?
Okay, dear Writer, where’s the “Why…”?
And that is the real tragedy.
Ye is crazy, Whoopi is cunning.
Antisemitic – or just staggeringly parochial?
Antisemitic – or just staggeringly parochial?