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Whoopi Goldberg will be facing a two-week suspension from the popular chat show 'The View' after she drew wide criticism for her recent remarks that the Holocaust was "not about race."
According to Variety, this announcement was made public in a statement released by ABC News public relations on Tuesday night. "Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments," read the statement attributed to Kim Godwin, president at ABC News. It continued, "While Whoopi has apologized, I've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities." Variety has confirmed that Goldberg's comments on 'The View' reached the highest level of decision-makers at Disney, because according to sources, Peter Rice, the chairman of Disney General Entertainment Content, was consulted on the public fallout for Goldberg. The controversy erupted on Monday's show when Goldberg said during a segment about the Tennessee school board's ban of 'Maus', a non-fiction graphic novel about cartoonist Art Spiegelman's father's experience of surviving the Holocaust. "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," Goldberg said on the episode. Co-host Ana Navarro responded to Goldberg, saying, "But it's about white supremacists going after Jews." "But 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," Goldberg replied. The remarks drew immediate, sweeping criticism from Jewish organisations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Later on Monday, Goldberg apologised for her remarks on social media. She then offered an on-air apology on Tuesday's episode of 'The View'. "So yesterday on our show, I misspoke. I said that the Holocaust wasn't about race and it was instead about man's inhumanity to man. But it is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race," Goldberg said at the start of the show, as per Variety. She added, "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 as you all know because I've always done that." (ANI)
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