Whoopi Goldberg on Holocaust Remarks: ‘I Am Very Upset that People Misunderstood What I Was Saying’

Monday on CBS’s “The Late Show,” “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg addressed her controversial remarks from earlier in the day, when she said that “the Holocaust isn’t about race.”

Goldberg has since apologized for the comment but shared on “The Late Show” that she was “very upset that people misunderstood” her. She said her argument was more that people can see the color of black people’s skin and know their race, whereas, with Jewish people, it was not as simple.

“[I] feel, being black, when we talk about race it’s a very different thing to me,” Goldberg told host Stephen Colbert. “So I said that I thought the Holocaust wasn’t about race. And people got very, very, very angry and still are angry. I mean, I’m getting, you know, all of the mail from folks and very real anger because people feel differently. But I thought it was a salient discussion because, as a black person, I think of race as being something that I can see. So, I see you, and I know what race you are.”

“[P]eople were very angry and said no, no, we are a race. And I understand. I felt differently,” she added. “I respect everything everyone is saying to me. And, you know, I don’t want to fake apologize. I am very upset that people misunderstood what I was saying. And so, because of it, they are saying that I am antisemitic and that I’m denying the Holocaust and all these other things, which would never occur to me to do.”

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