Whoopi Goldberg has returned to The View after she was suspended for two weeks following her apology for the Holocaust comments she made.
She told the audience she was grateful for her return to the show after her suspension and pledged she wouldn’t shy away from “tough conversations”.
The 66-year-old actress and comedian was suspended from the American talk show recently, after claiming the Holocaust had nothing to do with race.
Her controversial comments happened when she and her co-stars were talking about the US school board’s decision to ban Maus (a graphic novel that narrated the experiences of a Holocaust survivor).
She said: “Let’s be truthful – the Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity.”
Meanwhile, one of her co-host’s insisted the Holocaust was “about white supremacy”, and Whoopi replied: “But these are two white groups of people. You’re missing the point.
“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’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, because black, white, Jews – everybody eats each other.”
Her comment sparked outrage and she apologised but
ABC News President Kim Godwin suspended Whoopi despite her swift apology.
Upon her return to the show, Whoopi talked about her absence immediately and promised not to back away from tackling tough topics on-air going forward.
She said: “Welcome to The View. And yes, I am back,” the returning star greeted the audience and viewers as she opened the show.
“There’s something kind of marvellous about being on a show like this. We are The View and this is what we do. Sometimes we don’t do this as elegantly as we could, and sometimes, well yeah.”
She added that she appreciated everyone that reached out to her during her suspension, and made it known she had been doing “a lot of listening” While she was away from The View.
“We’re gonna keep having tough conversations,” she promised those tuned in.
She said: “And in part because this is what we were hired to do.
“It’s not always pretty. And it’s not always as other people would like to hear, but it is an honour to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important.”
In an emotional statement released hours after the show aired, Whoopi said: “On today’s show I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man’. I should have said it is about both.
“As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) 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.”
She added: “The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I am sorry for the hurt I have caused. Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”
