Thread by @SethAbramson

Jews aren’t a race—period.

Whoopi Goldberg was suspended for *failing* to take the Nazis’ view of Jews (that we *are* a race).

While I understand the Nazi view of Judaism means the Holocaust was—in a demented way—“about race,” the reaction to Goldberg’s comments was excessive.

PS/ I think the primary effect of the Goldberg suspension will be to convince many Christians that Jews *are* a race—in other words to convert them to the Nazis’ (and neo-Nazis’) view of us. That’s tremendously destructive. It would’ve been much better had she not been suspended.

PS2/ Today Trumpists across America are telling on themselves by suggesting that—instead of the apology she gave, and the public conversation with the ADL she had—Goldberg should’ve been fired because Roseanne Barr was. It’s a low-key way of saying *you too* consider Jews a race.

PS3/ What I take from this episode is that we still—in 2022—don’t know how to speak of Jews, Judaism, or the Holocaust. We’re so bad at it that Whoopi Goldberg saying something semi-technically correct got her suspended from her job. The whole thing makes America look ridiculous.

PS4/ When I was a kid growing up in what at the time was rural Massachusetts, I faced anti-semitism from white kids who told me I wasn’t white and constantly confronted me with swastikas because they thought it was funny. Now Whoopi Goldberg calls us white and she gets suspended.

PS5/ I agree that the Holocaust was “about race” because the villains who perpetrated it *felt* that it was, and in a certain sense that means it *was*. But this was a moment for ABC to let Goldberg and the ADL educate all of us. Instead, it turned it into self-righteous theater.

PS6/ Every day, on 4chan and 8chan and other places where Trump supporters congregate, Jews are erroneously referred to as a race—partly as a way to make it easier to “other” us. ABC has *heartened* these anti-semites by seemingly taking the (wrong!) view that Jews *are* a race.

PS7/ I’m glad the ADL has spoken up in Goldberg’s defense. It should now go further and ask for her reinstatement. ABC made a mistake here—not a mistake of appearances but a mistake in fact—and should correct it. Goldberg isn’t an anti-semite and what she said isn’t anti-semitic.

PS8/ So if you are a Trump supporter and are today crowing about what you perceive to be a “double standard” as between Whoopi Goldberg and Roseanne Barr, understand that all you’re doing is revealing that you don’t know *anything* about Jews or Judaism. And it’s a very bad look.

PS9/ All of this goes double for Fox News and other far-right propaganda outlets that are doubling down on the false narrative that Jews are a race. You’re literally spreading Nazi propaganda just to score an exceedingly minor win over those you perceive to be “libs.”

It’s sick.

PS10/ So, to sum up:

1️⃣ *Jews are not a race*
2️⃣ *Stop saying or implying we are*

NOTE/ To those saying that Goldberg’s comment about the Holocaust being whites “fighting” each other is more problematic—I agree. But it’s still a complex issue, as Jews *did* fight against the Nazis in the ghettos and the forests and various militaries. We *must not* erase that.

NOTE2/ Yes—it’s very problematic to say the Holocaust was two groups of whites fighting each other. But the notion that Jews were universally passive during the Holocaust is *also* problematic. So here, too, Goldberg needed—like many of us—more education rather than a suspension.

(MORE) Here’s a good article on how complicated all this is. The fact that it’s complicated means it shouldn’t be spoken of casually or reductively—which is really the mistake Goldberg made. But it was a mistake best remedied via education, not suspension. nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…