Erica, I appreciate you taking the time to write your thoughts. Unlike what some others who will defend Whoopi no matter what, I appreciate what you have written. You were courteous and thoughtful throughout all you wrote.
My skin is white. I not only "pass" (obviously) as White, I was selected to ride in the front of the "Danish Days" parade in a small all-Danish town in Cali when I was a little girl. But that is my physical appearance. My surname (birth name) is one that was obviously Jewish. It was on every bus bench in Los Angeles when I grew up: Glasband-Willen Mortuaries, the Jewish mortuary with a Star of David. Like you, I am Christian by religious faith and upbringing.
As I said in my article and said to others, the words Whoopi used that upset me, along with her attitude, was her eager desire to categorize the genocide (yes, it was "whites" mostly but why go to that extent) - and she added that it was a "fight." If she had only used the word "genocide" or even terror or atrocity or something like that. "Fight," and the way she said it, waving her hand, sent me the message she did not, and I'm going to use a technical term - "give a rat's ass." And the "fight" terminology makes it sound like Jewish people did something to provoke the Nazi genocide. No one the Nazis killed did ANYTHING to "deserve" any of it. Not Jewish, not any other nationality, religious belief, or race/skin color. Not the troops who fought on all sides.
Whoopi was callous and self-entitled in her statements and refused to even listen to her supposed friend and colleague Joy who is Jewish and who was trying to slow her down or ask her to think. You slowed down, you gave it your thought and time. You expressed your opinion with respect.
She didn't. It's an awful lot of people who lost their lives, including those of us who are their grandchildren and other survivors who got to hear her special opinions about how all their loved ones - I had a Black woman here tell me that the Jews just didn't "fight" hard enough. I could say the same like white supremacists have said for centuries about ... what do white supremacists say about Native Americans - don't they say they lost the "fight" so they deserved to die, be forced onto reservations, etc? Was that a white-on-red fight? I hope you get my meaning. She demeaned the situation as if Jewish people and German Nazis were all just a bunch of "fighting whites" instead of a genocide.
