This week, Whoopi Goldberg yet again made ignorant, ill-informed, and potentially dangerous comments about the Holocaust, saying it was "white on white" violence; doubling down on her comments last year on The View.
And that's not even all of it.
In an episode of The View last month, Whoopi responded to a co-host's label of Hamas and the Taliban as terrorist organization with, "Well...it depends on who you talk to."
Yes, Whoopi. It does depend on who you talk to. If you ask a white supremacist or an Antisemite if their views are hateful, they won't think so. There's always another opinion, but that doesn't mean they should have a voice at the table. At this point in 2022, this should be common sense.
Now, if this were any other person making these sorts of comments I would just wallow in anger for a few hours like I do for all the other public figures that espouse Antisemitic views.
But Whoopi's continued comments regarding Jewish people and the problems we face are particularly offensive given her (fake) last name.
Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Elaine Johnson.
Like many other high-profile celebrities, she changed it. No issue there, especially with the "Whoopi" part which seems to have just been done in good fun.
“When you're performing on stage, you never really have time to go into the bathroom and close the door. So if you get a little gassy, you’ve got to let it go...So people used to say to me,‘You’re like a whoopee cushion.’ And that’s where the name came from.”
But when it comes to her last name, it's a different story.
I want to be transparent that despite searching, I haven't found many direct quotes from Whoopi herself about her last name, but to the best of my knowledge, she changed her last name to Goldberg to sound more Jewish so she could 1) have a better chance of making it in Hollywood, per the suggestion of her Mother and 2) because she "feels" Jewish.
“My mother did not name me Whoopi, but Goldberg is my name...it’s part of my family, part of my heritage, just like being black.”
No, Whoopi. It's not.
A researcher found that she had no known German or Jewish ancestry, and that none of her ancestors were named Goldberg.
Goldberg is a name of German and Yiddish origin, almost explicitly used by Jewish people.
Changing her last name to fit an ethnoreligious identity that she has no right claiming while continuously harming the community she stole that name from is privileged appropriation at best and Antisemitism at worst; especially when you consider that Millions of Jews have had to change their names to sound not Jewish just to survive.
There's an extra layer when you consider that she may have adopted this name due to Antisemitic beliefs regarding Jews and success, which is especially infuriating given that millions of Jews in the US (including my family) have had to change their names to be hired, and that just last month, a major study came out that 1 in 4 hiring managers are less likely to hire someone they know is Jewish.
If she were to have adopted the name Goldberg and then spent time learning about and supporting the community she appropriated her A-list name from, it would be one thing. But seemingly, the only time she actually brings up issues relating to the Jewish community is when she espouses ignorant views that directly harm us.
You don't get to take our name, and hurt the community where you took it from.
Would it be more appropriate to call her Whoopi Johnson? Should we respect her name choice?
I'd love to know what you think.
