Whoopi Goldberg Returns to ‘The View’ with New Resolution

After a two week suspension, Whoopi Goldberg returned to “The View,” and she addressed the need to have difficult conversations.

“Welcome to The View, and yes, I am back,” the host opened the talk show. “I got to tell you, there’s something marvelous about being on a show like this. We are The View, and this is what we do. Sometimes we don’t do it as elegantly as we could, well you know it’s five minutes to get in important information about topics. And that’s what we try to do every day.”

While she made no direct mention of her controversial remarks, she did not shy away from acknowledging her suspension. The controversy started when The View hosts tackled the Holocaust after discussing the banning of Maus by a Tennessee school board. Goldberg came under fire for saying it was less an issue of race than it was about “man’s inhumanity to man.”

After she apologized for her statements, Goldberg was nonetheless benched for two weeks.

“I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away,” she continued. “I listened to everything everybody had to say, and I was very grateful. And I hope it keeps all the important conversations happening because we’re going to keep having tough conversations. In part, because that’s what we’ve been hired to do. And it’s not always pretty, as I said, and it’s not always as other people would like to hear.”

Goldberg made several apologies for her insensitive comments, and she recommitted herself to doing better. Of her return to the show, she said: “It is an honor to sit at this table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important.”

The View Host Addresses Her Controversial Comments

Prior to her suspension, Goldberg apologized on The View for her comments.

“I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” Goldberg said. “And I understand why now. For that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful. It helped me understand some different things.

“While discussing how a Tennessee school board unanimously voted to remove a graphic novel about the Holocaust, I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race,” she continued. “And it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man. But it was indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race.”

The show also brought on the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Johnathan Greenblatt, who felt that Goldberg deserved forgiveness.

“We sometimes have people in public places who can say clumsy things about race or faith or gender,” he said. “I don’t believe in cancel culture. I like the phrase that my friend Nick Cannon uses. We need ‘counsel culture.’ In the Jewish faith … we have a concept called ‘teshuva,’ and ‘teshuva’ means redemption. It means all of us have the power to admit when we do wrong and to commit to doing better. I heard Whoopi say that she’s committed to doing better. I accept that apology with the sincerity with which she delivered it.”