WHOOPSIE GOLDBERG
Intentionality matters when speech is considered offensive and the cure for unintelligent speech isn’t cancellation, it’s more speech
“THE HOLOCAUST WAS NOT ABOUT RACE but about man’s inhumanity to man,” said Whoopie Goldberg on a segment of TheView, an American TV show that brings up topics for discussion by a panel of guests. It was during a debate about Tennessee school district’s decision to ban Maus, the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel that mirrors the horrific experiences of a Holocaust survivor. Perhaps Goldberg’s intention was to underscore the issue of inhumanity, what with some six million Jews killed by Nazis over the course of the Holocaust, but she botched the first half of her statement. 124
The Holocaust was very much about race. Tne Final Solution was pa of Hitler’s quest for the pe ect race, which was used as an excuse to seek out Jews, even messianic Jews who had conve ed to Christianity, for extermination. However, as a member of the discriminated race herself in the United States, it’s easy to understand how her own perceptions coloured her observations of race relations elsewhere in the world. British comedian and author of JewsDon’tCount, David Braddiel described the phenomenon as “Schrodinger’s White” - where the skin tone of Jews were a complex issue where Jews were seen as white or non-white depending on the political views of the observer. Far right groups like the neoNazis have rejected Jewish whiteness while on the far le , the association of Jews with power and privilege makes them “super-white”. Hence as Braddiel, a prominent English Jew himself, admits: it is problematic for members of the public to draw distinctions. This is where intentionality ma ers.
What Goldberg said would be considered “hate speech” if her intent was malice. However, if spoken out of ignorance, she does not deserve to be cancelled. There is a difference between clumsy exposition and outright malicious diatribes where the former allows clarification of ideas and opinions in a public fora that benefits all. The la er requires more severe castigation and Goldberg’s “transgression” doesn’t rise to the level of malice. What do these suspensions or cancellations accomplish anyway? Nothing.
The cure for misinformed speech is more speech. Especially when it’s made on a show called TheView rather than “The Fact”.