Whoopi Goldberg returned to The View on Monday morrning.
The veteran actress and lead talk show host had been suspended from her role over the past two weeks after saying on air that the historic tragedy of the Holocaust had nothing to do with race.
Upon re-taking her seat today (alongside Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro), Goldberg did not specifically address this controversy.
But she did talk in detail around it.
“I missed you all,” said Goldberg early in the hour.
“I got to tell you, there’s something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this because we are The View and this is what we do.
“Sometimes we don’t do this as eloquently as we could.”
This would be an understatement when it comes to the star’s misguided message back on February 1.
On that episode, she and her colleagues were talking a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban the Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, a book that chronicles the story of illustrator and author Art Spiegelman’s Polish Jewish parents’ experience during the Holocaust.
The school board cited concerns about female nudity and profanity and removed the material from the eighth-grade curriculum.
This was when Goldberg made the remark (adding that the Holocaust was “about man’s inhumanity to man”) for which she later apologized.
“I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” she began in this mea culpa.
“And I understand why now, and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and it helped me understand some different things.”
The Holocaust “is indeed about race, because Hitler and the Nazis considered the Jews to be an inferior race,” Goldberg continued prior to her suspension by ABC.
“Now, words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments as I said and I stand corrected.
“I also stand with the Jewish people, as they know, and as you all know because I’ve always done that.”
As mentioned previouslyy, Goldberrg she did not directly discuss the scandal this morning.
However, the Oscar winner told the camera that “we’re going to keep having tough conversations,” adding:
“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.
“And in part, because this is what we were hired to do.”
Concluded Goldberg on air today:
“It’s not always pretty as I said and it’s not always what other people would like to hear, but it is an honor to sit at the table and be able to have these conversations because they’re important.
“They’re Important to us as a nation and important to us more as a human entity.”
Goldberg was suspended for two weeks over her “wrong and hurtful comments,” ABC News President Kim Godwin said in a previous statement, which read as follows:
“Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments.
“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time and reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.
“The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family, and communities.”