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Whoopi Goldberg: Ignorant about Darwinian Racism

Whoopi Goldberg ‘is in deep s–t’ and should be fired, ABC insiders claim.” So reports the New York Post. No, of course, she shouldn’t be fired for claiming, on The View, that the Holocaust wasn’t “about race” but rather “about man’s inhumanity to man.” However, the claim is absurd and ignorant. And it’s well timed to coincide with the release today of historian Richard Weikart’s Darwinian Racism: How Darwinism Influenced Hitler, Nazism, and White Nationalism. Goldberg would do well to study the book.

As Weikart recounts, the racist vision in Darwin’s Descent of Man fed the rising tide of pseudo-scientific racism that animated the eugenics movement and Nazi ideology, and that sprang up again with contemporary white nationalism. Hitler in Mein Kampf was clear that he deplored the mistake of basing anti-Semitism on “religious ideas instead of racial knowledge.”

In justifying herself, Goldberg tried to explain to Stephen Colbert that racism is only real to her if racial identity is evident from skin color rather than requiring an inquiry as to the individual’s beliefs or background. Hitler would have begged to differ. The Nazis had little difficulty in hunting down 6 million Jews, whom they considered an alien “race,” no matter how the Jews — as in the case of Anne Frank — sought to hide.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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ABCAdolf Hitleranti-SemitismDarwinian racismDarwinismeugenicsevolutionHistoryHolocaustJewsNew York PostpseudoscienceraceRacismRichard Weikartskin colorStephen Colbertwhite nationalismWhoopi Goldberg