I see one person has answered quite well, so I will try not to repeat too much.
Whoopi was wrong in that she was applying a modern standard definition of racism to Nazi Germany and that was ahistorical. Whether she agrees with their standard or not is hardly the point. She further complicated the situation when she "downgraded" the Holocaust as basically "white on white" crime. It was dismissive and, frankly, disgustingly callous. The Nazis desperately tried to apply scientific methods to define who was and wasn't a Jew. The method ended up being a pseudo-scientific mess. Interestingly, they also used the American-inspired principles of the "one drop rule" that was used against Black people in this country, as well as "science" from the eugenics movement.
As the author in the clip I provided states, Jews are often "Schrödinger's whites". We are "white" depending on who the speaker is, not how we necessarily see ourselves. Members of the neo-Nazis and Black Muslims of the Nation of Islam do not see Jews as white in any traditional sense, seeing us as interlopers who "appear" white, thus making us even more dangerous to the collapse of white culture and society (neo-Nazis) and the true masters of the White Devils (Nation of Islam). The left is another story all together. They often see Jews as only white, not real minorities, and not worthy of protection, understanding, and deem us as "oppressors" as a single, unified group. This is an anti-Semitism that many a person on the left IGNORES, at best, or participates in, at worst.
Jews, of course, come in a variety of colors and shades. We are what is known as an ethno-religious group, and that is where LOTS of confusion arises. First, there is conflation of race and ethnicity. Second, there is the conflation of ethnicity and religion and political boundaries (Israel). The rabbi from New York who helped in the Texas synagogue situation is an Asian-American woman and a Jew. Tiffiani Haddish, a Black comedienne, is also Jewish. There are communities of Jews all over the world and have been there for centuries, such as Ethiopia, India, and China. All Jews. All different "races" and ethnic backgrounds. Even with information like this, people still fail to realize that the Jews who look white were and are still treated as if we are NOT white. Before WWII, immigration was based on numbers of people coming from different places and could be limited once a quota was met. Jews, hailing from all over Easten Europe, were not counted as Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Russians, etc. in many cases, they were labeled "Jews" or, on some censuses, "Hebrews". This is tied closely to the canard that Jews are not loyal to their country of origin, birth, or where they reside, we are always seen as the outsider!
Simply, a Jew can be ethnically Jewish, but not religious. A Jew can be religiously Jewish, but not ethnically. Or, a Jew, can be both ethnically and religiously Jewish. From my own immediate family, we can be divided into all of the three versions.
Whether you or I, or Whoopi, in this instance, see white-appearing Jews as a different race is irrelevant when discussing what the Nazis thought. They saw us as a different race, and if you look at some literature, they didn't even consider us human. So, to claim the Holocaust was not a racist endeavor is wrong.
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