Poor Whoopi Goldberg

From time to time, there appear in the media reports of disputes or public scandals which illustrate the lack of language awareness on the part of the participants of such disputes. The one about the actress Whoopi Goldberg’s statements about the Holocaust, in early 2022, is a case in point. Goldberg’s definition of race, which was in the center of the dispute, was criticized as misunderstood and wrong. She could have defended herself more staunchly and more successfully by stating explicitly that one proper definition of ‘race’ is a chimera.