I agree that Whoopi Goldberg should not have been suspended for her comments. They were ignorant and divisive, and the answer to that is more dialogue, not less. I have written a more extensive response to Goldberg, but here let me respond directly to your points.

I disagree with your take on race. Simply put, there is no such thing. What does exist and flourish is racism - the myth that human beings can be divided into races. Refining the definition of "race" only perpetuates racism.

That is the myth which the Nazis seized upon, by killing six million Jews (including most of my family) explicitly because of their "race." The Nazis did not invent the hatred against the Jews. That came from the Church - the New Testament to be exact, which blames the Jews for killing their own prophet. The Nazis were just more efficient at killing Jews than anyone else.

My own family shows how ridiculous these artificial divisions of "race" or "ethnicity" are. As you may have guessed, my family were considered "Jews" by the Nazis in Europe, and murdered accordingly. Like Moses (see Numbers 12) I have a dark-skinned wife. What is our son, then? Why does he even have to be put into one of these artificial categories? (Our extended family is even more diverse, which is really true of all families if you go back far enough).

What upset me more than Goldberg's comments on The View was her attempt at an explanation on the Colbert show. She set up a hypothetical of standing by a Jewish friend while Nazis marched down the street. "Well, I would run" she said.

This is not a hypothetical. My wife and I stand together as we watch real fascists taking over this country, frighteningly similar to the Nazi rise to power (through elections) in Germany, or the rise of the Klan in the South, after Reconstruction was aborted.

Unlike Whoopi, I can depend on my wife to stand by me, and she can depend on me to stand by her. And we welcome anyone else, even Whoopi Goldberg, who is willing to face hate and racism with love and solidarity.