So, The Wife and The Girl were watching TV tonight and after flipping around a bit, settled on the broadcast of "Oprah's LEgend's Ball". I was half watching as the parade of wealth and fame continued. Then I noticed something that struck me as odd. While the guest list was of mixed race, the honorees of the ball - Oprah's 'Legends' - were all African-American women! How strange! And yet, so little remarked upon.
If, for instance, Ted Turner had, in his heyday, thrown a ball and billed it as 'an event to honor white men who have paved the way for others', his empire would have crumbled around him. And rightly so. There's no room in America for cultural leaders who are so narrowly focussed as to claim inpiration only from those of their own demographics. It's insulting and, yes I'll say it, racist. Now, Oprah has never struck me as racist before, but perhaps I just wasn't paying attention. From now on out, you can rest assured that I will be.
1 comment:
How interesting that you and I both posted comments about the "honorable" Ms. Winfrey yesterday. I made a veiled reference to her racially motivated good works, although it was probably so obscure that no one caught it. That's what I was thinking, though, when I posted - it's funny how her helpful tendencies lean toward those of African American persuasion.
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