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Showing Original Post only (View all)I love handbags [View all]
I have a beautiful handbag I bought for myself for a milestone birthday nearly two years ago. Here it is.
It's a Brahmin bag, not close to Oprah's price range, but then I don't have Oprah's money. Being me and liking a bargain, I used a coupon during Macy's Friends and Family sale.
I don't give a shit about cutting-edge electronics or fancy cars, but I love a nice handbag. So does Oprah. Our sense of what a nice bag is varies greatly in accordance with our incomes.
Know what else? I would like another bag, and just might buy one sometime in the next year.
Maybe this one if I can swing it.
The money I spent on that bag or might spend in the future could be spent on feeding starving children in Africa. I don't feed starving children in Africa; Oprah does. I contribute a bit from each paycheck to the local food shelf, not nearly what Oprah contributes either in dollars, obviously, or I suspect in percentage of income.
We all spend money on stuff we absolutely don't have to. That money you may spend on beer and cigarettes or computer stuff could feed lots of starving people. Starving children across the world would love to have access to the food scraps so insignificant to you that they go in the garbage. They would consider your consumption every bit as disgusting as you consider Oprah's.
None of that changes the fact that Oprah is a black woman, and no matter how much money she has and what she can afford, she will always be black. Because of that, she is subject to being treated as inferior, like every other person with black and brown skin on this planet. Some have gone to great lengths to dismiss, explain away, and every justify racism. White privilege hinges on denying racism. Yeah, I know you don't feel more privileged that Oprah because it most ways you aren't, but you will never hear a story of a white celebrity being told she can't afford something. Nor will people on this site complain about Angelina Jolie's expensive clothes or Jay Leno's many, many cars. They are white, and no one questions their right to acquire stuff. Oprah, however, is another story.