Forget The Color Purple: Oprah's All About the Green

[SeveneightyWhoa]

Forget The Color Purple: Oprah's All About the Green

September 21 2007
Counterbias.com
by Jason Miller


“The other kids were all into black power,” Oprah told the Tribune in the mid-1980s. But “I wasn’t a dashiki kind of woman … Excellence was the best deterrent to racism and that became my philosophy.”

Excellence indeed. Few would deny that Oprah Winfrey has achieved an extraordinary degree of that, at least by our society’s standards. Witty, articulate, attractive, beloved by tens of millions, and fabulously wealthy, she is the “I pulled myself up by my bootstraps” queen of a vast media empire. Oprah is a living embodiment of the American Dream. What is perhaps most inspiring to her disciples is that Oprah rose to her position of wealth and influence from an impoverished start in a socioeconomic hierarchy still largely dominated by white males.

Oprah Winfrey ostensibly possesses the mythical Midas Touch, a generous spirit, deep spiritual wisdom, and, in the eyes of those blinded by their adoration, the credentials of a saint. Yet despite appearing destined for canonization, Oprah is inflicting further damage on the already deeply abscessed wound of the American psyche.

Continue.. http://www.counterbias.com/924.html

[Bitwit1234]

1. But it seems the public does jump on her choices

When she recommends something they usually don't buy.

[Bitwit1234]

2. Have to add I remember her back in the 70's

when she was on WBAL in Baltimore. She was huge but she was the best thing that had happened to Baltimore TV. I was disappointed when she went to Chicago. But she took off like a rocket after that. And she showed the world you COULD loose weight if you really wanted to.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

3. She does do some good

She's spoken out about sexual abuse and battered women many times over the years, and if people really do follow her like this article says, I would hope some women have taken her message and escaped the prison they were living in.

[silverweb]

4. Nice hit piece.

I refuse to deify Oprah or anyone else, but neither will I condemn her for being wealthy.

I do recognize that by being talented and hard working, as well as a shrewd business woman, she has been able to do more good for more people than most individuals could ever hope to.

It sounds to me like the person who wrote this hit piece may be the kind who resents anyone who rises above her class -- like the low-lifes who mock fellow students for being serious about school/work and setting their sights beyond the mundane.

[Baby Snooks]

6. Just the same...

Hit piece or not it does point out that Oprah does have a certain disconnect from her roots as an African-American and a woman and the poverty most African-American woman really have little hope of climbing out of although she believes somehow that because she did, they can. They can't. Reality is reality.

Her attitude at times does reflect more the Caucasian woman born into immense wealth. Out of sight, out of mind. Let's try Martha Stewart's latest recipe for chocolate chip cookies and read the latest pop psychology book and become entranced with ourselves a little bit more and less entranced with the ugliness of the world around us. Out of sight, out of mind indeed.

Just the same, even considering the perhaps selfish public relations value, she is generous. And has helped quite a few people through the organizations she has funded as well as founded. Like everyone else, I suppose, she is the proverbial mixed bag. None of us can wave a magic wand and make it all go away.

And she does do some riveting shows. Not as many, perhaps, as she should. But she does do them. Who would continue to watch her if she restricted herself to reality? A little fantasy is good from time to time. For all of us. And Oprah is if nothing else the Queen of Fantasy. Having it all and being happy with it.

[silverweb]

7. Exactly.

"...she is generous. And has helped quite a few people through the organizations she has funded as well as founded. Like everyone else, I suppose, she is the proverbial mixed bag. None of us can wave a magic wand and make it all go away."

Anyone who expects perfection of any sort from another human being is a fool. It's much better to appreciate the good, overlook ordinary foibles, and forgive the failures.

Overall, Oprah is one of our better celebrity examples and I wish there were more like her.

[tom_paine]

5. Of course she is. She is an empty corproate creation.

Millions of African-Americans routinely disenfranchised, and Amerika coming into terrible view which will be horrific for all, but clearly the worst for African-Americans and Gays, who collective form the New Jews for the Bushie "Kinder and Gentler Nazis".

And Oprah says...NOTHING. Hell, she probably doesn;t even have a clue what's going on outside her comfy hermentically-sealed bubble.

[Cha]

8. Nobody's perfect and everyone

could have a piece written about them by someone who found objections to their life.

There's certainly no reason for her to feel guilty about her money that she's made.

She did a show before the 2004 election called Get Out The Vote and you could tell it and all her guests that she would be voting for Kerry!

[tomreedtoon]

9. There are arguments about how she spends her money.

The article referred to in the OP DOES sound like a screed about how she's wealthy, and therefor a Pig Capitalist Bourgeoisie Oppressor. It goes way overboard, and the article ignores some of the really important problems with Oprah Winfrey.

* She acts as a shill for expensive gear, given away every Christmas on her "Oprah's Favorite Things" shows. It doesn't matter that she gives these gifts away to 200 or so women that might be considered deserving, like a bunch of teachers she found. The gifts are high-end garbage like gold-wrapped chocolates and computer-operated nose hair clippers. This is stuff that shouldn't exist, let alone get publicized by such a powerful celebrity. Why doesn't she give them a year's worth of Rice-a-Roni? At least that's a useful item, and it's affordable by normal people, making it a worthwile ad.

* Her school in Africa is a similar exercise in misfocussed greed. She bought those 150 or so girls sheets made with 200-thread-per-inch cotton. If she had used the kind of sheets we ordinary people use - 50 TPI - she could've done sheets for four times as many girls. And so on, and so on. Heck, most people in Africa don't even have sheets.

* Was there any book on her Book Club that any critics considered worth a damn? She is supposedly supporting Obama - did she ever promote any of his books? Give any to her audience members? Does she only read mushy romance books in her spare time?

[Cha]

10. Like I said she's not perfect..and

I don't worship at the altar of Oprah. And, we can all keep learning in this life..maybe she actually needs to read some of this stuff and rethink a thing or two? :)