Question for Oprah fans: Does Oprah weigh in on black American issues?

[The Backlash Cometh]

I confess, I'm not an Oprah watcher. It has nothing to do with Oprah, but because I don't really always find hen bonding stimulating, and some topics are just too fru-fru for me. So, I'm reading this article in the Washington Post today titled, "U.S. HIV Cases Soaring Among Black Women" and I think to myself, if Oprah was making this a priority in her life, to help out her own people, I would have certainly heard about it by now. So I ask myself, IS Oprah using her clout to form outreaches for these women, and if not, why not?

Now, there's no question in my mind that she should, because she portrays herself as someone who cares enough to fly in all the hottest hairdressers and make-up artists around the country, just to create Cinderella stories out of hard-look cases. So, someone please enlighten me, where does Oprah weigh in on this travesty that is occuring to black women? (and I might add, though the article doesn't mention it, to hispanic women as well.)

You can find the url at:

U.S. HIV Cases Soaring Among Black Women
Social Factors Make Group Vulnerable
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 7, 2005; Page A01


He was, Precious Jackson said, a very fine black man. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall with an almond-milk complexion, dreamy dark eyes and a deep voice. During their nearly two years together in Los Angeles, he was the sunshine of her life, even though he had a habit of landing in jail and refused to use a condom when they made love.

"I didn't ask him any questions," Jackson said in a recent interview. "I didn't ask him about his sexual history. I asked him if he had been tested, and he said one test came back positive but another one came back negative. I was excited to have this man in my life, because I felt I needed this man to validate who I was."

The man is now Jackson's ex-lover, but the two are forever attached by the AIDS virus she contracted from him, becoming, in the process, a part of the nation's fastest-growing group of people with HIV -- black women.

That development, epidemiologists say, is attributable to socioeconomic and demographic conditions specific to many African American communities. Black neighborhoods, they say, are more likely to be plagued by joblessness, poverty, drug use and a high ratio of women to men, a significant portion of whom cycle in and out of a prison system where the rate of HIV infection is estimated to be as much as 10 times higher than in the general population.

For black women, the result has been devastating, said Debra Fraser-Howze, founding president and CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS.

"We should be very afraid," she said. "We should be afraid and we should be planning. What are we going to do when these women get sick? Most of these women don't even know they're HIV-positive. What are we going to do with these children? When women get sick, there is no one left to take care of the family."




http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3318-2005Feb6.html

[dsc]

1. I am by no means a loyal fan

but I know of two cases where she took on black issues. One was a show about discrimination featuring her being locked out of a store and in another she gives a certain number of black men full rides to prestigious schools (a friend of mine was an Oprah scholar).

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Black men? Just black men?

Oprah is a billion dollar baby. Don't you think that she should be doing more? Is she afraid that she'll lose her cross-over appeal if she comes out?

[Karenina]

7. Is her largesse really

only offerred to black men???

[dsc]

8. From what I was told by the recipient of the scholarship

it was limited to black men due to the fact that so many black men are in prison vs in college. She may well have other programs for women.

[Maddy McCall]

3. "new-age mammy for suburban soccer moms"

Oprah skillfully markets herself as the griot figure--one of the few legitimate roles Hollywood has for black people. Like Whoopie Goldberg, she plays the wise black matriarch who redeems white people from their misdeeds and foibles by helping them embrace love and realize their true, good selves. Oprah seems to take on the role of new-age mammy for suburban soccer moms. In the process, she safely reduces all things racial to the personal, sidestepping the hard questions of institutionalized racial oppression and white privilege.

A moment of clarity struck me during her tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "If you could heal racism, where would you start?" The stories had a recurring theme. During jury duty, a black woman confronts her mistrust of white people and befriends a white juror. A former neo-Nazi sees the error of his ways through the patience of caring foster parents--"they loved the hate right out of me." A white English teacher starts a Freedom Writers club in response to students' racial stereotyping. "A teacher, a mother, and even a stranger, these are the people who are living Dr. King's dream. This is how change happens, one moment, one person at a time."

Many of Oprah's shows follow the mainstream spin: that racism is mainly an issue between black and white people who just don't understand each other, a personal problem that must be addressed through the self-empowerment of people of color and white compassion.


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To receive Oprah's absolution, white viewers need only show a little compassion, perform a few acts of kindness (if only in their own minds), and all is right.

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Take her show, "Thomas Jefferson's Black and White Relatives Meet Each Other." The questions raised would have fit right in on a 60 Minutes or Primetime Live segment. Could such a power imbalance between Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings, yield real love? Why does the Monticello Association refuse to accept Jefferson's black descendants into the family gravesite? Note the brave solidarity between some of the modern-day descendants of Jefferson and Hemings. The show concludes with a lesson on reconciliation: descendants of slave and master in one family coming together on "I'm Sorry Day" in South Carolina.

Surely there is value in personal redemption. But why not discuss the broader institutional implications of Jefferson's actions? Why not ask how Jefferson could father children with his slave, then turn around and deny their personhood in the country's constitution? And how is this power dynamic replayed by modern-day white leaders who claim to have affinity for people of color yet deny their basic human rights? Aren't these questions worth investigating with a national audience?

From: http://www.arc.org/C_Lines/CLArchive/story4_4_04.html

[noonwitch]

5. I saw the episode about Jefferson's descendants, it was good

She did a really good job on that. It dealt with not only the history of slavery, women and their babies by their "owners", but also the on-going problems between the official organization for descendants of Jefferson and their unwillingness to admit Sally Hemmings' descendants to their organization.

Oprah is a new age person, who preaches forgiveness as a path to resolution. She is also a very generous individual, and shares her wealth with others. Racial problems will only be solved on a individual person basis, in the long run. There is only so much government policies can do. They can't change hearts and minds, that has to happen on the individual level.

I don't think Oprah is "a new age mammy for suburban soccer moms". That is such an insult to the most successful black entertainment figure in history.

I'm not a huge fan, I'm not home when her show is on, for the most part, but I do watch it if I am home and the topic interests me. I have nothing but respect for her.

[kwassa]

6. I don't agree with this assessment, either

I've never seen Oprah shirk a topic, but I do think that she is aware that she needs to present information to whites in a way that they can hear it.

and I really don't know what you mean by this:
Maddy McCall:
"And how is this power dynamic replayed by modern-day white leaders who claim to have affinity for people of color yet deny their basic human rights?"

Precisely what rights are being denied by whom? I'm not aware of it happening, not to say that it isn't.

and you say:
"that racism is mainly an issue between black and white people who just don't understand each other, a personal problem that must be addressed through the self-empowerment of people of color and white compassion."

And white action. With that addition, I pretty much agree with Oprah.

[Karenina]

4. Hmmm....

:kick: