anyone else listening to the bizarre discussion on Randi's show?

[shireen]

She says Oprah was pandering during her speech for Obama because she spoke in a different way, more "southern", than she does on her talk show. Apparently, Oprah was "acting".

I did not see that speech but I understand why Oprah talks differently when she's with people who share a common cultural heritage with her. It's NORMAL. We use language to relate to each other, and part of that is changing the way we communicate depending on our surroundings. Sometimes it's very subtle, other times, very obvious. I speak a certain way at work, but when I'm talking to family or people from my country of birth, I automatically revert to a different accent. Caller after caller has been trying to explain that to Randi but she doesn't get it!

[feminazi]

1. I tunred her off today. Too much yelling and shouting.

Turned her off yesterday, too. I really like Randi, but more and more Rachel is becoming my favorite.

[shireen]

3. i've warmed up to Rachel too ...

really hope she gets that MSNBC gig!

Randi's hard to listen to, but today's discussion was so bizarre, could not turn it off! Most of the time, Randi very perceptive. But she is totally not getting this language issue!

[bunkerbuster1]

67. Rachel said last night that rumors of an MSNBC gig are grossly exaggerated.

I see little reason to hope for that.

Plus, they're letting go of Kent Jones, which really sucks. I don't know if they'll provide Rachel with another foil, but Rachel is clearly not happy about this development and she said so on the air.

[ellacott]

68. That's too bad

I was looking forward to seeing her on MSNBC.

[bunkerbuster1]

71. I'll say!

In the back of my mind I was thinking a prime-time Rachel-hosted show was too good to be true. She's a genuine, unapologetic feminist and progressive, and I think that would terrify the corporate media to think that someone might be, you know, even more ferocious than Olberman in going after right-wing crooks and liars.

[ellacott]

73. That's very true

That would probably be too much for the network. I could see Rachel when they have those Super Tuesday show. She would have Tucker and Scarborough fuming. :)

[shireen]

75. Whhhhat? You telling me that General Electric is afraid of a GIRL?

:P

Seriously, I'm disappointed to hear that. She has a wonderful tv presence, and would do wonders for their ratings. Abrams show, that comes after KO, is kinda silly at times. Tucker is a pathetic joke. Tweety's show is comedy, except I don't think he realizes it. Adding Rachel to MSNBC would give that network more class and integrity.

[LSparkle]

4. I'm with you -- it just seemed like such a small point and yet

Randi's spent the ENTIRE show trying to convince callers (and maybe even herself) that she's right about Oprah "acting." Wrong ... When Hillary FAKES a Southern accent in a black church, that's acting. When Oprah lets her hair down and returns to her roots, it's just that -- relaxing, speaking in a way that's more comfortable for her when dealing with people akin to those she grew up with.

[shireen]

5. gosh, you summed it up so well!

Maybe you should email that to Randi. She's being so weird about it!

[Kahuna]

45. Oh no! Randy has decided that WE'RE all the racists because we

don't get riled when she criticizes Hillary for talking black but we give her a hard time for criticizing Oprah for talking black. :crazy: She doesn't see the difference.

[Windy]

11. You should email her.... that is perfect

I wanted to throw something at the radio today. For someone who is usually so smart and perceptive, she was out in left field today.

I think she may lose listeners as a result.

[Whisp]

25. haha. I forgot about Hillary's phony southern accent...

that was so lame ass - I was embarrassed for her - what the hell are her advisers doing? this and that stupid kindergarten thing, and probably many others I've missed - but she is Not being served well by her advisors.

[bunkerbuster1]

72. Shit, it was one line.

From a gospel song, right?

Isn't it time to drop it?

[Red Zelda]

2. yikes

The weirdest show I've ever heard her do.

[Warpy]

6. I guess a lot of white folks don't get it

I get it only because of my own very bizarre and typically Irish sense of humor. Most people don't get it, so I don't turn it on unless I'm pretty sure they will. I've been delighted to find that out west, Navajos, some Pueblo folks, and a lot of the old Hispanos from back in the hills get it.

However, show me a room full of suburban WASPs and forget it!

It's the same thing with Oprah's speech patterns.

[sandnsea]

21. People get it

They just trump stuff up out of some place of irrational hatred that makes no sense to me.

[SeattleGirl]

7. Um, most of the callers are trying to make the false point that

black people speak differently at home than they do in public.

Point one: Oprah was NOT at home; she was in public, speaking to a large audience.

Point two: Many people speak differently when they ARE home, regardless of race. AND, many people don't.

Point three: I think, based on points one and two, the callers are the ones who aren't getting it.

They are arguing something different than what Randi is talking about.

[shireen]

12. who was the audience? I didn't see her speech.

If she was overcome with emotion, I can totally see her speaking in the way that comes most naturally to her, southern-style.

[maddiejoan]

13. Bingo

exactly.

We're talking about a woman that has made a career out of speaking to people.

This was pandering.

She wasn't at home just being folks.

She was speaking at an arena and for millions of people on TV.

She knew exactly what she was doing.

[SeattleGirl]

16. Exactly.

And Randi's question was, why, if she is in front of an audience all the time, did she choose to speak that way at that time.

She also brought up how Hilary does that too, in front of certain audiences.

In both cases, I think it WAS pandering.

[WolverineDG]

40. It wasn't pandering

if she's really passionate about Obama, she's going to lapse into her natural speaking pattern, which is Southern.

dg

[Kahuna]

54. These people act like when Oprah is hanging out with her homies

she speaks exactly the way she does on her show. That's just not being realistic. Many of her homies are not on her level. Of course she's going to know how to relate to them on their level. And might I add...Duh. ;)

[Tarheel_Dem]

17. not a false point at all......

As a middle aged African American male I, like Oprah, grew up in an environment with several generations of family members who spoke very different southern dialects. I incorporated all of these, and when I joined Corporate America I adapted there as well.

I really take offense at a white talk show hostess trying to tell me that I'm being fake if I speak one way in the environment in which I grew up, and another way at the office. Unfortunately, there are lots of things that will get you kicked out of corporate America such as certain hairstyles, certain clothing styles, and your style of speech. If you want to earn a decent living in certain sectors of the job market, you make modifications, and language just happens to be one of them.

Randi has become increasingly difficult to listen to, and why she bothers to take calls or have guests is beyond me. She has some really intelligent and articulate callers sometimes, but you don't get to hear them because Randi so enjoys the sound of her own voice. Noone's point is valid except hers. Why she feels the need to be so insulting to her fans I can't quite figure out, but I think she just lost me for good.

:edited for spelling

[SeattleGirl]

22. But you are missing the point.

I agree that you may speak differently at home or among friends. I do that too. I can cuss many people under the table, but I sure don't do that in the context of my job.

I just wonder why so many people are jumping on Randi for what she said. OPRAH WAS NOT AT HOME, SHE WAS NOT HANGING OUT WITH HER GIRLFRIENDS. She was in a public arena giving a public speech. Randi's point was that it seemed like pandering to her, because in her other appearances and on her show, Oprah doesn't do that, except in small bits.

People just aren't getting it. They are arguing something that Randi didn't even bring up. It was her callers.

Why can't she ask that question, and get an honest debate, instead of being kicked around by people who think she is being racist or something?

As she said, no one called her out when she said that other politicians do the same thing, and she thinks that is also pandering.

[Tarheel_Dem]

24. I listened to the entire show, and unless I missed something

no one called her "racist". Randi is the one who used that word. She was on the defensive from the first caller thru the end of the show. By the end of the show, she was "the victim". I don't get what you don't get about Randi's total ignorance of black family culture.

[maddiejoan]

26. If you listened to the show

then you'd know Randi isn't ignorant of black family culture.

Her point had nothing to do with black family culture.

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. Well, I'm glad you figured out what her point was.........n/t

[maddiejoan]

31. She called him "The One"

It's not exactly rocket science to figure out.

[Tarheel_Dem]

34. I thought we were talking about Randi....

Did she call him "The One"?

[maddiejoan]

36. No

Oprah did.

I got confused as we are talking about two different topic at the same time.

Randi's point was about Oprah (who is always speaking about the importance of "authentic self") choosing to adopt a different persona for this event. It's a valid question. Oprah is a professional speaker and actress. She knows very well what different modes of communication can accomplish.

She also ascribed this same tendency to politicians of every race (including Hillary Clinton and Al Gore)

It is pandering. THAT was Randi's point.

I'll go even further by saying she wasn't just speaking. She was "testifying".

[Whisp]

33. maybe Oprah's 'home' voice is her show...

and the comparison should be based on that.

[maddiejoan]

23. I'm pretty sure Oprah earns a decent living already.

The point is she wasn't at home.

She's a professional speaker that was speaking in her capacity AS a professional speaker before millions of people.

She CHOSE to speak in a certain way, for a certain reason.

And I'll even tell you how she was speaking.

She was speaking like a preacher in a church about a God.

THATs what she was doing.

She's using her skills as a communicator to help package Obama as the new messiah.

It's repulsive.

[Tarheel_Dem]

27. "Messiah" is your characterization, and you're certainly

entitled to your opinion, and you're certainly entitled to be "repulsed", but I think that says a lot more about you than it does about Oprah.

[maddiejoan]

29. Yes.

It says I'm aware of how Obama is being packaged.

[alfredo]

28. I pick up accents easily. And if I am speaking about times in

each location I lived, I drop into that accent. When I came back from Africa they said I spoke like an Aussie, but I rolled my R's like the people where I lived. When I speak of my childhood I get that Shively Kentucky twang. Drives my wife crazy.

I don't think Oprah consciously put on that talk. I think it put her right back into an earlier part of her life, maybe back to the church.

Hillary, I believe fell back into her Arkansas years in the speech they mentioned. It is easy to do, and you don't even realize you are doing it.

[Tarheel_Dem]

32. Thank you, it's very easy to do.....n/t

[alfredo]

35. I feel like Zelig

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelig

[Kahuna]

52. Bull. Oprah can use any cadence she wants whenever and whereever

she wants. Who are you or Randi to say when it's appropriate? I'm sure Oprah won't be losing any sleep. You act as if you know Oprah's every characteristic which ridiculous on its face. Seems to me that both you and Randi can keep busy enough tending to your own business.

[robbedvoter]

8. She has a point. But Oprah ain't running. Edwards' southern accent however

seems to come and go - a bit more relevant.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

18. Oprah isn't running. Randi also pointed out that Hillary did the same thing

while talking in a black church. Obama does it too. He was brought up in Indonesia and Hawaii, educated at Harvard and I would love to know where he gets his folksy black southern accent, and yes, he is running.

The real point is that according to Randi, Oprah is her idol and that Oprah talks about one being their authentic self. She thought, as I thought when I heard Oprah, that Oprah was putting on an act. Remember that Oprah is an excellent actress.

[robbedvoter]

42. I got that. To me Oprah is irrelevant in every way. I considered calling to remind

Randi to get back to the candidates (Edwards accent would have been on the topic). What people who endorse candidates do - none of my bizwax.

[Kahuna]

46. Oh please. I love how people who never spent time in a Baptist Church

have the nerve to try to comment one way or the other.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

56. Never assume. nt

[Kahuna]

60. Well then you should stop assuming and stay out of

other peoples' business.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

65. You are not making sense here at all. If you don't know how to reply, just don't. nt

[sandnsea]

20. So does mine

Depending on whether I'm around my family or trying to make a point about something southern. This is SO stupid it's beyond comprehension.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Uhhh...

Well she was born and raised in rural Mississippi...

:shrug:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

50. Two of my grandparents were from Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Which is Oprah's hometown. They didn't sound like hicks. They were white.
Just because someone is from the south doesn't mean they will sound like a hick.

So Oprah had to learn to speak more bland English to go on TV -- I'm not surprised. TV people have to do that. So she speaks something closer to Black English at home. That doesn't bother me either.

[sueh]

10. I had to put Randi on mute.

It was too much for me today.

[tritsofme]

14. People still listen to that raving lunatic?

Learn something new everyday I suppose.

[zalinda]

15. I understand where Randi was coming from

but I don't know if I would call it "acting". Oprah was more in preacher mode, than herself. Normally, Oprah sounds like Oprah, whether she is on her show or introducing someone at a huge gala. She has given speeches before and never got into the preacher mode. Randi just found it odd, because it was so unlike Oprah to sound like that.


And as far as being with people who share a common cultural heritage, I'd guess that 3/4 of that audience was white, just like it is on her shows.

zalinda

[maddiejoan]

37. yes

Preacher mode.

That's how I saw it as well.

[Crabby Appleton]

58. me too nt

[ecstatic]

41. It shattered Randi's belief that Oprah was not like "the others"

Oh my gosh!

[Kahuna]

49. Exactly. Oprah wasn't being clean and articulate....

:eyes:

[Kahuna]

48. But do you know how Oprah speaks when she's in church?

Well do you?

[sandnsea]

55. Then you didn't look at the SC pictures

And you didn't recognize that she talked the same in Iowa as she did in SC. DU proves that there really are as many haters on the left as the right.

[sandnsea]

19. People who don't watch Oprah

are pretending to know what Oprah talks like on her show. That's hysterical.

Yes, she does intentionally lapse into slang sometimes. She is, in fact, the first to regularly use the term "nappy headed" in reference to herself as a child, and she always said it with a southern twang.

This is racist bigoted bullshit, as mean spirited as it comes. EXACTLY the kind of shit the right does.

[Kahuna]

53. Try this. Say you're Oprah and you hang out with your relatives..

from the south who haven't been educated or experienced the world the way she has. Do you think she goes home to the deep south and speaks to people like she speaks on her show? C'mon now. It's like a lot of West Indians I know who speak english beautifully. But when they're home you wouldn't understand one word.

[WolverineDG]

38. Oprah is from the south

She modulates her voice to sound more "middle American." I do the same thing, yet talk to me when I'm tired, or in an environment that's not so "formal" (ie, where I don't have to sound like I'm not from Texas), my drawl comes roaring back to life.

:eyes:

dg

[ecstatic]

39. Does Randi have any non-white friends? nt

[Kahuna]

47. Obviously not.

:shrug:

[spanone]

43. oprah IS from the south

[Kahuna]

44. Because a black, Baptist woman from Alabama spoke like a

on edit: I understand from another poster that OW is from MS not AL.

southern Baptist (because she is one) wittle Wandy got her nose out of joint. Unbelievable. I couldn't believe her. I wanted to call her but I wouldn't have been as nice as most of the callers.

[undeterred]

51. Randi went off on a tangent today.

I couldn't care less how Oprah speaks. She can stand on her head and talk through her nose for all I care.

[earth mom]

57. I didn't hear Oprah or Randi but I am ALARMED to hear that Oprah was "testifying"

and that she called Obama "the one". Like seriously, :wtf:


Sounds like total religious indoctrination bullshit and that's what everyone around here should be really concerned about because this religious crap is totally out of control. Haven't we learned anything from 4 years of that kind of crap from * & Co?!!!


But FWIW, I saw Oprah on Jay Leno just a few minutes ago. It was an old show and I noticed that Oprah didn't sound like her usual self on the show. I can't figure out if she was uncomfortable or relaxed, but she was nothing like the Oprah from her show.

Now reading this thread I wonder....actress or chameleon....?

[Kahuna]

63. Or maybe like most interesting people she has many different flavors..

Nothing wrong with that.

[LostinVA]

59. "Common cultural heritage?" -- Obama grew up in HAWAII

[Kahuna]

61. But he goes to a black church!!!!

It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand. I hated to go there, but....It obviously is. And I get sick and tired of black people having to defend themselves to people who know nothing about living in a black skin.

[ellacott]

64. I agree with you

It's very difficult trying to explain things when people don't want to consider that their opinion is not totally accurate.

I ended up turning her show off. She had a right to make that observation but she was incorrect to assume that it was because Oprah was being unauthentic. Randi has a habit of thinking that her opinion is the only valid opinion and anyone who disagrees with her is wrong.

No one was trying to call her racist. I hate that term because most people use it in the wrong way. Randi was just speaking from a limited perspective.

There was a post here a few months ago asking whether people change their way of speaking when they are around different people. Most people said this happend and it wasn't exclusively African Americans. It happens across the board.

It's true that Oprah wasn't at home but Oprah did say that she was very nervous. People may discount that because she frequently speaks in public. Oprah did say that she had stepped out of her comfort zone and was in unfamiliar territory. That could have been a reason why she may have unconciously(or consciously) reverted back to speaking with that cadence.

There is no way of knowing but I think Randi would have been better served to at least consider other explanations. She didn't have to come to the same conclusion but she didn't have to be so adamant and rude to the callers. No one was calling her a racist and the fact that she fell back on that speaks volumes.

What I find interesting is that some people thread have associated speaking with a southern accent, or drawl, as being less intelligent.

[LostinVA]

66. oh brother

[ellacott]

74. What's wrong? n/t

[SpiralHawk]

62. Randy's whining and badgering turned me off long ago

Grow up, Randy. You have a lot of good ideas. But whining about them, and badgering callers, make you sound just like the republicon propagandists on the airwaves -- different content, but the same shrill whine.

[RB TexLa]

69. I do not speak with a drawl or improperly when around other Southerners. There is nothing normal

about doing that.

[snooper2]

70. Speaking on a stage for a tv show...

Is different than speaking in an arena....get a life people...