Yes, I know, it's surprising: black women are hypocritical too. Specifically, I'm talking about the blatant, unkind, and complete hypocrisy of the Queen of Media, the Empress of the Contemporary Black Movement: Oprah Winfrey.
On April 12, 2007, Oprah covered the Imus scandal, interviewing the players of the Rutgers women's basketball team. Reviewing the egregious racial comments made by shock jock, Don Imus, referring to the all-women's team as "nappy headed hoes" on his radio show. Oprah continued on to rail Imus for his comments as racial and sexist--which they were; everything Imus said on his show was racially charged. In the history of this show, He did not discriminate in his slanderous remarks.
Now, fast forward to the end of Oprah's show, where Oprah was hosting hip-hop dance lessons (by a black woman instructor) and then offhandedly commented how there is always some "white man" in the room who "can't dance". Now, by no means do I mean to equate dancing with promiscuity, that's not the point. The point is racism and sexism. So when it comes to racism or sexist comments, Oprah doesn't have a stone to cast.
This sheds a light on a larger issue. Is there such a thing as degrees of racism or sexism? There is not. There is no "racist and sexist meter" at the FCC. If there were, Howard Stern would have been gone long ago.
Racism, pardon me, is a black and white issue. A comment is either racist or not, there is no middle ground. The difference, it seems, is tolarence. Could it be that blacks are simply less tolerant than Jews, Whites, Asians, American Indians, Hispanics, and every other minority? I will leave the answer of that question to recent history: Don Imus slandared many, if not all, of these groups; a black, sexist comment got him fired.
Perhaps, it wasn't the minority crack, but the sexist one. If so, then according to Oprah, it's ok to say a sexist comment about men, but not one about women. Again, I am not making distinctions about what was said, but the nature of the comment. Saying that men, "white men" at that, can't dance is racist AND sexist.
Oprah, I want an apology.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
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