StephenK
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Jun 1, 1999
- Messages
- 226
I'm going to chime in here and address Oprah's "crash moment". Early on in her career, back in the Phil Donohue days, she did a show on the whole "Asian Whiz Kids" thing. This was in the early 80's after Time Magazine did a cover story on how Asian's were supposedly doing better at academics. The thing I remember clearly, was her asking the kids why they did so much better than "Americans". Now there were a few who were obviously recent immigrants, with the thick accents and all, but most of the "panel" were kids with no discernable accents and who were born here, as American as apple pie. In fact it was a talking point about how that didn't seem to make a difference. Yet she constantly referred to the whole panel as non-American. It wasn't obnoxious, she wasn't trying to be insulting, and was often complementary. Still, it was obvious that, in her mind, these kids were non-American. To this day, it still chaps me.
I don't doubt her charity work, and I'm sure she's a fine human being. I just found her ignorance on equating race with political and cultural allegiance remarkably dense, especially for a person of color, who had probably suffered racism herself, blatant and otherwise.
I don't doubt her charity work, and I'm sure she's a fine human being. I just found her ignorance on equating race with political and cultural allegiance remarkably dense, especially for a person of color, who had probably suffered racism herself, blatant and otherwise.