(WARNING: If you think Oprah Winfrey is a Do-No-WRONG QUEEN – Please don’t read…. You will be disappointed with my latest take on her)
I told someone recently that I needed to write about an American Untouchable, Miss Oprah Winfrey. I am not writing because I dislike Oprah, I’ve always been a big supporter, but after watching this past season of the Oprah Winfrey Show I think she is too out of touch, too powerful, too rich, too spoiled, and too full of her damn self. She may very well have become too much of everything.
From the moment Oprah Winfrey came on the screen in the movie adaptation of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” it was evident there was a star in the making. She exuded a talent, charm and likeability rarely seen in the movies. So it was not surprising that within the next year she had a nationally syndicated television show. Little did I know at the time she was already a talk show staple in the Chicago television market.
Since that time I have followed her continuous weight loss and gain and the hundred of hairstyles. I’ve been through the Emmy awards and the made-for-TV movies. I have purchased the monthly selections from her book club and I have even donated to her Angel Network.
It was during the past television season that I came to the realization that my love affair with Oprah was waning.
The trip across the country with Gayle King may have started it. Her difficulties with pumping her own gas, her bitching about Gayle’s singing (some people – myself included – know all the words to the songs on the radio and cannot help ourselves from singing – its an innate thing) and in hindsight I thinks rather rude to crash someone’s wedding, even if they are from Oklahoma.
The opening on the Oprah (Furer) Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa became more of a tribute to herself than about the girls’ potential and when it was announced that the contact between the girls and their parents would be limited, I had to question.
With all of that money, why not build an academy like that here in the United States… also? I understand the importance of the school in Africa but honestly, the money would be better spent on America girls of African descent. There are many deserving low, middle and higher income black girls in this country who could benefit from such an opportunity - girls who live within miles of her multi-million dollar penthouse and Harpo studios.
Don’t misunderstand. I think the school in South Africa is wonderful and it will definitely give the enrolled girls a head-start in their lives, but there are just as many American girls of African descent who could be helped greatly as well.
Another problem is that Oprah does nothing without a camera present. She gives away cars, she helps build houses for Katrina victims. Everywhere she goes there is a camera. What happened to quiet philanthropy? I can’t imagine her donating $100 without there being a camera crew filming the counting out of each bill.
She brings to her show, people who have turned in pedophiles, and hands them checks for $100,000 each. That’s wonderful - isn’t it - but she parades them around like she is a queen and they are lucky that she has anointed them.
What about the Best of Show? That show is so choked full of over-priced, over-inflated, over- pampered rich lady crap it is ridiculous. Here her audience is struggling to buy shoes for their children and she is barking on about some $350 foot cream that makes you feel like you are in a private spa. Well excuse me, but I can use that $350 to pay the light, water, and grocery bills. She has become the purveyor of pampered rich white lady’s shit.
Oprah does not cry unless a camera is directly on her. It seems that she waits until the camera is right on her (and she is looking for it too) before she lets out the big tears. The same is true on her singing along with every musical guests - she never knows the words. She is sitting there singing along like a teenage girl, but the bitch, I mean woman, never even knows the chorus.
And don’t get me started on how she hugs everyone, everyone but John Travolta, like they have cooties. Maybe she should give everyone that knuckle bump that Howie Mandel gives the contestants on his show.
Is it possible to come from dirt poor beginnings, and grow up to have the top rated syndicated television show for 21 years and become famous and rich, truly rich, and stay humble? I’m going to answer HELL NO… because I think if there was a possibility, it would be Oprah Winfrey and she has clearly forgotten where she came from. She talks a good talk but I see a judgmental, spoiled white woman every time I look at her these days.
(NO ONE has to agree with me on this…. And you are more than welcome to leave me an honest comment.)
