Sunday, April 08, 2012

A Message to Black People: “Oprah wants to talk to you, now.”

Today is Easter and I am sure that some of you were waiting for my perspective on the mythical, pagan holiday that has nothing to do with Afrikans, Black folks in America, egg laying rabbits, and a supposed resurrection of a floating, blonde-haired, blued-eyed magician with the Spanish name, Jesus (Hay-soos). Not this year. I figured that in 2012, if people are still believing and celebrating this foolishness the same way it was presented to us by folks who don’t love us and who don’t look like us, my talking about it today would only be in vain. So, to all of the adults in 2012 that still believe in this Greek mythology and you are still passing this insanity on to your children, Happy Easter! May the Creator (God) one day touch your brain with wisdom, knowledge, and some common damn sense. At least point you in the direction of a library.




Ok. Now on to Oprah and her sudden change of heart about Black people. I was driving to work about a couple of weeks ago with the radio on full blast. I was doing my usual channel switching from The Rickey Smiley Morning to the Tom Joyner Morning Show, to the Steve Harvey Morning and on to a rap station, a pop station, and then an AM soul/talk station. Well, during one of my final switches to the Steve Harvey Show, I got the biggest surprise of the morning. Oprah Winfrey was being interviewed on his show. I damned near pulled over to the side of the road in shock. I could not believe what I was hearing. I remember saying to myself, “Oprah Winfrey on a black formatted radio show?” “Really?” She was on there juststa yackin’ it up as if she had always frequented a black formatted radio show. I mean, she used her very contrived, concocted little black vernacular and everything. She even used this interview to voice her thoughts on the Trayvon Martin case, which has been rebroadcasted all over the country and maybe the world. That was certainly a good look for Steve Harvey’s morning show. I guess after she hits up the rest of the Black formatted radio shows, it’s off to BET’s 106 & Park.

Prior to Oprah’s visit to the Steve Harvey Morning Show, I had heard on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, the news of her OWN network not meeting the projected expectations when she signed the deal to buy the cable channel from the previous owners of the Discovery Channel. Meaning, the OWN channel was not getting the projected viewer numbers/ratings she and her partners were hoping for. After, I heard it on the Tom Joyner Show, I saw an article on the internet that spoke more into detail about what’s really going on at the OWN network. Let me say this. When Oprah debuted the OWN channel last year with the line-up of shows that she presented, I knew damned well that she was not targeting people who looked like me. There were so few Black faces on her network that it looked like her canceled talk show.



For 25 years, Oprah made sure that her talk show catered to a particular group of people which mainly consisted of  average, unattractive, white females and some ‘sistas’ that felt the need to tag along. Since she ended her show, it seems that this demographic has abandoned her. I guess they were cool with Oprah as long as she concentrated her talk show on making them feel pretty and secure. However, when Oprah decided to flex her media and economic muscles a little more, not only did these homely white women take notice, America took notice. You see. Racism these days can be quiet and can be very loud. Oprah was safe and cool when she only had her talk show and the "approved formula" she used every day. It was even ok for to amass a billion dollar fortune as long as she kept up the formula. But, when Oprah decided to test the formula and even push the envelope just a little bit under the guise of the so-called American dream, it looks like the demographic she catered to so lovingly and strategically as well as the rest of America, quietly stepped back and you have not heard a word from them since she purchased the network. To make her situation worse, she had the audacity to flaunt her success in their faces by calling the network OWN. Can I take you all on a little history journey for a minute? WE (Black folks) were not brought here to be owners. We were brought here to work and be humble servants under the system of white supremacy. Get it?



When you start off working to appease white supremacy, white superiority in order gain economic, religious, political success, you leave behind all that you are which includes your race and your Afrikan-ness. Yes. She looks Black, but that’s it. Oprah understood what it took and how to get that level of success under white supremacy. She understood that what she saw in the mirror (A black woman) could not mirror any philosophy that may spew from her mouth. Oprah, like so many other Blacks today and the ones that came before her that desired that level of economic success, signed willingly in blood on the dotted line. So, Oprah for years, acted like the most conservative republican when it came to Black folks. She, just like the conservative republican, took the black dollar and existence of Black people for granted. So, now that she has seemingly been abandoned by the people she catered to for so many years, she is making her way back ‘ home’ to save her fledgling network. Guess what. We are going to be more than happy to save a wretch like her. WE are just a forgiving people that way. Well, sometimes we take the forgiving part of us too far like in the R. Kelly case. What’s really going on?

I find it to be so ironic that when Oprah had to finally make budget cuts at her network by firing a lot of those whites and Jews she had working for her as executives as well as cancel a lot of the white programs including the Rosie O’Donnell Show, one of the only shows that stood on its own and continues to get great ratings for the OWN network is a black reality show that features a family that owns soul food restaurant called “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s.” So, Oprah will be having Bishop T.D. Jakes on her network tonight as she continues on her campaign to woo Black people to her network. Hmmm, this ass kissing that she is currently doing to get us to tune in to her network may actually yield some positive results for us. Hey Oprah, you think you can build and fund a few private African-centered leadership academies/schools for Black males in Memphis, Dallas, Chicago, and Newark? How about some media exposure on a monthly basis for some of the fledgling historically black colleges and universities?


There is a lesson to be learned in this whole Oprah running back home to the Black community to save her ass. If you stayed true to who you are in the very beginning, you won’t ever have to become fake or feel that you have to cater completely to white folks for whatever your desired success is in this country, therefore loosing yourself and your connection with your people in the process. I guess if you never had or were never educated on the knowledge of your Afrikan self in the first place, trading or selling off your semblance of Blackness becomes an easy and one might say a natural process.

3 comments:

Abudu56 said...

You hit the nail square on the head in this opinion post Rico. Although, I believe you could have put "pimpin democrats" where you have "conservative republicans."

Rico Rivers said...

Thank you, Abudu56.
I will keep the pimpin part in mind the next time. LOL!

melakutheawakened said...

Another Excellent Accurate observation! I am sad to say that I never really considered Oprah "Black", not in the sense that I consider myself "Black" meaning someone who is AWARE of the agenda that Black Americans and PEOPLE WORLDWIDE are living in. Oprah was always in my perception a "White" women, she catered to them and adjusted her rhetoric by their ideals and standards. I understand one can't amass a fortune in the Media without catering to "White" Society, one can become rich but to reach the level of financial success Oprah has reached (or truly was allowed to reach) I feel is her willingness to be FAKE and to project the "White" women act she has. But I believe it isn't an act Oprah is really a "White" women who happened to be Black. Somewhere along her path through America she realized the subconcious hate for Black People, she realized this hate is LESS PREVELANT WITH BLACK WOMEN. She was willing to do anything and to be used AS A REPRESENTITIVE FOR WHATEVER THE MEDIA MASTERS NEEDED HER TO REPRESENT. In a nutshell while "White" talk show hosts like Donahue were bringing people like Khalid Muhammed on (even though they attacked him with their Left control tatics, similar to the right control tatics used on Fox but directed toward people who are supposed to be culturally AWARE. Oprah was doing Jerry Springer type crap til she got enough of an audience and Speilberg and friends started having all their so called "A" list celebs appear on her safe show. From her unwillingness to bring HIP HOP artists, or attack the ones who appear on her show like she did Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, who was there with an ensemble cast to PROMOTE A MOVIE. Oprah is the best example of what catering to "white privilege" can do for you. She also kept in touch with her Black audience by bringing on and promoting Programmed SAFE and White APPROVED Black artists. But as the cash rolled in she pretty much abandoned anything that would distinguish her as Black, unless it was the usual Driving Miss Daisy shit, ie: The Color Purple type crap. You know the movies with the EVIL BLACK GOOD FOR NUTHIN MEN and the victimized Black women who must save herself from him. But I digress... I believe Oprah will survive, she has enough clout and connections to ensure her place of honor at "Boule", she has proven herself time and time again to the TRUE OWNERS OF THIS WORLD, I mean really, name another "Black" person who hobknobs with wretches like Prince Charles and Camilla? Oprah has become the "voice" of Black people FOR WHITE PEOPLE WHO NEED TO BELIEVE EVERYTHING IS FAIR AND EQUAL. Her value to the NWO can be gauged by the amount of wealth she was allowed to accrue. But Oprah will continue to succeed, simply based on the fact that she can "speak" for a people she in my opinion doesn't see as her "own". I wouldn't doubt if she becomes a senator or another usefull puppet like our so called "Black" president.