Mad At Oprah
Apparently, some members of Oprah's core audience are extremely upset and angry with her strong support of Senator Barack Obama's quest for the presidency. The message boards at Oprah's website are buzzing with negative criticism directed at the talk show diva as well as the presidential candidate.
Just taking a quick peek at the message boards, Oprah is being accused of everything from "being a traitor" to "pushing Obama down our throats." A number of the original message threads and the follow-up comments are borderline offensive or flat-out racist. Charges of playing up to the black race, affirmative action favoritism, and unfounded accusations of Obama of being a radical Muslim or terrorist were just a small sample.
Oprah is an extremely intelligent and savvy woman, I'm sure she anticipated the negative backlash, but I have to wonder even more about the realities of a black man winning the presidency in the United States. Oprah's audience is primarily white middle America, who seemed perfectly happy when Oprah was just hawking books, movies, and other mass produced products. Yet, when she puts her name, money, and media clout behind a black man for president, she's a traitor or a sell-out?
I am not naive either, I too expected some backlash for Oprah and Obama, but I can’t help but wonder if her same core audience would have been so upset if she had put the same efforts behind Hilary Clinton? I also wonder about the same folks that profess so much love for Oprah, but can spit out racist comments about Obama without batting an eye.
Just taking a quick peek at the message boards, Oprah is being accused of everything from "being a traitor" to "pushing Obama down our throats." A number of the original message threads and the follow-up comments are borderline offensive or flat-out racist. Charges of playing up to the black race, affirmative action favoritism, and unfounded accusations of Obama of being a radical Muslim or terrorist were just a small sample.
Oprah is an extremely intelligent and savvy woman, I'm sure she anticipated the negative backlash, but I have to wonder even more about the realities of a black man winning the presidency in the United States. Oprah's audience is primarily white middle America, who seemed perfectly happy when Oprah was just hawking books, movies, and other mass produced products. Yet, when she puts her name, money, and media clout behind a black man for president, she's a traitor or a sell-out?
I am not naive either, I too expected some backlash for Oprah and Obama, but I can’t help but wonder if her same core audience would have been so upset if she had put the same efforts behind Hilary Clinton? I also wonder about the same folks that profess so much love for Oprah, but can spit out racist comments about Obama without batting an eye.
7 comments:
I'm not surprised at all. And yes, I think that there would have been Hillary haterade on her site too... (I still don't quite understand the virulent nature of the Clinton hatred).
However, I find it DISGUSTING that they would make racist comments about Barack Obama. If anything, those comments push me more in the direction of supporting him than Oprah's fawning over him ever could.
Her audience had a desire that she was a conservative Republican just like them.
Playing up to the "black race"? So before she wasnt and that is exactly how they wanted it.
Oprah's white suburban audience are the kind of people who see her as an EXCEPTION not a NORM of the black experience.
I remember when Stedman appeared on Larry King Live and stated that Oprah has transcended race. Well, I guess he was wrong.
Professor Tracey,
As long as Oprah is comforting middle class, middle aged White women, they love her.
Give them cars, they lover her, give them Oprah's favorite things, they love her.
Have the audacity to stand up for a Black person, there not with that.
Excellent comments ladies. I will be revisiting Oprah from time to time. I hate the phrase
"transcended race" its such a false idea! It's not an honor or achievement.
Hello! I stumble upon your site and love it. I checked out Oprah message board back when the Imus mess was going on. You will not beleve how hate fill those comments were. Some one had the nerve to say that she had sold them out. How can you be a sellout to a different race? White America seems to have a problem with her embracing her own people.
I read the remarks on Oprah's message boards about her support for Obama. They made me angry enough to comment myself. I wrote under my screen name TOPAZ077,
There is a lot of fear in many of those remarks. The idea of two powerful black individuals uniting is too much for some of those folks to handle.
You know that if she had backed Hillary~they would of been happy as heck!
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