Sep 11 2007
Forget The Color Purple: Oprah’s all about the Green
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By Jason Miller
9/11/07
“The other kids were all into black power,” Oprah told the Tribune in the mid-1980s. But “I wasn’t a dashiki kind of woman … Excellence was the best deterrent to racism and that became my philosophy.”
Excellence indeed. Few would deny that Oprah Winfrey has achieved an extraordinary degree of THAT, at least by our society’s warped standards. Witty, articulate, attractive, beloved by tens of millions, and fabulously wealthy, she is the “I pulled myself up by my bootstraps” queen of a vast media empire. Oprah is a living embodiment of the American Dream. What is perhaps most inspiring to her genuflecting disciples is that Oprah rose to her stratospheric position of wealth and influence from an impoverished start in a socioeconomic hierarchy still largely dominated by white males.
Oprah Winfrey ostensibly possesses the mythical Midas Touch, a generous spirit, deep spiritual wisdom, and, in the eyes of those blinded by their adoration, the credentials of a saint. Yet despite appearing destined for canonization, Oprah injects heavy doses of infectious pus into the already deeply abscessed wound of the American psyche.
How could anyone who’s noted for having said, “Let your light shine. Shine within you so that it can shine on someone else. Let your light shine,” have such a pernicious effect on our culture?
Let’s “count the ways…with a passion put to use.”
To truly understand the depth of the damage Oprah inflicts on our society, we need to step outside of our bourgeois indoctrination and see her for what she truly represents. Manifesting the Horatio Alger Myth on steroids, Oprah is a wet dream come true for our criminal class of ruling elites sometimes referred to as the plutocracy. She provides them with “irrefutable” and ubiquitous anecdotal evidence which “proves” the idiotic delusion that America is a meritocracy where everyone has a realistic chance of getting rich, if they just work hard enough. The reality is that the richest 20% of US Americans own over 80% of the wealth and the long-term trend has been toward an ever increasing concentration of treasure into a smaller number of strong-boxes(1).
Comfortably administering her dominion from “The Promised Land,” her 42 acre estate near Santa Barbara, CA (which she purchased for a cool $50 million), Oprah surpassed the $1.5 billion mark in net worth in 2006 while earning the tidy sum of $260 million. See what happens when you devote yourself to excellence (and narcissism) instead of “wasting your time” parading about in a dashiki to pursue “ridiculous” ideals like civil rights and egalitarianism? Others did that for her. And now Oprah’s very existence proves that economic inequalities and barriers to upward mobility have been eliminated for all of us, right?
Well, not exactly. Consider that in the United States “the average African-American family has about 60 percent of the income as the average white family…..[and] the average African-American family has only 18 percent of the wealth of the average white family(2).” Meanwhile, in the most affluent nation in the world (in which 12% of the population is black), “Saint Oprah” is the only black billionaire and one of only two blacks to make the Forbes 400.
Despite the innumerable exploitative workings of the capitalist pyramid scheme which enable the obscene opulence of Oprah and her miniscule number of peers (while concurrently damning billions of others to live in varying degrees of economic misery), she certainly has no qualms. In fact, she gushes about her unconscionable accumulation of treasures. From the 4/11/06 People Magazine article, Oprah Winfrey: Wealth Is ‘A Good Thing:’
[Speaking in Baltimore on Monday at a fundraiser for Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, Winfrey told the audience, “I have lots of things, like all these Manolo Blahniks. I have all that and I think it’s great. I’m not one of those people like, ‘Well, we must renounce ourselves.’ No, I have a closet full of shoes and it’s a good thing.”
Winfrey, 52, who is reportedly worth more than $1 billion, said she doesn’t feel guilty about her wealth. “I was coming back from Africa on one of my trips,” she said. “I had taken one of my wealthy friends with me. She said, ‘Don’t you just feel guilty? Don’t you just feel terrible?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t. I do not know how me being destitute is going to help them.’ Then I said when we got home, ‘I’m going home to sleep on my Pratesi sheets right now and I’ll feel good about it.’ “(3)]
The Oprah mystique affords her and her fellow members of the opulent ruling class a potent psychological weapon (which they wield like a cudgel) to sustain their cultural hegemony, thus perpetuating their virtual monopoly on the wealth and power of the US. And be it conscious or otherwise, Oprah has betrayed her own race and class by shilling her core philosophy that “not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” While personal responsibility is undeniably important and human beings do have the potential to pull themselves out of difficult circumstances (i.e. abject poverty), for every Oprah who “makes it,” there are tens of millions, regardless of race, who work tenaciously and are never able to overcome the tremendous barriers erected by the ruling class. Yet Ms. Winfrey would have us believe that if she can do it, anyone can. And if you don’t, just what the hell is wrong with you?
Aside from the significant impediments that face all US Americans (excepting those who are born into our de facto aristocracy and can rise to the top regardless of how lazy, depraved, and ignorant they may be—think George W. Bush), many blacks face nearly overwhelming structural barriers which keep them mired in chronic destitution.
Thanks to the courageous efforts of civil rights activists, institutionalized and overt racism are fading in the United States. However, Oprah’s very existence as a black billionaire and the “you can do and be anything you want if you work hard” pseudo-wisdom she so gleefully dispenses to the masses would indicate that America’s poor (and its impoverished blacks in particular) no longer face incredibly long odds as they employ vigorous efforts to improve their socioeconomic conditions.
Consider this excerpt from Paul Street’s “Skipping Past Structural Racism” (http://www.blackcommentator.com/85/85_think_street.html):
“…reflecting (via e-mail) on a commentary in which liberal New York Times columnist Bob Herbert argued that inner-city blacks’ material poverty reflected their own poor values and behavior. “There is a need for” a “values discussion” among “the poorest African-Americans,” my correspondent acknowledges. “But,” he added:
“there are three points to add. One is that [the] hypersegregation [of urban blacks into nearly all-black de-industrialized ghettoes] creates objective conditions that incentivize (perhaps even require) certain anti-social behaviors. The second is whether the values evidenced by the poorest are actually anti-American values. If we consider that the norms of the protestant work ethic have been devalued in American society – consider conspicuous consumption, state gambling expansion, frightening anti-intellectualism, Wall Street’s shenanigans, sexual revolution, and that recreational drug use knows no racial barrier – how different is the “underclass” from the rest of America? The final point is the somewhat sad notion that those who have been most disadvantaged by American society must somehow quickly develop the values and norms necessary to overcome those disadvantages, to “function,” concomitant with undertaking political struggle to dismantle structural barriers. What is more is that if we accept that the values Herbert holds in high esteem are not reinforced generally throughout American society, we are absurdly expecting one group of super-disadvantaged people – without additional assistance and against the mainstream of American society – to somehow morph into some kind of ubervolk.
“As the great ‘historical materialist’ Karl Marx once wrote,’men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past.’”
Hard as it may be for Oprah and her fellow moneyed elites to fathom, Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” was a pernicious suburban legend, and that most people, given an environment affording them reasonably accessible options, wouldn’t consciously choose to perpetually wallow in the misery, indignity and self-destruction associated with chronic and inter-generational poverty. Not everyone is blessed with exceptional talent, intellect, or drive, but that doesn’t mean they deserve a life of suffering so that a tiny fraction of humanity can live as Croesus did.
With the vast numbers of people she influences, Ms. Winfrey plays an instrumental role in sustaining the false consciousness that keeps us in the poor and working classes pursuing the one in 20 million dream she projects, staunchly opposing the creation of viable publicly funded social uplift programs, and fighting amongst ourselves based in large part upon the malevolent lie that personal responsibility is the ONLY reason so many blacks remain “ghettoized,” unemployed, drug-addicted, and imprisoned.
Man the barricades, Ms. Winfrey, here come the “barbarian hordes” to raid our treasury!
But Oprah didn’t reach her perch atop the capitalist pyramid as one of its chief apologists simply by virtue of her existence as an anomalous opulent black woman (portrayed as what could be the “norm” if only more people subscribed to her “wisdom”). She also plays a very active role in contributing to the bourgeoisie cause.
A common lever of appeasement employed by our de facto aristocracy in the United States is to exercise faux benevolence by making charitable donations. After accumulating shameless affluence through abject exploitation of the Earth and its sentient beings, they show the masses their “humanity” by giving a mere fraction of their ill-gotten gains to a pet cause or two.
Oprah is no exception. Despite being known for her “generosity,” she remains one of the wealthiest people on the planet, maintaining her sprawling estate in California and, at last count, four other lavish abodes with high dollar zip codes. Bear in mind that Forbes recently gauged Oprah’s fortune to be about $1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, her crowning philanthropic achievement is her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. This “charitable act” is cynical and self-serving. Its chief beneficiaries are those with a strong interest in maintaining the maleficent inequitable distribution of wealth. Here’s why:
1. Oprah invested $40 million in this school, a mere 2.67% of her net worth.
2. For those questioning the use of the word “invested,” this was indeed a shrewd and calculated investment for Oprah. By “donating” this relatively paltry sum, she will reap huge dividends in terms of increased popularity, goodwill, power, and influence. Her Harpo juggernaut will continue to gain momentum.
3. In a world where 30,000 children die of starvation each day, Oprah has elected to build a posh, luxurious academy equipped to educate a mere 152 girls. Winfrey’s scheme was such an abuse of resources that the South African government withdrew its support of the project.
4. In a vain quest to “make her childhood right”, Oprah is “rescuing” the poor black female attendees of her school by providing them with a regal, lavish existence. Just what the world needs–152 more highly educated elitists who are immersed in the paradigm that the suffering of the many to ensure the comfort of the few is the “way of the world.”
5. Oprah’s principal lesson to her “girls”? Looking to her as their example, they will learn that once they have attained their affluence and power they will need to ease their conscience and help maintain the social order. The lesson is that to do so they will simply need to donate a sliver of their bounty in such a way that it enhances their public image and fulfills their narcissistic needs.
As we prepare to examine Oprah’s most deleterious effect on our society, consider the depth and breadth of her impact as characterized by Vanity Fair:
“Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope.”
Biographer Kitty Kelly added:
“As a woman, she has wielded an unprecedented amount of influence over the American culture and psyche…There has been no other person in the 20th century whose convictions and values have impacted the American public in such a significant way. … I see her as probably the most powerful woman in our society. I think Oprah has influenced every medium that she’s touched.”
Now let’s analyze one of Oprah’s recent and most spiritually corrosive “contributions” to the fetid cesspool we euphemistically call a culture in the United States. In February of this year, Ms.Winfrey used her leviathan media platform to introduce her minions to The Secret, a book that characterizes Christ as a “prosperity teacher.” Leave it to the high priestess of Mammon to promote a means to overcome the seemingly irreconcilable contradictions between the compassionate teachings of Jesus and the avaricious selfishness of capitalism.
Here’s what the Oprah Winfrey Show website had to say about The Secret:
“It’s making headlines around the world—and buzz just keeps building. Some say it’s the secret to creating the life you truly want—losing weight, making money, finding love. See why people everywhere are talking about The Secret.”
James Arthur Ray, whose “credentials” include, “…almost going bankrupt, [which] forced him to focus on the life he truly wanted. Now he runs a multimillion-dollar corporation dedicated to teaching people how to create wealth in all areas of their lives,” joined forces with Winfrey to plug The Secret, a book rife with myriad inane mythologies the ruling class loves to perpetuate.
Again, from Oprah’s website:
[According to James, there is scientific evidence to back up the spiritual practices and laws defined in The Secret. “Science tells us that everything is energy, and so your thoughts are energy. Your body, your cash, your car—everything you think is solid, if you put it under a high-powered microscope, it’s just a field of energy and a rate of vibration,” he says. “And so are we. So if you think you’re this meat suit running around, you have to think again.”
”One way to describe this energy is by comparing it radio waves, “The frequency you give out through your thoughts and your emotions is what you have a tendency to manifest in your life,” Michael says. “Whether those thoughts and emotions are conscious or unconscious, it doesn’t matter.”
This means that if you are sending out the same negative energy over an over—whether thoughts or feelings—you will attract like energy back to you. James says that when bad things happen people might ask, “Oh, God, why me?” “Because it is you,” he says(4).]
Forget the immediate insult of James’s barrage of pseudo-scientific gibberish. People have been using that technique to peddle their snake oil for years. The core issue here is that in The Secret, James and company are hawking a particularly toxic brew. Oprah, Secret author Rhonda Byrne, and their fellow hucksters would have us believe that Tony Robbins or Gandhi would be equally at home applying The Secret’s “spiritual practices” based on “scientific evidence” to create the life they “truly want.”
At first blush its obvious remarketing of the shopworn “philosophies” related to the power of positive thinking seems benign enough, but thanks to its Oprah’s validation sparking its wild popularity and wide acceptance, The Secret is significantly reinforcing some very nasty strands of our cultural DNA, which is no small blessing to the moneyed elites atop our economic hierarchy.
While to a person who values critical thought and the pursuit of true meaning in their life The Secret would serve little purpose beyond perhaps kindling or toilet paper, future archaeologists may hail it as a Rosetta Stone to unlock the mysteries of our perverse, mean-spirited, and jejune society. Byrne was careful to incorporate nearly every revolting aspect of American culture, including narcissism, self-absorption, victim-blaming, hubris, consumerism, immediate gratification, acquisitiveness, Mammon worship, hyper-individuality, selfishness, and an unwavering faith in any belief that “forces” the world to conform to our desires.
In typical Oprah Book Club fashion, Winfrey’s enthusiastic endorsement sent the sales of Byrne’s abomination soaring into orbit. Thank you, Oprah.
As the abundant evidence indicates, despite her impeccable image and the ostensibly “positive influence” she has upon the untold millions who have yet to shatter the intellectual shackles of their acculturation and indoctrination, Oprah Winfrey is a member of our cynical pecunious ruling class and acts as a highly effective shill for their agenda.
Forget the good and benevolent image she projects. Oprah ultimately serves to distract, obfuscate, and lead us into the increasingly over-crowded cul-de-sac of “fuck thy neighbor; what’s in it for thee” savage capitalism. As a part of our filthy plutocracy, she is an enemy to the poor and working class. We need to start viewing her through that lens.
Notes:
(1) http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2003/03may/may03interviewswolff.html
(2) ibid
(3) http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1182572,00.html
(4) http://www2.oprah.com/spiritself/slide/20070216/ss_20070216_284_102.jhtml
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano’s Journal Online’s associate editor (https://bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine’s Corner within Cyrano’s at https://bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/. You can reach him at
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Oprah’s thinly-veiled questionable social code (demonstrated by her boosterism for such worthless crap as THE SECRET and similar “sucess digest” enterprises) reminds me of anotehr wave of hucksterism of this kind, that still pouring out of AMWAY. The values of naked selfishness and vulgar materialism propounded by THE SECRET are almost identical, as they can be expected, to AMWAY’s, for they spring from the same polluted fount. Incidentally, Dexter Yaeger, Rich DeVos and the other scoundrels behind the AMWAY/Quixtar scam are not accidentally rich backers of every stripe of arch-rightwing bullshit in this nation, and generous givers (the real word should be INVESTORS) to the Republican party.
Don’t forget that pituitary case, Tony Robbins. Talk about junk hucksterism. Religion and the “secular” industry of false hope—there’s a powerful political opiate for you. No wonder that such “industries” run like wildfire in America. It takes terminal innocence to swallow such frauds.
Finally, someone has taken a shot at Oprah, and a good one at that…Up until this point I thought it was illegal to utter a bad word about her holiness.
Great essay Jason Miller!
Jason, absolutely superb article! Your line that so perfectly sets up the rest: “…Oprah injects heavy doses of infectious pus into the already deeply abscessed wound of the American psyche”. That’s brilliance. My mother has been infected with the “oh, Oprah does so many good things with her wealth”, infected to the point that I don’t even try to communicate the penetrating wisdom so eloquent in this article. I’ve read much of your work, and think this could be the best so far—a perfect embellishment to the value of Cyrano’s, and Thomas Paines Corner.
Oprah is where she is because the media barons like someone who brings out the worst in America’s lower classes. She is only slightly better than Jerry Springer. As for why most blacks earn less than whites and have less wealth, the answer is simple: blacks have lower IQs and don’t qualify for most higher income jobs. The average IQ of an african-american is 85 which is one standard deviation below that of whites. If not for affirmative action, they’d be even poorer. And even though they make 60% of what whites make, they still remain too stupid to invest what they make in a home or something else. That’s because they don’t plan or think about the future. They’d rather spend it on status items. They are lucky to even be in this country. If they were still in Africa they’d be living like their ancestors. Miller likes whining because he’s a jew and like all jews he hates white America. He needs to move to Israel where he can be with his fellow whiners.
It is true that the vast majority of Americans are predetermined from birth to not make it. This is reality but when you think of how all 100% of America and it’s people
have breathed the fall out for the numerous A-bomb testing of the past and present
and they don’t even know nor will they ever know about it in all likely hood
seeing how something this important escapes them and they are fixated on making it to millionaire it’s an American fixation .Reality should be telling them to pick up and move the hell out of dodge there are radioactive particles all over America yet they
dream about the American dream while living an American nightmare
I respect Jason Miller a lot, but this article champions ideas that many blacks have followed to their detriment. Very clearly, the whole “black power” thing Oprah so wisely sidestepped prevents blacks from achieving something all blacks should aspire to: mobility. It is to her credit that Oprah achieved this. That she then decided to climb sky-high and become an obscenely rich, self-righteous liberal phony is another issue entirely. But her example is a greater push to blacks joining the middle class than the example of black-power activists running around in Dashikis, spewing racist nonsense to no effect.
As a black kid, Oprah is the least of my worries. Every time I step outside of my apartment here in New York, street billboards clearly aiming at shaping my ambitions flash pictures of aggressive ghetto fabulous black males. I like rap, but the rap that is constantly pushed to me is the aggressive, violent, decadent rap that rich white men with their powerful marketing tools manage to advertise on countless billboards, in countless magazines I read, on countless TV commercials, etc. I do end up buying some of that stuff, where black rappers trash women, and trash the police in a distinctively racist way, so that hopefully I’ll put my headphones down and tout those racist attitudes in the manner of black power activists.
This enormous marketing blitzkrieg is having a huge effect on the black kids I went to school with. Its today’s main harbinger of those anti-social behaviors quoted from Paul Street. Those anti-social attitudes include that black power mentality that Jason Miller seems to admire. And by the way, blacks are not Oprah’s “own people.” that’s slave-master terminology.
So while I appreciate this anti-Oprah article from an anti-Capitalist perspective, The racial thinking going behind this article should be reconsidered.
And by the way, I guess the comment from the second John deserves no asnwer, but I can’t help it. Whether blacks have been shown to have lower IQ’s I have no clue, but it doesn’t matter because that has no bearing on their situation. And I think it’s true that many blacks (young blacks especially) that make money waste it on status items. But could your IQ even reach 85, you’d understand why. I won’t repeat what I said in the previous comment, but blacks are attacked by powerful marketing strategies, that markets decadent items to them such as liquor, shoes, Rocawear gear, expensive cars and shit like that to no end.
Says “John” (second John, not first) speaking of Blacks and the author (this ezine’s associate editor):
“That’s because they don’t plan or think about the future. They’d rather spend it on status items. They are lucky to even be in this country. If they were still in Africa they’d be living like their ancestors. Miller likes whining because he’s a jew and like all jews he hates white America. He needs to move to Israel where he can be with his fellow whiners…”
And I say: Which Klavern or Nazi cell did you crawl out of? It’s a tribute to this site belief in open discussion that they DONT CENSOR blatantly racist asses like you, as the corporate media does, routinely, any opinion that is not aseptically “PC” or within the boundaries of “acceptable speech” regarding the capitalist system.
I won’t say anything here to defend US Blacks because that would be to dignify your attack with a response. The contribution of African Americans is obvious to any fair minded person, which area you are clearly deficient in. But just to mention one thing, also advanced elsewhere on this thread: Blacks often go for impulse buying, instant gratification purchases. Numerous studies in psychology and sociology have shown that the more unstable your life is, the more precarious your economic condition, the more you live in the absolute present. It’s no accident that billionaires, at the top of the henpecking order, have battalions of planners helping them to plan their future well beyond their graves. The more you have the more you plan. It’s as simple as that. The same “instant gratification” syndrome was observed in turn of the century Irish people, to name just one ethnic group at the time accursed by terrific poverty and discrimination.
And one more thing, for the fucking record that even you can understand: It was my pleasure to recently meet TPC’s editor, Jason Miller, during my travels in this nation (I’m German and impeccably teutonic in ancestry that even Hitler would approve) and he is too—An American of German descent on all four sides. His ancient surname was Mueller. So lay off with that bulshit about he being Jewish and all the rest. Why don’t you now attack him as an “anti-semite” since he strongly opposes the policies of Israel and Zionists in general?
I hope the above is not too complex for your IQ to grasp.
“That’s because they don’t plan or think about the future. They’d rather spend it on status items. They are lucky to even be in this country. If they were still in Africa they’d be living like their ancestors.
100% TRUE !!!
Research on the average IQs of different races is undeniable and is verified by the low scores blacks achieve on every test they take whether it’s their SATs, GRE, entrance exams and pass rates for medical or law school, civil service exams, etc. Hispanics also score lower than whites but Asians score slightly higher. Read the Bell Curve if you don’t believe me. Take away affirmative action and the grade inflation in school and the intellectual failure of blacks and hispanics would be even more obvious. Oprah is where she’s at because the white/jewish establishment want the proles as dumb as possible. Oprah panders to the victim mentality of society’s losers and that’s why she has the job she has.
georg platz, your are just a troll and a 5th colum zionazi. what country do you owe allegiance to, you piece of shit. how many Christians have you, jew shit killed? you have the gall to call someone a nazi. fuck you!
I wonder how much Oprah spends on charity, and what % of her income it is.
Hey, Sabinus, you piece of Scheiße…up yours ass as they say in America. Obviously you don’t know how to read. I’m not a Nazi and never was, but my own father and all uncles were. Their crimes or their stupidity will be forever their own. I’ve been, like many postwar Germans, completely anti-Nazi. Got that you piece of Scheiße? Your mind, like tyhat of far too many Americans, is toxified with medieval religiosity. You drive cars and machines in the 21st century, but your atrophied brains and empotions belong to the 15th and 16th centuries. And you are so patheticvally ignorant that even this reference may be too much. FUCK YOU.
..I would have to be in agreement with “art(emusP..) ‘” ..and with additional review, “wewe wewe pweety”, (translated, “very very nicely observed”)..
sincerely,
rs.
Please.
What number is enough for her to give? Many people work a whole year and don’t make $40,000,000.
Seriously, is 50% enough? Is 90%?
I’m NOT an Oprah fan - I’m NOT against her, either. Never seen the show. The entire idea that people are “doomed” from the start removes the idea from responsibility for their actions.
Will everyone be a billionaire? No, but good for her. She produces things people want (entertainment) and that other people (advertisers) are willing to pay for - a free transaction on behalf of all parties. From the amount of profit she has generated, she must be very, very good at what she does. Free transactions=freedom. You espouse democracy? Millions have voted for Oprah with their time and dollars.
She also paid more in taxes, and generated more jobs than anyone commenting on (or reading) this site. She’s no slouch, and no slacker.
Were she to have become a victim, she’d be sitting waiting for people to take care of her, and would have generated none of this good in society.
A filthy plutocrat? No. An asset to society that provides employment, tax benefits, and entertainment. I’m also willing to bet she doesn’t beg for cash on Oprah.com with a tip jar.
She pays her own bills.
Oprah has risen to wealth and fame on the backs of the hard fought for advances made by African Americans who actually believed in ideals worth battling for. Ms. Winfrey sat on the sidelines scheming on how to benefit from the sacrifices of the ” dashiki” crowd.
How often does she invoke the names of true Civil Rights leaders such as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X? How often does she praise Maya Angelou? How often does she play the race card to increase her own standing and wealth?
Every chance she gets!
She plays “white guilt” like a violin to achieve her goals. But those goals are wealth for herself and to hell with anyone else. She doesn’t give a damn about other African Americans and helping to improve their lot. Yet for some reason, myopic American consumers seem to think she is a champion of her people.
Oprah is nothing more than a privledged House servant, benefiting at the white master’s table for favours recieved…keeping her own people in line.
Hey sabinus, and Georg Platz, instead of sullying discourse here, wouldn’t it be less reptilian to froth more privately? Like maybe pretend Platz is the guy who recently walked into a bar in Oklahoma City, Sooner Country, wearing a Texas Longhorns T-shirt, and had his testicles nearly torn off by sabinus, a local church deacon, federal employee, and full-time stemmer…? Do you really imagine that anyone else wants to read such lizardry? Especially from you, Georg, if you can’t help but sink to sabinus’ level, try to low-profile it. And you know, squirrels have a similar problem. The mother squirrel must be super diligent to prevent the father from biting off the balls of the male offspring, so as to reduce competition for stray squirrel pussy…eh.
I think John hit the nail on the head. Oprah became famous because of the media barons choice of putting her on TV. And what were her first shows about, the ones that were lurid, voyeristic, indeed, as John said Jerry Springer like. Just the kind of stuff the nosy and ignorant masses in this nation love. Lord help us.
I’m sorry but I need to comment on one last aspect of her show that I have actually heard, first hand, bothers a lot of people, men an women alike. That would be how the audience dresses. The women in that audience dress better than if they went to church. It is like they are going to attend a very important event of some type. Weird, very weird. Second was the book club. I could not believe how many of my friends used to say, who does she think she is recommending books? What are her qualifications involving literature, exactly? Again, weird.
You don’t need any qualifications to recommend a book.
Blacks (or niggers,niggers,niggers,spade,mau-mau ,spear chucker,uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, Little black Sambo, and so on) if iq makes you buy on impulse, your kids, our kids are niggers, your a nigger I’m a nigger he’s a nigger.
We are all niggers on this bus, we all probably all have nigger blood in our veins (Shades of Raintree County).
I work hard and don’t sleep in silk sheets and get to travel to Africa, I’m male (a piece of white meat with a dick) and this fat Opel with 200 lbs of crack under her dress, has more toys then me, she get’s paid to entertain me, with her opinions, fed to her by her Jewish handlers. Have I left anything out? Envy Hurts. (why isn’t she entertaining our troops).
Got to go to work now, comments are as entertaining as the piece it self, It’s all entertainment folks, TV, Movies, internet, I even entertain myself with my opinions, that tribe in africa the ones who still hunt for a living because they aren’t smart enough to go shopping, I wonder what channel they are watching, are they watching Opel, to get some hopel, or are they watching Joyce Meyers(jew name).
It’s all a vast Alien Conspiracy to entertain us to death.
Who puts these thoughts in my head? It sure as hell ain’t me
Fred
She’s worked hard and I congratulate her accomplishments.BUT,doing the white mans (the system) bidding and subliminally promoting homsexuality.Yeah,she’s all about green alright.The day Aunt Jamima goes against the grain,she’ll be in the scandal of her life (Michael Vick Style) THEY only let her get that rich because she’s their mammy.
Signed:
White Amerikkka
John is talking complete trash; Africans were in the Americas before even Christopher Columbus (ever read his journal?); we were there before them and would’ve been there again
Surely ignorance is bliss
If this were the 1960’s and somehow Oprah had the same power and fame - you wouldn’t hear a damn thing about civil rights or the fights that were going on in the streets. Oprah disgusts me.
“My name is Richie Cunningham, and this is my wife - OOOprah..”
In all seriousness, Oprah and her brand of new-age philosophy, and self righteous/know-it-all, attitude is bad for people of all colors. Being that “white people” have more money and stand to gain more (at least in the short time) from legitimizing the status quo.
Oprah’s decadent befriending of the status quo does more harm to people who are most deeply impacted by the severe injustice and inequality it produces….this may not be “PC” to say- but most people the system abuses, as George Carlin says “just happen to be black.” No big mystery to most Americans up until recently, althoguh the media have made it seem otherwise…sorry folks haven’t reached the mountain top yet.
By the way- did you know that she hops on a jet to get her eyebrows waxed every two-three weeks?…because only one person is worthy of plucking her facial hair.
sounds like sour grapes and envy to me!!!
Attack someone else to make your own sorry, pathetic butt feel better,typical!
And all you idiots revere Mr. Miller– he is a sad, sad selfish, hateful man with no honor to his name! He is sneaky, self-centered, pious, sanctimonious and thinks he is making a difference in this world! Oprah at least had a goal and did indeed pull herself up. She helps a lot of people–how many do you help?
BK:
He’s talking about the SYSTEM you moron! And he explains why Oprah’s “help” is counterproductive. What part of the article you didn’t understand? He laid it all out quite clearly. I sometimes agree with this writer and sometimes I dont, but he doesn’t deserve your mean-spirited tirade, nor that stupid straw-man question, “how many have you helped”? That in itself indicates the mentality of a suckup. Miller helps people by injecting some lucidity in their badly muddled heads. Oprah and her bullshit does the opposite.
Hey “honorious” if you think Americans and the world at large—am not talking here about those who have a cushy economic buffer (a narrow minority)—have no reason for legitimate complaint you are really confused. And save that baloney about “envy” being the motivator for complaining about injustice and insanity. Jesus—who many follow in this land—was a BIG TIME COMPLAINER, a pain in the butt. And so were many other prophets in the Bible. Were they all “envious” as you so ludicrously characterize? They had already abandoned materialistic pursuits entirely! Try to reconcile those simple facts with your sneaky comment, if you can.
I totally disagree w/you on Oprah. Your article sounds like you’ve been drinking “Haterade” and I’m very suspicious, since this peice of BS has come out since she’s raised so much money for Obama!!!! I’d like to know the story behind the story!
Jazzy, don’t get carried away with too much conspiracy theory. Too much cleverness and you can end up like the snake that ate itself! I have attended some seminars in which some of Cyrano’s Journal editors were present, and it is my impression that although they are not happy with any of the front-runners in the Democratic lineup, if they had to pick a favorite right now they might actually tilt toward Obama. This critique is purely on Oprah’s effect as a systemic bolsterer. Discrete issues of making difficult choices in a system that always offers us the “lesser evil” is a secondary question that this essay does not address. If you understand systems critique then you’ll follow the logic. If not, I can’t help you.
Be fair she does a lot of good, why judge her so hushly. And she isn’t perfect, so what, are you?
If everyone in the world got good eduction, all had jobs, and the elite were kind and caring we wouldn’t have a world that is a mess with wars and the poor. There is anough money and food in the world for us to live well. Most of all have our own home. The elite are greedy wanting all the money and power, some couldn’t care at all . But some rich people do care. This isn’t a perfect world. I would love to see us all be well off and happy.
Oprah teachers people to fish and help themselves, and she is a very kind person and lovely to her pets. In Oprah shows since 911 she has been kind and giving to the people.
Why have war on Oprah, get the big elite who cause all wars and suffering on this earth.
Frances
onwaratatime,
My response is mean-spirited?????? and Mr. Miller’s tirade against Oprah is not! I know he is talking about the system you moran!! Pull your head out and go be a part of the solution to the problems by helping at a soup kitchen or a shelter instead of running your big mouth!!!
The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theater, go dancing, go drinking, think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save and the greater will become that treasure which neither moths nor maggots can consume — your capital. The less you are, the less you give expression to your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life … So all passions and all activity are submerged in greed –
Hey “BK”—
“Give them a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach them how to fish and you feed them for life.”
The writer’s purpose is to do the latter: to EMPOWER people to help themselves out of the shithole they have been inhabiting for so long they don’t even notice the fould smells any longer—like you for example. Charity, for the good it does, is onlty a PALLIATIVE (look it up!). Palliatives do not cure the underlying disease. These articles by Miller are about curing the disease—once and for all. It’s about the CAUSES, you idiot, of why we have so much unnecessary suffering in the world; why so many peopled work all their lives and end up in debt and destitution in their old age, and so on.
If you’re among the lucky ones–well, booohooo for you. Don’t make it sound like everyone is able to win the lottery in this stinking gambling house we call American society, with the winner always taking all. And Miller did at one time, I understand, help at homeless shelters and so on. But with the system generating so many tidal wavves of “losers” it’s best to look at the roots of the problem.
I guess you find everything honkey dorey with America today. If so, it is you who has to get yourt head out of the dark unsavory place where it is currently buried.
FRANCES says:
“Be fair she does a lot of good, why judge her so hushly [harshly]. And she isn’t perfect, so what, are you?
If everyone in the world got good eduction, all had jobs, and the elite were kind and caring we wouldn’t have a world that is a mess with wars and the poor. There is anough money and food in the world for us to live well. Most of all have our own home. The elite are greedy wanting all the money and power, some couldn’t care at all . But some rich people do care. This isn’t a perfect world. I would love to see us all be well off and happy.
Oprah teachers people to fish and help themselves, and she is a very kind person and lovely to her pets. In Oprah shows since 911 she has been kind and giving to the people. Why have war on Oprah, get the big elite who cause all wars and suffering on this earth.”
Several problems with Frances’ argument:
(1)”The Strawman argument”— “She isn’t perfect but neither are you.” This old cliche is as worthless in a conversartion as anything that relates to “moral relatitivism” taken to an absurd degree. It belongs in the fencesitting new agey school of “you’re right, am right,” and “everyone is right” attitude that seeks to preserve the social peace at all costs, including truth…In sum, “Don’t make waves.” Accordingly, anyone has the right to pass an opinion and expect it to be taken as worthwhile in the name of “freedom of opinion”, and formal egalitarianism, without regard to the quality of a statement. By this obtuse standard, Hitler was right and he was entitled to his opinion. Who are you, or me to criticize him for his “imperfections”? If you’re not perfect don’t criticize Bush, Hitler, or anybody else. Just shut the fuck up and pass the sugar.
(2) “The elite is greedy, but some of us are all right, and besides some rich people do care.” In political terms this is malignant innocence. Sure the cesspool’s fetid waters haven’t reached your doorstep yet, Frances, but soon will, because you gotta understand TRENDS in history. And besides, what does it mean that “some” rich people care? Social classes are that CLASSES. That means a very large number of human beings, where exceptions always exist. Duh! But what does that really add up to? The fact that “some” rich or “superrich” people are kind is useless to the well-being of the masses, the vast majority. This kind of people existed in Victorian England, too, when children as little as 8 worked 14 hours a day, reflecting the way of looking at things of the MAJORITY of the upper class of that period. And same is true here, in our day. Some people who own and run the criminal medical-pharmacological-insurance industry mafia are kind, too, They show charity, as the rich sometimes do, to appease their consciences and make good p.r. for the public consumption. That still leaves us, the millions, hooked to a crazy system where most prescriptions are a horrendous ripoff, hospital stays that will ruin you, and an insurance system that more often than not will be happy to let you twist in the wind till you’re dead. You gotta look at the RULE not the exceptions to understand class behavior, its impact, and what is wrong with society.
Guess what Frances, some Nazis were kind to jews. Did you ever hear of Mr. Schindler? Do I make my point?
And one more thing, in case you missed it. The editors of this place, Cyrano, are all dedicated animal defenders. Miller and Greanville (CJO’s founder) have written passionate articles in their defense and been raked over the coals by the vast majority who still thinks it’s morally OK to tyrannize animals. They do this because the believe in justice, and justice is denied to these creatures who are the most helpless in the face of the most brutal form of human despotism.
Lastly, you say, focus on the elite who cause all the wars, etc. What do you think Cyrano’s Journal is all about? That’s what they do here. And the reason they picked Oprah—it seems obvious to me— is because she, like many Democrats, is the “good cop” face of the elite, the more deceptive face the “corporate rich, the overlords of society” use to opiate the masses. Sure, she ain’t Cheney or Bush or one of the filthy criminal neocons in power, but she, like Condi Rice, is a part of the problem, not of the solution, and the essay makes that abundantly clear.
I hope my words make you rethink your position in greater depth.
Hi
Thank you I read from Bk to Humunculus007 something to think about deeply. I got the picture from you all.
This first time on THOMAS PAINE’S CORNER, it looks like fighting for the same thing ‘Peace, Justice, and fair go for us all.’
I’ll never look at Oprah the same way ever again, certainly knock the wind out of me, deep down I knew the truth. She is to good to be true, I’ve been watching her show for years. well I was onley trying to see the good in her, Hitler love his pet too.
Since 911 I’ve been getting eduction, it started with Rense and David Icke, looks like I got more to learn about life.
Frances
Open note to Frances
Frances, this is simply one of the most refreshing and encouraging things we, as editors of Cyrano’s Journal, have ever encountered. An honest soul who instead of responding with a knee-jerk ego defense, took the trouble to examine the facts laid out by some of our learned (and sometimes brutally honest) readers, and did some serious thinking about the situation. We are proud to host a site that attracts this quality of human being, and, may we add, true patriot. Understanding the current systemic disease which accurses not only our nation, but the entire world, and all of nature that depends on what our species is up to, is the first step toward its possible cure. All people of good will, who love justice, democracy and peace, are part of this extraordinary, historically unprecedented process. In saluting Frances, we wish to salute them all.
—Patrice Greanville, Publisher and Editor in Chief of CJO; Jason Miller, Associate Editor CJO, and Founder of Thomas Paine’s Corner.
First of Great Article by Mr. Jason Miller To all the critics that have posted i believe they just cant grasp the concept of what Mr. Miller was writing about.
I feel sorry for those people who go on in this world in such great ignorance to the suffering of others. People who look at impoverished people and say it is their own fault they live in this I used to be one of these people until i learned the lesson that having material things doesn’t make you any better or more important a person It only make that person corrupt and ignorant to the soul that lies within.
To those people who haven’t went through the rabbit hole or taken the blue pill and still believe oswald was a lone assasin, that the towers came down due to structural ingertity and that pearl harbor was a “sneak attack”. Take a long hard look in the mirror at yourself and then open your front door and look at this fucked up world you help create and help continue its etrocities and then pat your self on the back for a job well done
I have always been suspect of Oprah’s motives. Here she is commenting on marriages and still not married to this Steadman pussy. Comments on injustice and not going out and funding the causes she hates. She is full of crap. She has probably broken up a thousand marriages with her flakey advice to women. Don’t forget that it was white men who hired her and who helped her get where she is today.