Oprah Winfrey has selected a new book for her Oprah Book Club: Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The book is “a researched psychoanalysis of America’s longstanding racial hierarchy.” Oprah is such a fan of this month’s selection that she’s already announced that she’ll be sending 500 copies of the book to “some of the most influential leaders in business, political and academic life,” including every state’s governor, the top 100 mayors in the US and the top 100 CEOs. Oprah is also in the news this week for (I sh-t you not) merely talking about white privilege as a real thing which exists. HOW DARE SHE!
Oprah Winfrey discussed the advantages White Americans have over non-White communities in terms of reaching success on her new Apple TV+ series. The media mogul had an in-depth discussion about climbing the ladder in corporate America on her new show “The Oprah Conversation.” Winfrey’s first episode featured an interview with former NFL player Emmanuel Acho. The episode’s title, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man: Part 1” is based on the former linebacker’s YouTube series and upcoming book of the same name.
Acho begins the episode with a statement to viewers, explaining that he believes in order for White people to understand systemic racism, it starts with having an understanding of the “full level of pain” Black citizens experience.
“I fervently believe that if the White person is your problem, only the White person can be your solution,” Acho said on-camera via The Washington Times. Acho went on to say that, in America specifically, White people “run America.”
“CEOs, Fortune 500 companies, execs, ownership, they run America,” he continued. “Not an individual person, but collective White people.”
Winfrey echoed Acho’s comments by stating that while there are White Americans who “are not as powerful” as the system of White people as a whole, they are still at an advantage.
“No matter where they are on the rung or the ladder of success, they still have their Whiteness,” Winfrey said. The television executive went on to define White privilege in her own terms.
“You still have your Whiteness,” she added. “That’s what the term ‘White privilege’ is. It means that Whiteness still gives you an advantage, no matter what.”
Salty white people are so mad about this, oh my god. Oprah, a black woman billionaire, said that white privilege exists! Can you imagine? As confusing as this is to some, Oprah can be a privileged person because of her money, power and access, and she can also call out white privilege, because she’s seen it and dealt with it all of her life as a black woman. People crying about “but Oprah is rich, how dare she” are willfully missing the point.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Avalon Red, Backgrid.
WERK OPRAH!!!!
WEEEERRRRKKKK!
Wasn’t Oprah targeted by security at some designer store in Paris a few years back?
She knows what she’s talking about.
A couple of stories about that happening, actually. Hermes in Paris and Louis Vuitton in Italy.
Yup, Hermès. I remember that episode. The head guy at Hermès stated “We didn’t know it was you.” And Oprah and Gayle tried to make the point that is exactly why it is racist – it shouldn’t matter. You saw our skin color and denied entry.
Switzerland in 2012 or 2013 as well – a shop assistant in Zurich refused to show her a handbag as it was ‘too expensive for her’.
It’s known in Switzerland as “Taschligate” (Handback-gate)
“How dare she! So uppity. She should really be grateful for what she’s got. How can OPRAH talk about white privilege when she’s so wealthy and privileged herself? In fact, Oprah is so rich, she *proves* that systemic racism isn’t real. Black people should pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop playing the victim, and be more like Oprah. Except, like, less uppity.”
– Karens everywhere
[Sarcasm, by the way. In case that’s not insanely obvious.]
White privilege and bilionaires shouldn’t exist.
I’d never thought I’d see soooo much hatred on this planet even in this century. Oprah is classified as the wealthiest woman of African descendency/diaspora not only in the USA but in the world–and she is gets treated like dirt/a criminal by demonically-stupid people.
What’s that got to do with my comment?
I agree. Neither white priviledge or billionaires should exist.
I had a conversation with a white man who works as a corporate professional. He said he was talking with black co-workers who were expressing how they face discrimination and prejudice by virtue of being black in America even though they are not poor.
The white guy said “I just don’t see it. We have the same job, the same money, where’s the discrimination.”
Right?!?!?! The white guy has the PRIVILEGE of not seeing it. He just defined white privilege in an unintentional self own
“You still have your Whiteness,” she added. “That’s what the term ‘White privilege’ is. It means that Whiteness still gives you an advantage, no matter what.”
I’ve also seen it phrased as “White privilege doesn’t mean your life hasn’t been hard; it means that your skin color isn’t one of the things making it harder.”
I think the second phrasing is better for cutting through the knee jerk salty white response that insists on equating “white privilege” with “reverse racism”.
I like the second version, too. A hard part about privilege is recognizing when you have it. Knowing that your privilege doesn’t necessarily make your life easy, it’s just one less hurdle you have to jump, may make it easier to understand and accept by those who initially balk.
I like the second version too. I think it just explains the concept very well. A poor white person and a poor black person face very different barriers.
You can’t win with people who don’t want to hear about white privilege. If O was a poor black person talking about white privilege, people would talk about how she needed to work harder to succeed and it was just sour grapes. But because she’s a billionaire black woman, she can’t say anything because she didn’t experience harm from white privilege herself. How about she did experience harm From white privilege, but overcame it? Or she sees other people black people experiencing it and wants to call it out? O should be even more credible Because she is where she is and still says white privilege is a thing!
BOOM
What I find is that a lot of white people dont understand what «white privelige» is. They think it means that all white people are priveliged(when many are poor and struggling), not that no matter how hard your life is as a white person it would be degrees more difficult if you were black/a POC on top of it.
I feel that a lot of people use the catchphrase «white privelige» and just get angry if someone doesnt know what it means. I get the anger, but just remember that the phrases meaning isnt that obvious.
Truth! Just like “defund the police”. Many folks think it means to eliminate all police departments. People need to take the time to understand and learn!
I am excited for this book. I am white, and I acknowledge my privilege. I try to engage my white peers and colleagues in discussions about white privilege, because it really is up to white people to address these biases within our communities. Black voices are extremely important for bringing attention and focus to the discussion, but the change within white communities is going to come from white people challenging white privilege and white fragility from within. I wish there were more “Oprah-level” white voices speaking on this issue, because in my experience, the people who deny white privilege are going to just look at her words as those of an “angry black woman” who wants to establish black supremacy because she hates white people. It’s not the job of BIPOC to teach white people about privilege and fragility, nor is it their job to listen to aggrieved white people talk about how much they do for their black friends and how “woke” they are. The white community has a LOT of work to do to acknowledge the systemic factors that bias systems against BIPOC, and again, it comes from within.
What a lot of white people don’t get is that there is not some arbitrary income level at which you can buy your way out of racism. If you are black you have experienced it on some level. The racism comes from racism, not poverty.