The Oprah Effect: Black Success, White Denial and the Reality of Racism

Charlie Bass · #1 (**permalink**) 08-13-2008, 06:15 AM

**Abelian Sea** · #2 (**permalink**) 08-13-2008, 11:06 AM

Quote:

So, what about Oprah?

Well, here's an even better question, and one that pretty well answers the first: What about Madame C.J. Walker?

When I asked the agitated audience member this question, he looked puzzled, naturally never having heard of Walker before, and not understanding why I would have offered this reply to his original query about Winfrey. I quickly explained the point: namely, that Madame C.J. Walker had become one of the very first African American millionaires, by way of tapping into a largely ignored market for black beauty products. She had worked hard, persevered against the odds and triumphed brilliantly: a real American success story!

"Exactly!" interjected the man from the audience. How do you explain someone like her, he wanted to know, if racism is really that bad?

Of course, what I hadn't shared up to that point was that Walker had become a millionaire in 1911: a year in which sixty-three black folks had been lynched in this country (more than one a week), and at a time when obviously all would agree overt racial oppression of African Americans was the norm.

In other words, of course it's true that some black folks have done extraordinarily well in this society. No one ever suggested the impossibility of such a thing, even amidst crushing bigotry. But surely no one would suggest that Madame C.J. Walker's success, even at a time of legally-codified terrorism against black folks, should stand as evidence that anyone in the black community could have made it, and that those fighting against racism at the time were misguided; let alone that there was something wrong with all the other black folks, for having failed to replicate Walker's singular achievements.

That's a good point.

William Joyce · #3 (**permalink**) 08-14-2008, 10:16 PM

Not really. Tim Wise is a Jew, and he will hate whites and slobber over blacks no matter how well blacks do -- or how badly whites fare.

The mistake many whites make is to assume that at some point, blacks will be happy. But this point will never come. Even if the president of the United States is a black man. Even if whites are on course to be minorities by 2042. Blacks are so soaked with anti-white sentiment, I don't think that if all whites were DEAD that woud help... blacks would sit around cursing the dead whites and how their "racism" lingers on...

Just wait and see.

**Abelian Sea** · #4 (**permalink**) 08-15-2008, 02:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by William Joyce

The mistake many whites make is to assume that at some point, blacks will be happy. But this point will never come. Even if the president of the United States is a black man.

That is not at all in conflict with the above point.