Oprah Winfrey Ask Were Blacks Fair to Don Imus

The Oprah Winfrey’s show broadcasted on April 16th, 2007, was a direct result of the firing of radio talk show host Don Imus for his racial and sexist slur against the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. The panel consisted of Stanley Crouch, a columnist with the New York Daily News, Bruce Gordon who is on the board of CBS and very instrumental in getting Mr. Imus fired, Jason Whitlock, a columnist with the Kansas City Star, Diane Weathers, former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, Asha Bandele, an author and journalist who also is a former editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, Dr. Robin Smith, Indie Arie, the African American recording artist, the Reverend Al Sharpton via satellite, and various female students of Spelman College via satellite. Oprah’s distinguished panel of guest discussed the need for black and white people to dialogue about why Mr. Imus felt it was permissible to call the women of Rutgers tattooed, nappy headed whores and do black people have a double standard for offensive language.

In the past Mr. Don Imus had been awarded and recognized for being a gifted interviewer who was reported to have been paid ten million dollars a year to do his job. Mr. Imus wasn’t some impressionable, sophomoric radio personality who happened to have heard a rap song on his way in to work one morning and decided since he heard some rapper say it he was empowered to use such language on his own broadcast. Mr. Imus was a seasoned professional who constantly, consistantly, and arrogantly made calculated risk as to the degree he could insult others. Mr. Imus made a conscious choice to use his radio show to make a racist remark as he had reportedly done before. Ergo, it was not the first time and it probably would not have been the last.

Ms. Winfrey asked her panel now that Don Imus has been fired, now what? What comes next? She asked Reverend Al Sharpton what did he think he accomplished by getting Mr. Imus fired. Ms. Winfrey asked Bruce Gordon who also participated in the effort to get Mr. Imus canned, why blacks are pushing for someone to be fired now.

I would like to ask Ms. Winfrey why she is focusing on black issues now. Ms. Winfrey had plenty of opportunities to do shows on issues facing the black community before why is she doing this now? Where was Ms. Winfrey when the federal government hesitated to assist African Americans after Katrina struck? Where is Ms. Winfrey while black people across America are currently loosing their homes in the mortgage meltdown? How come Ms. Winfrey isn’t asking the white community, why you feel empowered to call black women nappy headed whores?

Listen, nobody in the black community is responsible for racist white people. If anything, the dominating white society of America is responsible for the self hate of the black community. Dr. Robin Smith was on point when she made the analogy of people eating poison for so long it becomes unrecognizable as poison but becomes part of our diet, kind of like fast food from McDonalds and Burger King. People like Don Imus and the others of this world are not the victim in this situation. American society is fond of saying that people should take responsibility for their mistakes and poor decisions. Holding rappers responsible for Mr. Imus and his like is like holding Playboy and Hustler magazines responsible for all the rapist in the world.

Ms. Winfrey said she didn’t want to be the only person talking about an issue which is why she avoided bringing this issue to the forefront. So our great leader Ms. Winfrey admits she’s not, nor does she want to be, the leader for black issues that the public may think she is. Ms. Winfrey wants to wait for someone else’s lead before she follows their path. But simultaneously Ms. Winfrey wants to hold the very same leaders of the black community who do blaze the path up for examination before America for their so-called potential hypocrisy. That’s one hell of a way to display your leadership, or lack thereof, on black issues Ms. Winfrey.

Ms. Winfrey pretends she’s not aware of the double standard for behavior in America. She pretends that she’s not aware of black people treating white differently than they treat their own and vice versa. I know Ms. Winfrey has an army of researchers and investigators at her disposal to examine any issue that may come up on her show. Why does she not employ her staff to look into the discrepancy between black and white America? Why not be a leader for blacks instead of a role model for toms?

I found it quite ironic that Ms. Winfrey would use her forum as an opportunity to ask Indie Arie are black people under pressure to conform to corporate standards in order to make unfathomable amounts of money. How many zeroes are in your net worth Ms. Winfrey? Here is one of the biggest sellouts of black people, who just admitted that her program, her media empire is not a vehicle for breaking issues and concerns paramount to the black community, asking Indie Arie, arguably the most prime of examples of how a black woman, a black individual, can do their profession, art, life, and maintain their racial integrity and dignity in the process, about the pressure to conform and comply. Ain’t that the proverbial bitch?

Ms. Winfrey is so concerned with fairness for white people from blacks. Where is Ms. Winfrey concern for fairness for black people from whites? Where was Oprah when Shaquanda Cotton was in juvenile detention in Paris, Texas for shoving a hall monitor? Where was Ms. Winfrey when Mickey Wright, a code inspector for Shelby county in Memphis, Tennessee, was shot and killed in cold blood by Dale Mardis who received a relatively light sentence of fifteen years by pleading no contest to second degree murder? Oh, I know, Ms. Winfrey was too busy opening a forty million dollar school / ballerina hall / beauty pageant in Africa for her poor, handpicked girls that so desperately need an education. The subtle message is Ms. Winfrey doesn’t even recognize or even want to examine the needs of black people in America, though she won’t hesitate to bust open a microphone for that poor millionaire Don Imus.

To answer the question are there double standards for black people and white people Ms. Winfrey has no where to look but at her own character and behavior.

As a black man in America, if I am unarmed and beaten or shot down by police officers, regardless if they are black or white, because I went for my wallet to show identification, if I am rejected for employment because of the color of my skin, if I am dragged behind a pickup truck because some good old racist white boys thought it would be fun to drag a black man a mile or two at ninety miles per hour, if I am accused of rape by a white woman with nothing but her word against mine, or any of a number of injustice black people are regularly subjected to, I would welcome Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Bruce Gordon, the late great Johnnie Cochrane, Cynthia McKinney, Cornelius West, Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman, Al Franklin, RainbowPush, RainbowPull, DemocracyNow, DemocracyThen, FreeSpeech TV, PETA, NAACP, ACLU, and a host of other people, entities, and organization who are not afraid to be on the very frontlines to assist me in my fight for some semblance of justice. The last person I would want anywhere in my vicinity would be Oprah Winfrey and her poisonous Harpo Productions.