tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post729051998358618841..comments2024-03-24T23:57:28.687-07:00Comments on Undercover Black Man: Q&A: Oprah Winfrey (pt. 2)Undercover Black Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08704721024820668555noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-25207336607253707232007-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:002007-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:00Gess, thanks for being obsessed. I can tell you I'...Gess, thanks for being obsessed. I can tell you I'm just as obsessed on this side of the line.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for posting that piece of the article, because I won't have time until later to read the whole thing. But I've got some problems with what the guy wrote.<BR/><BR/>He lost me at "the savage persistence of stark racial inequality in the United States."<BR/><BR/>If I may speak bluntly, he's coming out a knee-jerk leftist, emotionally manipulative and intellectually dishonest place.<BR/><BR/>This country promises equality of <EM>opportunity</EM>, not equality of <EM>outcomes</EM>.<BR/><BR/>My favorite example to illustrate this is commercial airline pilots. 95 percent of commercial airline pilots are white males. Only 2 percent of commercial airline pilots are black.<BR/><BR/>Yet the <EM>opportunity</EM> to become an airline pilot is equal for all. Anyone can undertake what's required to try to become a professional pilot... the study, the training, etc. Nobody today is denied this opportunity on account of his or her race... and that's all we can demand of a just society.<BR/><BR/>Now, that doesn't mean that everyone who <EM>wants</EM> to become an airline pilot, and <EM>studies</EM> to become an airline pilot, and <EM>trains</EM> to become an airline pilot, will actually become one. The <EM>outcome</EM> isn't guaranteed, because that comes down industry standards and qualifications that are applied evenly across the board (presumably).<BR/><BR/>I say all that to say: The mere fact that 2 percent of airline pilots are black, while 13 percent of the U.S. population is black, <EM>is not evidence unto itself of social injustice</EM>.<BR/><BR/>Likewise, if only 2 percent of the incoming freshman class at UCLA is black, <EM>that's</EM> not evidence unto itself of social injustice. That's simply how many blacks were qualified to get in that year.<BR/><BR/>So it looks like Paul Street is attacking Oprah (and other rich black folks) out of a class-warfare bag while attacking America (for its savagely persistent inequalities) out of a lazy emotionalism.<BR/><BR/>I'm speaking in broad strokes here, but you wanted to know what I thought... and that's it in a nutshell.Undercover Black Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08704721024820668555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-89357151843562758802007-06-01T10:11:00.000-07:002007-06-01T10:11:00.000-07:00Let me try the link again:The Full Blown "Oprah Ef...Let me try the link again:<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.blackcommentator.com/127/127_oprah.html" REL="nofollow">The Full Blown "Oprah Effect",<BR/>“The culture of New Age Racism also brought blacks to the age of Oprah” – Elaine Brown, 2002<BR/><BR/><BR/>I recently caught a snippet of television that was relevant for understanding the savage persistence of stark racial inequality in the United States. I was flipping the dial late at night and caught part of Oprah. She was speaking to Oscar favorite Jamie Fox, who appeared on a giant screen, sitting in front of a piano. They were talking about his experience playing Ray Charles in the movie “Ray.” <BR/><BR/>The multi-billionaire Oprah mentioned that she realized she could “be anything I wanted to be” when Sidney Poitier won the first Academy award ever given to an African American. She told Jamie that she loved him. The multi-millionaire Jamie informed Oprah that he loved her back. <BR/><BR/>They spoke cheerfully about the significant black presence that will be displayed at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, which is being hosted by the black comedian Chris Rock. “It’s really going to be a black-tie event this year,” Jamie said. Everybody laughed. <BR/><BR/>Jamie played a song on the piano. Oprah and Jamie exchanged some more “I love yous.” It looked like Oprah was tearing up. Many of her predominantly white female audience members seemed equally moved. <BR/><BR/>They were happy for Jamie and Oprah and Chris Rock and all the other African-Americans who have “made it” in the United States. And they were happy for America’s benevolent decision to slay the beast of racism and open the doors of equal opportunity to all. It was another chance for white self-congratulation and for whites to forget about – and lose more sympathy for – the large number of black Americans who are nowhere close to making it in post-Civil Rights America. <BR/><BR/>...<BR/><BR/>Part of the problem behind many whites’ racial equality understanding gap is segregation, which continues at high levels. White women might flock en masse to their black princess Oprah’s Chicago television studio to receive inspiration, wisdom, and (on lucky days) surplus commodities, but Oprah’s home city is harshly segregated by race. The Chicago metropolitan area has a black-white dissimilarity measure of 80.8, meaning that more than four out of every five area blacks would have to move for African-Americans to be distributed evenly with whites throughout the metropolitan area. Within Chicago, 74 percent of black residents live in neighborhoods that are 90 percent or more African-American. The average Chicago black lives in a census tract where 4 of every 5 residents (81.1%) are African-American, while the average white lives in a census tract where less than 1 in 10 people (8.9 percent) is African-American.<BR/><BR/>...<BR/><BR/></A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-34236123492179247412007-06-01T09:59:00.000-07:002007-06-01T09:59:00.000-07:00UBM,I'm not convinced what she says, and I think s...UBM,<BR/><BR/>I'm not convinced what she says, and I think she is and acts phony. All this because of the money. <BR/>Read this article by Paul Street, and let me know your opinion:<BR/><BR/><B> The Full Blown "Oprah Effect"</B><BR/><BR/>http://www.blackcommentator.com/127/127_oprah.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-21975041402185233012007-06-01T09:01:00.000-07:002007-06-01T09:01:00.000-07:00Oh man,I'm afriad I'm getting obsess with your blo...Oh man,<BR/><BR/>I'm afriad I'm getting obsess with your blog, UCB :)<BR/><BR/>What have you done :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-29834922966657776192007-05-30T17:04:00.000-07:002007-05-30T17:04:00.000-07:00My wife will kill me for saying this, but I've nev...My wife will kill me for saying this, but I've never gotten the whole Oprah adulation thing. Yes, she's talented, successful, etc. But she's an afternoon talk show host for godsake! One step above Jenny Jones. For the life of me, I can't think of anything she's done that Phil Donahue didn't do before her. Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most significant Americans of the 20th Century and left off Charlie Parker. That's just ridiculous to me.<BR/><BR/>But if she wants to give me a car, I take it all back.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-33049019831674544312007-05-30T08:42:00.000-07:002007-05-30T08:42:00.000-07:00It's all good, Eazy. I wasn't saying "harsh" towar...It's all good, Eazy. I wasn't saying "harsh" towards me, but "harsh" towards Oprah.Undercover Black Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08704721024820668555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-32355046684217503532007-05-30T06:53:00.000-07:002007-05-30T06:53:00.000-07:00"but" = "bit"So goddamn tired this morning. . ."but" = "bit"<BR/><BR/>So goddamn tired this morning. . .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-58313673118652372562007-05-30T06:51:00.000-07:002007-05-30T06:51:00.000-07:00Sorry, shoulda said "but now, thanks to you, I now...Sorry, shoulda said "but now, thanks to you, I <B>now know</B> she hasn't changed a goddamn but"<BR/><BR/>The first one just didn't read right, sorry if it sounded if I accused you of anything, seriously I love your interviews [/groveling]<BR/><BR/>But yeah, I guess you're right. She's clearly talented and worked hard to get to where she is. But it's just goddamn sad she looks down upon young girls that aren't as lucky as she was, despite the fact that avariciousness and materialism were the GOOD traits when she was their age.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-77848215432341793922007-05-30T02:28:00.000-07:002007-05-30T02:28:00.000-07:00Ooh. Harsh. So very harsh.I think she kinda had to...Ooh. Harsh. So very harsh.<BR/><BR/>I think she kinda had to be the way she is in order to do what she's done. And she still climbin'...Undercover Black Manhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08704721024820668555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486244714643027014.post-80590892854160575092007-05-30T02:07:00.000-07:002007-05-30T02:07:00.000-07:00Hoh.Lee.Shit.I thought being a powerful black bill...Hoh.<BR/><BR/>Lee.<BR/><BR/>Shit.<BR/><BR/>I thought being a powerful black billionaire has changed Oprah into a ladder kicking social climber who tells poor black teenagers <A HREF="http://blog.lib.umn.edu/onye0004/politics/063635.html" REL="nofollow">"I gots mine, fuck y'all cause y'all don't know your place"</A> but now, thanks to you, she hasn't changed a goddamn bit.<BR/><BR/>She still seems to forget that <A HREF="http://video.barnesandnoble.com/search/biography.asp?CTR=662405" REL="nofollow">she's a live baby and a deadbeat dad</A> away from being a stereotypical black teenage mother who might be getting a government check. So crime these girls committed was to say something about the size of the teevee in a limo? What do they have to do, <A HREF="http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/winfrey_o.htm" REL="nofollow">rob Aretha Franklin</A> do drugs and fool around with boys to earn her respect? <BR/><BR/>Once again, the white suburban soccer moms can have her for all I care.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com