'O' No, Oprah!

‘O’ No!! was my first thought when I heard about Oprah's “Leaving Neverland” interview.  My second was sellout *itch....but then Jesus took the wheel.  Here’s why:

As a native of Baltimore, I grew up watching Oprah on WJZ-TV news and People Are Talking. Although I never met her personally, I did have two close encounters:  The first was when Oprah visited my 12th grade Honors English class.  She entered the room and  we students gasped in awe, seeing her as "bigger than life."  Wow! a real life TV celebrity (actually, a local reporter) graced us city public school students with a visit, (actually, to do a story on achieving students).  As I sat there, a senior, just pregnant, thinking I've messed up my future, Oprah offered just a glimmer of hope.  

The second “encounter” was two years later. She’d returned from her new home, Chicago to speak at my brother's high school graduation.  My toddler snatched the hat off the lady in front of us and she blamed it on my father, so he made me take him outside.  From the auditorium lobby, I was able to catch snippets of Oprah’s speech and remember her ending with, "A bird in his hand," just before a thunderous applause. 

We were all happy for Oprah when she “made it” in the big city with her own talk show.  Out of loyalty, I ignored when whites called her “gorilla” and when Blacks shared the “scuttlebutt” about her affairs.  I watched with anticipation when Oprah was nominated for an Oscar despite criticism that The Color Purple portrayed Black men in a negative light.  I tried not to laugh (not really) when In Living Color did a spoof of Oprah on her talk show. I silently agreed and pondered “why” at comments that she seemed to play only “mammy” roles.  I cheered at her victory in court against the Texas beef ranchers. I teared up as I watched the opening of her school for girls in South Africa.  I listened with a grain of salt when my co-worker, friends, family members and other Black men doggedly opined that Oprah does not like Black men.  And I discounted the "lesbian" rumors from the media about her and her BFF Gayle King. 

Over the years, I watched her star rise beyond any of our wildest dreams.  But as large as Oprah was in Black culture, “The Jackson Five” were much, much larger. The brothers were the heartthrob and satisfied crushes of Black girls of all ages, especially Michael, my first love. The beautiful Black child star always stood out.  As a child, I’d play their Christmas album  over and over again and knew every word.  And my friend and classmate Cheritha’s mother took us to see them in concert at Painter’s Mill Music Fair (I still have the program). Michael sang and danced unlike anyone we’d ever seen and he acted, too; he was the total package. As he grew, he transcended everything music, winning awards even breaking records.  And his performances and concerts were epic.  Michael was bigger than Elvis and The Beatles. During the height of “Thriller”, a reporter wrote that he saw Michael Jackson’s (MJ's) poster hanging in one of the homes in a very remote village in Africa. 

But Michael is dead.  I vividly remember where I was when I saw the news: A restaurant in Miami.  I could not believe it.  Later that night, we were at a club at a private party where they played his music all night long to help soothe everyone’s grief.  RIP MJ.

That was in 2009 which begs the question:  Why now would Oprah host an interview ten years after Michael’s death especially when he was tried and found not guilty and you didn’t interview him then?  Yet you give a voice to a “family friend” who admits to lying and testified on Michael’s behalf at trial?  It’s not relevant and it's foul. Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein friend of Trump and the Clintons ran a child sex ring and was sentenced to only 13 months.  Talk about a monster!  Oprah, advocate for abuse survivors by interviewing any of his dozens of victims. This begs the question: who or what is Oprah loyal to? 

Perhaps she’s trying to distance herself as far away as possible from Blacks. But if Cosby (who affectionately called her, “Sis”) taught Oprah nothing else, it should have been that she’s Black first regardless of wealth. The Swiss store that refused her service did not care that she was a woman or rich; it cared that she was Black.  And that should have been her wake up call.  But to many, Oprah lost her Black card a long time ago. 

In classic Oprah self-serving fashion, she used a recent Baltimore tragedy to deflect attention away from the victim onto herself.  Referring to giving money to panhandlers, she said, “I’ve don’t this a thousand times,” and “woke.” Girl, bye. You’re a billionaire.  If you want to impress me, be like the sister, Candace Payne who secretly used her own money to book hotel rooms for the homeless in Chicago during the polar vortex. Or how about using your platform to call attention to the ridiculousness of Black working class mothers serving time for lying to send their children to better schools in light of this elitist college scam?

Actually, things started going south long ago.  Oprah often spoke about reciting scripture in church as young as three.  But I’d heard mumblings that she’d abandoned her grandmother’s Jesus and instead, replaced Him with many other deities.The screenwriter of Oprah’s film, “A Wrinkle in Time,” in which she plays (surprise) an “earthly deity” defended removing all references to Jesus Christ in the author’s book.  For decades, Oprah’s had much influence over people almost to the point of worshipping and hanging on her every word instead of believing “the Word.”  “Oprah said this….Oprah said that.”  And not only Oprah; Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and the other white guy she hooked up….Nate is it?  I couldn’t understand it.  Oprah has various religious speakers as guests, one of whom, João Teixeira de Faria, was arrested in December 2018 in Brazil after being accused by 258 people of sexual abuse.  Hey, Oprah, why didn’t you interview them?

When people not from Baltimore ask me about the Monique/Oprah “beef”, I tried to stay  neutral. After all, aren’t we part of many Baltimore Black “success” stories?  Apparently not.  In my research, I came across Kitty Kelley’s biography online entitled, “Oprah”.  It alleges that many of Oprah’s claims such as growing up “dirt poor” and having to adopt two cockroaches as pets are “fraudulent” to “manipulate” the public and gain success.  It also alleges that the man she knows as her father, Vernon Winfrey said she is not in love with Stedman; and that he had disdain for Gayle, calling her Oprah’s “shadow”.  Hmmm…I’ll have to check out this book; maybe then, I can find out who Oprah really is.

So why did she do this interview?  She doesn't need the money.  Maybe to be relevant? Perhaps because she is not accountable to anyone since Maya and her mother have passed.  I take that back:  To me, Oprah does what the white man tells her and Gayle does what Oprah tells her.  And I believe it’s no coincidence that Oprah’s interview aired the same week as Gayle’s interview with R. Kelly.  It’s all a distraction to make Black men the face of sexual assault.  Many of us have Black men and boys in our lives who we care about and hate to see them being profiled in the media as predators. 

I’m angry and disgusted.  And I’m so, so disappointed in Oprah.  This ordeal “sucker gut punched” me not because I had faith in Oprah but because this reeks of blatant underhandedness.  The Jacksons are embedded in our culture. We watch as they seem to be in disbelief; it’s like a slap in the face to realize that their relationship with Oprah was a farce.  Michael’s statues, artifacts and wax figures are being removed from exhibits and museums.  Perhaps Oprah did this as revenge for Michael publicly calling Sony former exec Tommy Mottola “mean, a racist,” and “very, very, very devilish.” Or because Michael owned the Beatles’ music catalogue.  Whatever the reason, I have absolutely no respect for Oprah and will not support anything she’s a part of, definitely not a bid for presidency.  Oprah’s attempts at being a “Maya Angelou” wannabe are severely flawed. We could see Dr. Maya’s soul.  Conversely, Oprah’s duplicity and arrogance will definitely remain a part of her legacy.