Share
Commentary

Correction: Oprah: Generations of People Born and Marinated in Racism "Just Have to Die"

Share

CORRECTION – Jan. 27, 2024: The title of this opinion piece originally stated Winfrey’s quote referred to white people specifically. While the opinion piece contains the quote itself and makes clear the nuance involved in analyzing it, the title has been updated and small portions of the article revised for clarity.

If her soaring-yet-vacuous speech at the Golden Globes was any indication, Oprah Winfrey is taking the idea of a presidential run seriously. And, if polls are any indication, Democrats are taking a possible Oprah run seriously, too.

If she runs, Oprah certainly won’t be the first celebrity to throw her hat into the presidential race. After all, with Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump (not to mention several famous generals), there’s plenty of precedent for making the jump from stardom to the West Wing.

However, there is at least one first that Oprah can lay claim to, should she decide run: She would be the first presidential candidate to ever say that a segment of the electorate “just (has) to die.”

Come again? Yes, it seems that Oprah wasn’t too keen on old people she felt were “marinated” in hate. So, during a 2013 interview with the BBC, she said that generations of people needed to kick the bucket in order for progress to be made.

The interview occurred as Oprah was on a publicity tour for the movie “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” in which she plays the wife of a black White House butler. (A movie which, for what it’s worth, was released by The Weinstein Company; Winfrey’s relationship with the disgraced media mogul/accused rapist is yet another hurdle for a prospective Oprah 2020 candidacy.)

Trending:
Hillary Clinton Jumps Into Trump 'Bloodbath' Frenzy with a Question, Doesn't Want to Hear the Answers

During the BBC interview, she was asked whether some Americans opposed the policies of then-President Obama because they were racist, according to the Washington Examiner.

That little demagogic softball was de rigueur for interviewers at the time, so the line of questioning certainly wasn’t anything unique. Oprah’s answer, however, was definitely of a singular nature.

“Of course the problem (of racism) is not solved,” Oprah said:

Do you think Oprah will run for president?

“As long as there are people who still — there’s a whole generation — I say this, you know, I said this, you know, for apartheid, South Africa, I said this for my own, you know, for my own community in the South — there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die.”

Well, that’s one way to court older voters.

Nobody is denying that there are racists both in the United States and abroad, and supporters of apartheid in South Africa or Jim Crow in the South definitely qualify. That said, I’d like to shift gears for a moment here; it’s worth noting the slight coincidence that Monday was the day commemorating the apostle of nonviolence, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. You’ve probably heard bits of it or maybe even all of it, but if you have 17 minutes to spare, I would implore you to examine it further:



Related:
Hillary Clinton Jumps Into Trump 'Bloodbath' Frenzy with a Question, Doesn't Want to Hear the Answers

Now, pop quiz: Was there anywhere in the speech where you heard Dr. King say, “I have a dream! And in that dream, those who oppose my agenda just have to die!”?

No. In fact, during his entire career, I never heard King once say that the racists who violently opposed him with the most despicable tactics available to them– and who ultimately cut short his life with a bullet to a head — needed to die off. He preached radical love, to benefactor and bigot alike.

Another coincidence I’d like to draw your attention to: At present, we’re now having a debate over whether our president called certain nations “s***hole countries” and whether that was appropriate. At the same time, the same political wing feigning shock and outrage over that two-word linguistic construct is now seriously considering a possible presidential candidate an individual who literally said fixing a problem would be solved by citizens dying en masse.

Of course, liberals have jumped to Oprah’s defense in this matter before. Snopes, our favorite fact-challenged fact-checking site, declared the supposition that Winfrey said white people had to die as false.

“Winfrey’s remarks weren’t specifically targeted at white people,” Snopes claimed. “She did not say ‘All old white people have to die,’ or ‘White older people have to die,’ or any other fabricated, race-based version of her actual remarks. In fact, she never uttered the phrase ‘white people’ at all.”

Snopes is right that she never used the term “white people.” It’s quite reasonable, however, to read Oprah’s comment as a dog-whistle. One could argue that it’s harder to not read it as a dog whistle. Anyone who claims not to get what’s going on here is either lying or too dense to be participating in this conversation. Imagine Donald Trump saying “urban violence won’t be solved until those living in the ghettos die off.” Can’t you hear the media coverage? “Trump calls for genocide against blacks.”

Goin further, Snopes elides the fact that Winfrey was answering a question about racism against a black president, and they also conveniently ignore that she named apartheid South Africa and the Jim Crow South as the milieus in which the group of people that needed to “die off” were “marinated in” hatred.

When someone tacitly invokes the specter of ghouls like George Wallace, P.W. Botha and Orville Faubus, the only people who don’t realize what race that person is referring to are those who choose to remain purposely ignorant for their own ideological reasons.

Even if you still don’t buy that explanation, it’s somewhat difficult to imagine an American president who says mass death is the solution to a problem of the heart. For every liberal who’s tried to insinuate Donald Trump is unstable and unfit for office, let it be known he’s never wished the release of death upon any demographic.

I admit that’s a pretty low bar for any public official. So what does that say about Oprah?

Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter with your thoughts on what Oprah had to say.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
, , , ,
Share
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




Conversation