Debbie Schlussel thinks so. When I first saw the story about Oprah Winfrey spending 40 million to open a girl’s school in South Africa, I simply thought about the importance if people being able to keep the fruits of their labor. I saw it as an example of what private people are willing to do charitably with their money. I Just had Debbie on Tammy Radio, and she has an entirely different take on the situation. When Debbie contacted Harpo Studios to find out the racial makeup of the kids Oprah was handpicking for this school, she got stonewalled. It seems as though all but one of the girls Oprah picked for the school are indeed black, while the white girl is being paraded around as though she were, well, some sort of token.
HOprah Watch: Does Oprah Practice Apartheid? It Appears She Does
And based on photos, it appears not a single one of the girls she picked is White. When I first heard about Oprah doing the admissions, herself, last spring, I contacted her Harpo Studios to find out whether Oprah chose any Whites for the school. An Oprah press person called me back and told me they’d get back to me with the racial make-up of the entering classes of Oprah’s Academy. Now, months later, they never did.
And it appears there are no White students. Were none of the 3,500 applicants White? Were Whites told they need not apply? Are there no South African White female “teens and preteens from poor and troubled backgrounds”? Since Oprah calls the girls her “dreamgirls,” would love to know the answers. But, alas, I didn’t get any.
Read the whole thing, obviously. Debbie is also the proprietor of Oprahsucks.com.
I agree with the concept of Oprah’s project, I agree with the intent. I agree with the benefits of a girls school (back in the day, i attended a and all-boys high school).
What struck me as odd, when hearing about this school, is that the school offers a beauty salon. In fact Oprah, herself, is quoted as saying the school *had* to have it.
I understand that many of these girls are from blighted homes; does that mean the school HAS to have a salon? What other needless items are included in the school?
It’s Oprah’s money. If she wants all blacks, that’s her prerogative. But some honesty about it would not be a bad thing.
No. Of course Oprah is not being racist. The composition of the school reflects the history of apartheid in South Africa. The white ten percent of the population controlled 90 percent of the land and even more of the wealth. There are virtually no poor whites. So, of course the school is composed of girls of color.
Ironically, I checked Technorati on this topic because I believed that the Right blogosphere would be desperately trying to find something to criticize regarding Oprah’s school. I was proven right.
There was an uproar when Oprah was questioned about why she didn’t decide to build the school in an inner city somewhere, to help out black Americans. She said that she had visited inner city schools before and finally “gave up”, because she talked to the students and she saw no willingness to learn on their part. All they were interested in were having the most expensive shoes and iPods, she said. She felt as though it would not be a worthwhile investment, because the people in the community would just squander it. Sean Hannity talked about this, and brought on some black activists to talk about this. They acknowledged what she said was true, and a real problem that needed to be addressed.
I don’t look negatively on what Oprah did. I happened to hear about an Oprah show that was broadcast recently where she visited South Africa, presumably before the school was built. She said that many children were losing their parents to AIDS. They were becoming orphans to the disease. When asked, the children didn’t know what AIDS was. I think she asked the kids if they wanted to go to school. They said they did, very much. Like on her past TV shows she had a “gift day” for the children she met. She got them simple things like shoes and soccer balls. To them they were the greatest things in the world. They were grinning from ear to ear and were so appreciative. I guess she thought they were worth the investment.