During the 75th annual Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey was awarded the Cecil B. Demille Award. One of the highest honors someone in show business can receive. What happened afterward she received the award was nothing short of charismatic excellence. She gave a chilling and inspirational speech, one that can be considered as an all-timer. One that will be remembered for years to come. Suddenly, everyone including myself believed that “Me too” could turn into “Their time is up”. A new day would indeed be on the horizon. Oprah is great in this regard. She knows how to rally the troops. Now knowing how much we lack self-awareness and love to live in the moment, after that speech the grand question became, should Oprah run for President of the United States in 2020? She has the money, support, likability, charisma, and intelligence. Why not? In theory it sounds like a great idea. The other incentive in this? Not only would she be the first women president, she would be the first ever black women to hold office. To some people that’s an important thing. Positive representation is inspiring. With that said, Oprah, no, don’t do it, please don’t do it. Just like how we don’t need Kanye West, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, or Kid Rock running for some type of high office, we don’t need Oprah to either. Human nature is funny. We generally don’t learn from the trial and errors of our way in history. You think the saying, “history always repeats itself” was made for jokes? Nope. There’s a reason for that. We elected two celebrities within the past 40 years to hold office. People smarter than me on this topic tell me the Reagan era wasn’t really it especially on how it impacted black people. The Trump era is clearly an annoying nightmare. So why should we entertain the possibility of another entertainer running it back in two years? Just because she said cordial things? That’s not how any of this works. Those who are pushing the narrative of Oprah 2020 might be missing the overall theme of her speech or are just looking for any glimpse of a post-Trump era victory they can find. There are also questions to be had concerning this Oprah hoopla. One, she’s a billionaire. Some people don’t view billionaires in a good light. They view them as apathetic towards regular people and doing whatever they can to allocate funds to their pockets. Now I’m not sure if they view Oprah in the same light because of the amount of giving she has done for decades but again, questions will be asked. Two, she’s a Black woman. Black women, are generally discredited and disrespected from many if not all walks of life. They do the most work and it’s often a war to get them the respect and credit they deserve. Oprah might be one of those individuals who ‘transcends’ that. Who doesn’t like Oprah right!? It’s all fun and games until people start to show their true colors though. The country was not kind to a white woman running for president. So, we’re supposed to think a Black woman will ride it out ok? Now I’m not sure what to make of the Oprah and Harvey Weinstein interactions. The Weinstein controversy was the starting point that led to the public being exposed to the horrors that is Hollywood’s shameful contributions to sexual assault and rape culture. This led to Oprah’s powerful speech built around empowering women. When you hear the speech, then look at pictures of them interacting, and then take note that Weinstein’s actions were an open secret in the industry, you start to wonder to yourself. It is worth noting that she condemned his action once they became public back in October. Now I won’t question the legitimacy of her speech or intentions. I found it to be genuine. However, someone else may look at this and questions will be asked! All of this isn’t to take away from what Oprah said. She’s an accomplished woman and should be treated with respect. She is Black excellence and there aren’t many people who can put together words as eloquent as she did. It was a great moment and her qualifications made her the right woman of the moment at the Golden Globes and beyond. Her current qualifications though, does not warrant a run for political office. And I’m glad her stance on running hasn’t changed (for now). I’m not sure what the answer is though. People seem to be clearly tired of traditional seasoned politicians which is understandable. I’m pretty sure we won’t ever figure out the answer. I do know this; the bar is low at this point and time will tell if we’re willing to not just raise the bar but be the bar.
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March 2017
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