OPINION
Oprah Winfrey’s rousing Golden Globe speech in which she accepted a lifetime achievement award and called for ‘bright morning even in our darkest nights’ has been lauded as inspirational and even presidential, fuelling calls for the former talk show host to run for office in 2020.
NBC even went as far as to make a tongue-in-cheek tweet joking of ‘nothing but respect for our future President’. (They've since apologised and removed the tweet). The buzz has sparked a slew of violent reactions to the absurdity of the prospect, largely from white men.
The alarmed reactions to the idea of Oprah for President are seriously eyebrow raising.
The idea - which I'm reading in various Facebook posts in one form or another - that Oprah Winfrey is stupid is amazing to me. They criticise her for being a talkshow show that just entertains housewives.
First, Oprah Winfrey is extraordinarily smart. She is brilliant by most reasonable definitions. A self-made billionaire, born in segregated Mississippi in the 1950’s, she’s smashed all glass ceilings – racial, gender and even aesthetic, an unusual presence in the white dominated TV landscape of the 1980’s.
First, Oprah Winfrey is extraordinarily smart. She is brilliant by most reasonable definitions. A self-made billionaire, born in segregated Mississippi in the 1950’s, she’s smashed all glass ceilings – racial, gender and even aesthetic, an unusual presence in the white dominated TV landscape of the 1980’s.
Second, if you think she just "entertains housewives", you are not deeply familiar with her career, brand, or empire. Her 25-year ‘Oprah Winfrey Show’ had a global reach of millions, a brand cannily built through tapping into the zeitgeist of middle America, and disseminated through her own studio Harpo.
Third, there is something sexist and problematic about the move of dismissing her, and, indeed, "housewives", as some throwaway category of second class citizens.
Now as for Oprah for President, I never would have considered it before the advent of the Orange clown from hell.
But in a world where the sitting American President openly frets about being referred to as ‘old’, boasts about having a nuclear button ‘bigger’ than North Korea and has on record bragged about groping women, the double standards are baffling.
Add to this journalist Michael Wolff’s new book ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House’, which presents a portrait of a deeply dysfunctional White House, run by an unstable President, at the helm of a team unprepared to win office.
Now that we've descended to such depths of absurdity, I wonder if a President Oprah figure could be a bridge back to sanity, a celebrity who actually is of sound mind, an actual real ‘stable genius’.
There is no question that Oprah would be infinitely smarter and more savvy than not only Donald Trump, but also than figures like George W. Bush and an additional slew of overrated men who have held the office as well.
There is no question that Oprah would be infinitely smarter and more savvy than not only Donald Trump, but also than figures like George W. Bush and an additional slew of overrated men who have held the office as well.
People say she has no political experience, but I strongly disagree. One can only say this if they have the most narrow understanding of politics.
We're talking about the richest woman in the world, an African American who built herself up from the poverty and oppression of the apartheid south. You better bet she has political experience and then some.
I've always admired her, and I'm noticing an amount of patronising responses to this remarkable figure that raise my suspicions on several levels.
I'll be honest, she seems more interesting to me than former Democratic Vice-President Joe Biden, and don't get me started on Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The other critique of Oprah is she sells a snake oil brand of spiritual capitalism. While I am familiar with and to some degree sympathetic with the critique of her liberal approach to spirituality and her acumen for making money, there is something problematic in this argument too.
The argument goes that Oprah is monetising spirituality, trying to tell us that buying expensive products is going to make us feel better and the key to improving our lives is with ourselves, which by implication ignores the structural violence of capitalism and racism.
But that is what the spiritual path is: a focus on the self and the inner life.
I get that Oprah makes money popularising this focus, but so do a lot of people, especially men.
I am deeply interested in spirituality, personally and professionally, and there is no question that Oprah has done a lot precisely to turn people away from simply material concerns.
That is my honest assessment, advertising for silly overpriced cupcakes notwithstanding.
Admittedly, she functions well in the capitalist system in which we live. It makes me uncomfortable too, but it's not like her advertising for products in her magazine is incomprehensible and uniquely evil.
Conversely, the scrutiny of her brand smacks of the discomfort we have with women profiting from their work.
Why do we expect women to be altruistic Mother Theresa figures when it comes to earning big money from a legal brand? Why do we seem more comfortable lauding black artists and women like Nina Simone, women who died broke and broken by a system that profited and exploited their genius?
Admittedly, she functions well in the capitalist system in which we live. It makes me uncomfortable too, but it's not like her advertising for products in her magazine is incomprehensible and uniquely evil.
I'm disturbed by how much bandwidth people who seem to misunderstand what Oprah does give themselves to waive their hands with a dismissive gesture.
I can't help but think that gender and race have to do with that willingness. People need to check themselves before making that particular move.
Having said that, I prepare now to be disappointed. It would be most interesting indeed if President Winfrey went to war. I wonder how much integrity she really has once her mettle is tested. I believe in her more than most politicians, I'll say that much.
Sarah Eltantawi is a Professor of Religion at Evergreen state college in Washington.
