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Oprah, Take Off Those Black-and-White Glasses
Making Sense
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Come on, Oprah.You’re way too smart to be this stupid.When are you going to get off this kick about Barack Obama being disrespected more than previous presidents just because he is a black man?It’s getting embarrassing, Oprah.You’re one of America’s great talents and greatest success stories.You’re a self-made billionaire, an astute multimedia mogul, a beloved cultural icon.You’re admired around the world for your generosity and good works. Your opinions and endorsements influence what millions of people read, how they think and who they vote for.But after five years of President Obama’s reign, you apparently still haven’t learned a thing about presidential politics and race relations in this country.You proved it again just last week in Britain when you were plugging that movie “The Butler.”You were asked - for the umpteenth time - by the BBC whether you thought President Obama was being treated unfairly or criticized disproportionately by the media and others because he was black.You said, “When the senator yelled out, ‘You’re a liar’ -- remember that? Yeah, I think that there is a level of disrespect for the office that occurs, and that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he’s African American.”Seriously, Oprah.I realize your primary job in London was to promote “The Butler,” the movie about the real-life black butler who worked in the White House for eight presidents that was so bad I dubbed it “The Butler from Another Planet.”But was your response to the BBC reporter’s question -- a variation of the same claim you’ve made before -- really the most thoughtful thing you could come up with?Were you jet-lagged?