Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is a talkshow host who is famous worldwide for the issues she raises in her television show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was first aired in early 1983. The article I found called 'Talk About Racism: Framing a Popular Discourse of Race on Oprah Winfrey' by Janice Peck talks about the way in which Winfrey has managed to 'transcend race', implying that the notion of race goes beyond biological presumptions, that seem to be set deep in the history of the Africans and other people of colour in America. It is interesting to note that in Peck's article, her research shows that the fact that Oprah is black to white viewers made no difference to their interest in watching the show, whilst black viewers have commented saying 'it is central' to the success of the show. Oprah is the wealthiest black American woman in North America, which is significant because, as mentioned in the article, he was able to, and has 'transcended' the boundaries set by racism, and gender discrimination. The attention drawn to this is significant, as when Oprah's show was first broadcasted it was a difficult time for not only women to become involved and successful in the entertainment industry, but black people as well. So that fact that she was able to become the most successful female in showbiz in North America shows a huge step forward in terms of race equality given her skin colour.  However, whilst a majority of her viewers are white females, Peck talks about how research on the viewers shows that her while they were not bothered by her colour, they felt inclined to watch the show because a black women is supposedly 'less intimidating' than a black man. This shows that with race discrimination is not just about skin colour, but it involves gender as well. 

Pecks states 'it is aligned with the social psychology concept of stereotyping, seen as universal tendency to reduce cognitive uncertainty by organising the world into manageable categories.' From this is can be inferred that the categorisation of different groups of people in to a minimal number of racial types (e.g. black, Hispanic, Latino etc.) is more of a natural coping mechanism for humans, in order to try and understand what is new to them. This reiterates the idea talked about in Tuesday's lecture, that race is indeed, not biological or physical but mental. When Oprah talks about the issue of racism, she says how racism is 'ignorance personified', which is a valid statement, when it is evident that so much in regards to racism, is merely down to people not knowing another persons ancestry when they make a judgment based only on what they can see.  Therefore, in order to overcome this simplicity of race, people must be better educated when looking at race and origins.  This is something that is very relevant when looking at America after the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, even through to 21st Century America, as throughout all this time, race has been, and still often is, defined by the colour of a persons skin. 

Source: https://www.academia.edu/1117060/Talk_About_Racism_Framing_a_Popular_Discourse_of_Race_on_Oprah_Winfrey