Whatever You May Think of Her, You Have to Respect Her Impact on Pop Culture

“Oprah’s Big Give” came on last night on ABC, in the company of such heartwarming shows like “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and on a network which has reinvented itself not just as a family friendly network, but one which celebrates what we tend to associate is good with America, like a Normal Rockwell painting, American Pie, and other goodness like, oh I don’t know JuJubees. Okay perhaps the latter isn’t so good for you but when you think of someone like Oprah Winfrey, or Ty Pennington, or anyone else who is known for their big, loving heart, selfnessless, and gratitude you have to wonder how being in their presence would inspire you to be a better person.

In true fashion Oprah’s givers made a dream come true for a homeless woman on national television. I wasn’t really watching it though, I had one ear to the television and something else on my work, but when the moment happened, and true to that reminder of why some of us still watch reality television, the tears came and the good feelings flowed, I made my way into the room. It is always great to be a part of television history, whether it is Ellen Degeneres bleeding heart, Rosie O’ Donnel’s viciousness Whoopi Goldberg espousing a definitively different brand of African-American socio-political views. Some of us love Oprah unconditionally, while the rest of us love to hate her; being on her show is a crossover into mainstream popular culture, a badge of acceptance of the larger society not unlike crossing the Mason-Dixon line into freedom years ago.

Over the years we have witnessed Oprah take on institutions that few would speak out and accomplish feats that no one else has been able to accomplish in history, and it was hard to hate her for it. The first woman as an African-American to become a billionaire, if not one of the most visible billionaires at that. The first African American period to have a successful daytime talk show, an ongoing talk show at that, of which Tyra Banks is a distant second. We pinned our hopes on Wayne Brady, who was hosting something more of a unique version of a variety show than anything else, then questioned his racial authenticity.

In fact to be successful in talk suggests walking in the steps of Oprah Winfrey; an article in Entertainment Weekly features Tyra Banks whose cover suggests that Tyra is no “Oprah Jr.”, but going about it in her own way. Oprah is one of those unique individuals in that pop culture was never the same after she made her mark on the world, nor was it the same with respect to the mark by which we refer to successful African-American individuals. Sure there were plenty of millionaires around, had been ever since Madame C.J. Walker perfected the perm, but now we wanted to know not only if you were a billionaire, but if your philanthropic efforts matched or surpassed that of Oprah Winfrey. When the hurricane Katrina demolished the impoverished section of New Orleans, we wanted to know how much money you were giving to the charities, and how hands on you were.

We may have been involved in going to Africa and helping out over there, but it wasn’t talked about until Oprah did it. Yet there are still those of us who claim that Oprah’s endorsement sort of locks you in, it is a big deal if you refuse to be on the show, in fact you are perhaps keeping it real. Then again, if she doesn’t want you on there to begin with the result is damning; ask Curtis Jackson, aka 50 Cent, who made a big deal about the fact that she didn’t want him on the show. Not only was he outsold by a college dropout, Kanye West (no, he really is a college dropout) but he now seems to be a caricature of himself trying to take the gangsta ethos even further to add even more credibility to his image while newcomers like Soulja Boy continue to have hit singles.

But at the end of the day, what are we doing with what little bit we were blessed with, and how are impacting society? Oprah came from conditions many of us do like care to think or speak of, has been through things that would have destroyed many of us, yet didn’t build a name for herself out of anger and righteous indignation or belligerence, as many of our poor artists turned into today’s “It” person or megastar often does. She doesn’t continue to reiterate her story, and she wasn’t obsessed with keeping it real; she stood for different things, compassion, forgiveness, spirituality, in a time when American pop culture was headed towards hedonism, narcissism and melancholy. That resonated as something different and unique in a world of exploitative talk show hosts like Jenny Jones, Sally Jesse Raphael and Jerry Springer, made her stand out from the rest, and helped her unthrone the previous king of the talk show, Phil Donahue.

You may say that the whole premise is artificial, New Age and has a dark, sinister angle to it, as I have many times as well. But there is something to be said about professionalism and how to carry yourself that seems to be have been lost on a lot of us obsessed with authenticity, you see it in individuals like Oprah, Bill Cosby, Barack Obama, Tavis Smiley, even Condolezza Rice. They are known for it, and the list can go on. You probably hate their politics, but you can’t deny that they didn’t have something interesting to say and you’re hard pressed to suggest that you still don’t listen to them or allow the “clicker” to linger for a bit while you move on to what you really do want to watch. Perhaps the idea of making us pause for a second to reflect is all that it is really about, all that really matters …