These complicated times. She would never have said that had Hillary Clinton been elected. And she never said the press was under siege when President Obama attacked Fox News for the entire eight years of his presidency. But those sentiments of Oprah are understandable. Talented though she is, she is first and foremost a non-objective partisan.
Her reference to “tyrants” who have “secrets” and tell “lies” and oppress “victims” was obviously made with Trump in mind (if not him, who?), and the reference to “injustice” apparently referred to sexual harassment in the workplace and, of course, racism.
She spoke eloquently about racial outrages during the Jim Crow era, and that’s a good thing, because America should forever be reminded of its deplorable history of slavery and segregation. In the first 30 seconds, she mentioned black actor Sidney Poitier. In 1967, Poitier was the top box office star for roles he played in three widely-viewed movies about racial issues. One of those films, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, examined racism in the upper rungs of American society.
Eighteen years after first hitting the screens, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner was used to help turn the Old South social order in Palm Beach, Florida on its head. If it would surprise Oprah to know that, she would be even more surprised to know the name of the man who brought about that long overdue change.
When Trump Fought the Racists
In 1985, Donald J. Trump bought the 126-room, 62,500 square feet Mar-A-Lago estate, the magnificent Palm Beach, Florida seaside resort once owned by Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. Trump was intent on turning his newly acquired property into a private club that would compete with other high society clubs in the area, nearly all of which barred blacks and Jews from membership. When Trump revealed that memberships at his proposed club would be open to all, the Palm Beach city council imposed restrictions that prevented Mar-A-Lago from being turned into a club. Sensing that the restrictions were a sham to perpetuate the discriminatory practices of the Old South social order in Palm Beach, Trump went head-to-head with the city council, which included Palm Beach residents who belonged to clubs that discriminated on the basis of race. As part of his strategy to bring long overdue social change to the upper echelon of Palm Beach society, Trump sent the city commissioners a copy of Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, a film that heaped discredit on upper-class racism. When the commissioners still wouldn’t budge, Trump took off the gloves and filed a $100 million federal lawsuit. The rest is history. Under his ownership, Mar-A-Lago Club was open to anyone who could meet its membership qualifications, including blacks and Jews. Shamed by Trump’s groundbreaking example, it wasn’t long before other clubs in the area began doing away with their discriminatory membership practices. Today, memberships at all high society clubs in Palm Beach County are open to blacks and Jews. Long before he ran for president, Donald Trump was tearing down prejudicial barriers, not the kind of thing a racist would do. That story, which has been buried by the same press lauded by Oprah as tireless seekers of the truth, is told in an article titled
When Trump Fought the Racists.
Without mentioning him by name, Oprah Winfrey obviously had President Donald Trump in mind during her acceptance speech at last night’s Golden Globe Awards: