Oprah: Gone White?

In an interview with Elle Magazine, Fifty Cent, rapper extraordinaire, has claimed that Oprah Winfrey has lost her way with the black community and has gone "white."

Fifty Cent is not the first person to speak out against Oprah. In fact, Ludacris appeared on her show as a part of the cast of "Crash." When up there, Oprah gave Ludacris a hard time about his profession and even so much as to degrade the entire hip-hop industry. Ludacris claims that some of his responses to what Oprah said about him and rap were edited out of the national broadcast.

Rapper Ice Cube has also taken issue with Ms. Winfrey.

In Fifty's interview with Elle Magazine, he claims that Oprah has lost touch with black people. He also made the point that Oprah has turned away from blacks to cater to the white-female community and that she now shares the same views as the people of that demographic.

Fifty's issues with Oprah are quite understandable. Afterall, Oprah has publicly taken a stance against the hip-hop industry. She says that she is against rap lyrics that "marginalize women." As a result of her disdain for the rapping profession, Oprah has failed to have many hip-hop artists on her show. Outside of Ludacris' appearance on the show, only Kanye West has been invited, as Oprah claims to enjoy his music.

Thus it seems to be that Fifty Cent thinks Oprah has gone white partially because she has turned her head away from hip-hop, which is based on entirely black community. Is he right to think so?

One cannot argue with his theory that her show targets middle-aged white women. Just by looking at her shows, seeing who is in the audience and reading her list of topics, it's indubitable who her main target audience is. But just because she makes money off of white people doesn't mean that she has "gone white," does it?

I must say, that with every passing day that I hear about Oprah, I become more and more proud as a black man. What she represents in the black community is unparalleled by any one of this generation.

As a professional journalist, she has worked with and interviewed people in the black community that have been great examples for black youth, and she has also interviewed people who most blacks will never get to work with or meet during their lifetimes.

As a philanthropist, Oprah has done so much for the black community. From donations, building schools, reconstructing neighborhoods and creating several charitable opportunities for the people of Africa, Oprah has done more for the worldwide black community, over the past decade, than the entire organization of the NCAA.

And as a black woman of money and status, Oprah is the role model for all black people to follow. She is woman who came from practically nothing, and who underwent as much emotional tribulation as any one out there. She is what black people aim to be like. Maybe not in character or profession, but in purpose.

So while Fifty is right about Oprah taking her show away from the roots and concerns of black people, her purpose continues to remain the same; which is to help the black community. She does it on the everyday basis, just by being on the TV screen, giving away a lot of her money, and being a good black role model. As for Fifty taking issue with whether or not she has lost touch with her black audience, ask the thousands of black people who have benefited from her good deeds and see if they think that Oprah is not in touch with them.

But if Fifty wants to call out Oprah for targeting White America, he maybe should go back to targeting himself. Because while he may feel that black people identify with his gun slinging past, voluptuous video vixens and onslaught depictions of gangster life, it is White America that buys his CD's and makes him rich. So maybe before the pot starts calling the kettle black, he ought to figure out that they've got same people turning on the stove.