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Oprah Magazine’s White Guilt Special
The most successful black entrepreneur of the age wants you to know how terrible life has been in racist America. So Oprah Winfrey is using the pages of the September issue of O to drive home the Black Lives Matter message: you are racist and you just can’t help yourself. You were raised in white privilege, and even if you feel bad about the racial injustice that sustains you, there is a price to pay. Get ready to be re-educated, right here in this nice lifestyle magazine you may have enjoyed reading for two decades.
For the first time in its 20-year history, the cover does not present an idealized photograph of a beaming, smartly attired Oprah. Instead it features a digital rendering of Breonna Taylor, the young woman shot to death in a police drug raid on her home in Louisville. The raid appears to be an egregious police blunder and is still being investigated. It’s a great tragedy, and Oprah’s signed editorial is a heartfelt lament.
But, setting aside the facts of the case, it is also a convenient cudgel to smite any white readers in swinging distance. Almost every page of this issue conveys a most un-Oprah-like grievance, even barely contained rage. It’s embedded in the story selection, of course, with features like “Hard White Truths,” (We asked white readers about the moments when they’ve been mostly acutely aware of their privilege, and what they’re doing about it). Or Ask Dr. Joy, in which a psychologist “offers advice to Black women beset by needy white friends.”
Yet even the usual lifestyle filler — “Beauty O-wards; it’s time to celebrate the best of the best in makeup, skincare and haircare with our top picks for feeling gorgeous from head to toe” — offers no haven from the scolding. Every editorial page bears a footnote-like banner urging some act of contrition or self-flagellation. A few of the many:
HIRE more Black people and people of color, especially into management, if you’re in a position to do so.
DINE at Black-owned restaurants. People of color are two to three times more likely to be denied business loans, and Black restaurant workers tend to be the lowest paid in the industry.
THWART the racist cash-bail system by contributing to a local bail fund.
TAKE a knee the next time you’re at a sporting event.
READ the 1619 Project . . . a masterful examination of American slavery and its legacy.
ACCEPT the hard truth — if you’re a white American, you’ve benefited from a racist system.
The hard truth is that an accomplished, much-loved television personality, who overcame a life of childhood adversity through her own hard work and talents, is insulting the very country that gave her a path to stupendous success. Over the years on television, Oprah has no doubt inspired many people with her example. Now she chooses to spread white guilt among her loyal audience.
Who can know, in this time of contraction in magazine publishing, if O will survive this departure into identity politics and grievance-mongering. No matter. Oprah has greater “woke” ambitions for her empire. Word is that her production company is hard at work translating the 1619 Project into a movie or perhaps a TV series. The browbeating has just begun.
Mr. President, Don’t Campaign for Re-Election
Donald Trump is so “unpresidential.” So say his detractors, with a frown. And so say his admirers, with a smile. In 2020 the electorate will have its chance to be rid of Trump and return to politics as usual, which offers a straight-line path to further Leftist influence. I prefer to continue our experiment with this unusual leader who dares to agitate and excite the political world.
In the name of that experiment, I offer a brash recommendation: Mr. President, do not trouble yourself to mount a campaign in 2020. Just go about the day-to-day presidential duties incumbent on the chief executive. Continue to contain illegal immigration, curb regulatory overreach, reduce government spending and reform the bureaucracy. Continue to flummox our foreign adversaries and comfort our allies. Just be you.
The Trump re-election effort should not hew to the mold of every other politician. Rather, I urge an approach that underscores his brand of individuality. By keeping to his desk in the White House, he maintains his outsider status, the distinction of being the president like no other. I’m not advising he avoid the arena; he may oblige those Republican candidates for governorships or Congress who seek his support at their own rallies. But I am saying he should limit his availability because he is the “un-president,” and voters for all practical purposes have made up their minds about him. He can stand on his record (which is still being written) and implicitly recognize there are few voters remaining to be won over.
If Trump is challenged in the primary season by his own party, he should simply dismiss any rivals as being disgruntled losers. If asked to debate, he should decline. Again, this is a tactic that can be justified on the grounds that he prefers to stand on his record. Otherwise a primary fight, producing the usual negative headlines, can only exacerbate the divisions within the GOP.
Once he has secured the nomination, he should allow himself the pleasure of several debates with the Democratic challenger. These are the appearances that will matter, because he will stand in stark contrast to the Democratic nominee, who is likely to be a vessel of every PC leftwing value. Traditionally, the presidential debates are the most keenly anticipated events of the campaign season. If in the preceding months Trump has held no rallies or otherwise limited his speech-making, the anticipation will border on the feverish.
Such an atmosphere provides Trump a favorable opportunity to display the boldness that has become his hallmark. Let polarization reign.