Sunday, January 07, 2007

The right place the right time the right thing to do...

Just this week Oprah Winfrey was in South Africa to be a part of the opening of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls–South Africa—a private learning and residential environment for grades 7–12 that engenders high standards of academic achievement and service leadership for girls who show outstanding promise despite their social circumstances. It seems there are those of us in the United States who feel Oprah Winfrey needs to be criticized for her generosity to a generation of children in need in South Africa. I say, “right on Oprah.”

The criticism that galls me the most is the criticism heaped upon her by one Linda Stasi a columnist for the New York Post. I listened to an interview on TV where she made some pretty uninformed comments about Oprah’s building of the school and the history of a Western culture that has traditionally ignored the African continent unless there was money to be made.

What Oprah did for South Africa as a human being is commendable. To take it even farther, what Oprah did as an African American in South Africa is even more commendable. Linda Stasi’s opinions and comments are formulated from a shortsighted mindset that is willing to ignore the effect of centuries of slavery, colonial rule and Apartheid in Africa by Europeans. The African slave trade began right after the Age of Discovery and Exploration. The Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. In essence Europe plundered, robbed and stole resources, people and goods from the continent of Africa. Africa gives and the world takes.

Oprah doesn’t ask for handouts from anyone. Seems to me she’s worked for every red cent she has made. I could care less if she has never given a penny to a charity in America. I do know that she has but that’s not the point. Giving to whom she wants is her prerogative.

There is a symptom here that begs to be examined. It is symptomatic of a culture that teaches the lie that Christopher Columbus discovered America. How could Christopher Columbus discover a country where there were already people? I was taught this lie in school along with millions of other non-thinkers including Linda Stasi. But some of us wake up and begin to think. What Linda Stasi fails to realize is that Oprah’s ancestors were stolen from Africa, along with millions of other African American ancestors. How does one measure the residue of the effect of this atrocious theft hundreds of years latter? Our ancestors were denied, even until very recently in the history of the United States, social or political entitlement. Anyway, we all know the story and how it goes. I don’t want this to be a history lesson. We have a daughter of a stolen people who wants to give back to Africa. So now Oprah wants to give back. I say, “shame on you Linda Stasi.”

People groups who have never experienced the agony of a separate group lack the ability to empathize with the group that has experienced the suffering. In addition if the group that lacks empathy is also of a mindset that claims racial superiority over the other group it only multiplies the lack of understanding.

The most egregious error Linda Stasi made in her statements intended to bash Oprah went like this, “Honest, I understand how you feel about going to Africa and giving back. But in reality, none of our ancestors came here voluntarily.” What nonsense? How much more stupid a statement could someone make? Ms. Stasi claims her grandfather came over here on a ship after he and his dwarf brother sold enough rocks in Italy to buy passage. I don’t care if he came over on a tramp steamer. Her grandfather didn’t come over here in the hold of a ship shackled in chains in conditions so deplorable that many of the Africans in chains died during the middle passage. Our ancestors didn’t come through Ellis Island like yours Ms. Stasi. Many of the Africans who came over during the Middle Passage suffered such deplorable conditions that they committed suicide by jumping over board when they found the chance. How many passengers waiting to arrive on Ellis Island jumped over board Ms. Stasi? Do you even know what the Middle Passage is? Ms. Stasi, you claim to be able to have the ability to give Oprah a course on common sense when you lack it yourself.

Oprah did a wonderful thing and this attempt to make it less than what it really is smacks of racism. I pray more successful African Americans find themselves in a position to give back to the continent that our ancestors were stolen from. The world is a small place. What happens on the other side of the world effects us all. Anyone with common sense will realize this.