This is so so unfair. I need to read about the details before I go off.

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Oprahcadabra Won’t Make It Disappear

By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 11, 2007; M01

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At last it seems that there is a problem too big even for Oprah.

The fairy godmother to overwhelmed mothers, struggling authors, do-gooder gadflies and striving young people was brought to tears by recent allegations of abuse at her girls’ boarding school in South Africa. Winfrey, who had been elevated to mythic stature by her fans, is proved to be mortal. Even she cannot solve every problem with tough love, a big check and an empathetic hug.

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After the abuse allegations became public, the talk show host and philanthropist responded swiftly with apologies to the girls’ parents, the start of an investigation and a promise to do better. Winfrey did not hide behind the fact that she isn’t involved in the day-to-day operations of the school. That didn’t matter, she said, “the buck always stops with me.”

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There is little doubt that Winfrey will see this through. And she already has made it plain that these problems will not stall the dream that she had for the students and the hopes that the students had for themselves.

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But the intrusion of such unsavory accusations into the sparkling, anything-is-possible world of Winfrey feels like we’re just discovering the truth about Santa Claus.

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People knew Winfrey was not perfect, that not everything she touched turned to gold. Until now, there just didn’t seem to be any substantial proof of that reality.

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With the mere laying on of hands — or a little sticker that says “Oprah’s Book Club” — she could transform an unknown writer into a best-selling author. She could take the drawling psychologist Phil McGraw and build an empire in which mother wit is held up like pearls of high-priced wisdom. She has launched little-known designers into moguldom by putting a T-shirt or a tunic in front of her audience and declaring: “I love this.”

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Make no mistake about the mythology of Winfrey. She long ago ceased being simply a philanthropist. There are plenty of wealthy folks who aim to do good in this world. But none has her mystique. Consider computer billionaire Bill Gates. He’s trying to eradicate malaria . . . around the world. And that’s just one of his goals. But he doesn’t have anything close to Winfrey’s aura. He made his fortune through software, and there are few things as cold as that. Winfrey made her money by peddling empathy. She is a best girlfriend on an international scale. She will provide a sympathetic ear, but she will also give hard counsel when necessary. And she not only dispenses advice, she gives away stuff. The annual show in which she reveals her “favorite things” is like Christmas for the members of the audience who go home weighed down with swag.

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She is a celebrity who ought to give lessons in the art of being famous. She can acknowledge her stature and good fortune without alienating her less well-to-do audiences. She understands that it’s not another person’s money that puts someone off, it’s the hubris, condescension and selfishness.

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Winfrey has come to be more than just a popular talk show host, magazine editor and influential philanthropist. And it has not happened by accident. She has been quick to define herself as representative of some larger purpose, speaking about her business plan through the lens of spirituality and a core belief in the righteousness of the American dream.

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Winfrey is surrounded by projects, clubs and outreach programs that underscore her mythic stature. Her charity foundation is called Oprah’s Angel Network. She named her Montecito, Calif., estate, where she hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama, the Promised Land. And she is quick to introduce a new recipe, a new medical test, a new book, an upcoming “Oprah” show, as something that will “change your life.” Other talk show hosts are trying to entertain or inform their audiences. Winfrey wants them to have a come-to-Jesus moment.

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Do not cross this kindly archangel. Texas cattlemen practically had a coronary when she expressed her distaste for hamburgers, thanks to mad cow disease. They sued Winfrey for defamation. They lost.

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Winfrey showed up after hours at the Hermès flagship store in Paris. She wanted to shop. An employee wouldn’t let Winfrey in and Hermès later had to apologize publicly.

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Author James Frey went on Winfrey’s talk show and lied about how much of his book “A Million Little Pieces” was fact and how much was fiction. When the truth came out, Frey returned to the scene of the crime and bore the brunt of Winfrey’s wrath. He was in her cross hairs for an hour. It was horrific. It was like witnessing Lucifer being cast out of Paradise.

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Winfrey has her detractors, people who long ago became disenchanted with or aggravated by the Oprah-centric nature of her show and magazine. But the truth is that Winfrey has managed to sustain a high level of fame and influence without the corresponding level of cynicism that typically accompanies such success.

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Winfrey constructed an adult version of a fairy tale and filled it with a cast of characters — Dr. Phil, Dr. Robin, Dr. Oz — who each teach a different life lesson. Use common sense. Be emotionally available. Eat well and exercise. It’s not so much that they’re dispensing their own advice; they’re participating in Winfrey’s story line.

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All things are possible. Good things happen to those who try hard. Evil, should it dare to intrude, is cast out by one flick of Winfrey’s hand. But abuse is complicated. Its effects endure. And perpetrators require more than a stern talking to. No one knows that better than Winfrey herself, who has talked about the abuse she endured as a child.

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If the allegations are true, it would mean that she couldn’t protect her students from an evil she knows too well — an evil she thought she had banished.

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Reality bashed in the door to Winfrey World and it’ll be hard to push it back out.

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ATTENTION RAPPERS:  If you are over the age of 28, please consider changing your stage name.

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Snoop Dog = Cordozar Calvin Broadus, Jr. born October 20, 1971 ..

Ice T = Tracy Marrow born February 16, 1958   (jeeeeezus, the man will be 50 years old in 4 months!) 

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Master P = Percy Robert Miller born April 29, 1967 

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Ice Cube = O’Shea Jackson born June 15, 1969 

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Busta Rhymes = Trevor Smith born on May 20, 1972 

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Too Short = Todd Anthony Shaw (born April 28, 1966

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DMX = Earl Simmons born on December 18, 1970

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The Game = Jayceon Terrell Taylor born November 29, 1979  (and can we stop with the weird ass spellings? C’mon………it’s Jason for fucks sake!)

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Timbaland = Timothy Z. Mosley born March 10, 1971

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Twista = Cavalier Terrell Mitchell, born on November 27, 1973

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I could be here for days if time allowed but since it doesn’t, I’ll finish with this: We’ll give you a pass cuz we know that in your line of business, you have to grab peoples attention with something hip and catchy.  But now that you’ve gotten our attention, please stop the coonin’..

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And while you’re at it, stop lying about your age. Jay-Z, no one is buying into the ‘38 years old’ bit anymore.  We all know your stank ass is 52…..at least. That’s a bitch move meant for aging, no talent starlets that want to hang on to what little fame they have left.  

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It is not just a handful of genetically gifted young women who are hurt by this exclusion. Vast numbers of consumers draw their information about fashion and identity from runways, along with cues about what, at any given moment, the culture decrees are the new contours of beauty and style.

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And therein lies the problem.  Fashion media is way too fucking fickle for ANYONE to look to for a definition of beauty, much less identity.

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Black folks are trend setters and set the standard for what is cool; always have been, always will be.  Then other people come along and steal our ideas and market them  to the masses, leaving us scratching our heads trying to figure out how the culture got raped……..AGAIN.   It’s not by accident that you can find someone in the furthest corner of Asia wearing their pants sagging below their ass and listening to 50 but Unitees fashion and Rakim can’t catch a deal.

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Fuck commercial, cookie cutter fashion.  We need to focus on how to market our ideas, encourage black enterprise, and study really really hard to make sure we know what to do with the money when it starts rolling in. 

Runways Fade to White

By GUY TREBAY

Published: October 14, 2007

If there is one area where the lessons of chromatic and racial diversity have gone largely unheeded, it is fashion.

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You know…..I had this whole rant planned for pointing out Terry McMillan’s hypocrisy. But the truth of the matter is, I don’t have it in me.  Really, I don’t.  Below is an open letter she wrote to publishers.  The basic gist of it is this; she’s pissed that folks like AJ and Karrine Steffans are getting published. 

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 I’m going to go out on limb and assume that the folks reading this are not a part of the blind sheep brigade that mulls around our community.  So when you bottom line it, I’m preaching to the choir.  There’s no need for me to mention how Terry went all over creation and told anyone who would listen that she married a fag because sometimes ……..the jokes just write themselves. ....

Terry McMillan’s open letter to Karen Hunter and Simon Schuster reps.

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The three of you 1.karen@karenhunterpublishing.com, 2.louise.burke@simonandschuster.com, 3.carolyn.reidy@simonandschuster.com along with the other publishing houses who have been kind enough to add “special” urban/ghetto imprints are all about to see a major shift in your ongoing and relentless publication of exploitative, destructive, racist, egregious, sexist, base, tacky, poorly-written, unedited, degrading books.  Like a number of Black bookstores who are starting to refuse to sell this trash, I, along with other Black literary organizations, supporters, book clubs as well  as writers are about to make our opinions known, to aid in making clear to the public just how demeaning these books are and what it means to our community. It is sad that it took years of selling trashy sexually-driven as well as tell-alls before so-called black writers were ever allowed in the Big Publishing Houses’s Little Rooms enough to FINALLY get our own imprints..

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Why hasn’t Walter Mosley or Edwidge Dandicat or Barak Obama or Terry McMillan or Jamaica Kincaid among others ever offered our very own imprints, I wonder?I’ve heard that Simon & Schuster has even gotten some of its authors out of  jail just to go on a book tour. Karen, you should be ashamed of yourself, but like Jonathan, I can tell that you (along with your sister-in-law Wendy Williams) are all cut from the same cloth.  You care nothing about pride as a Black woman or you wouldn’t align yourself or even put your name on some of the ugliest words and stories possible.  You are an embarrassment and for someone going around bragging about being a Pulitizer Prize winner (which I understand you are not, that you were associated with other writers at the Daily News who actually deserved it) you should be ashamed of yourself for relying on such a prestigious literary prize to co-write some of the despicable and outrageously base books that you can.  ...I find it sad indeed when a Black woman of your so-called reputation was willing to help my ex-husband write a tell-all describing “the juicy details” about our so-called relationship.  You know he is a liar and a thief and that he played me and you didn’t care.  As long as you got paid, and this is precisely why no one (last week I understand according to Book Scan a whopping 600 copies had sold nationwide, and only 87 on the entire west coast) is buying it.  Karinne “Superhead’s” book is tanking just like Balancing Act, and RJ’s book is not going to fly either.This is the beginning of a brand new trend, so be prepared for it.  Years ago white folks bought us and worked us as slaves.  You’re doing the same exact thing.  The only problem is that back then we didn’t go willingly.  Malcolm X and Dr. King and Rosa Parks, among others, didn’t fight for us to get to This, and this is precisely why you are beginning to see a lack of support for these disgusting books..

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So Karen Hunter, you can put your name on them if you want to, and you along with Louise and Carolyn have already been reading on Black Voices (among others) what they have to say about Simon & Schuster (but they’re referring to all of the Houses with these ghetto imprints) among other sites, how people are getting fed up with these books, even the “reluctant readers” are bored with who’s having sex with whom and degrading tell-alls that show black people in a negative and stereotypical light, have no respect for these type of books, for you Karen Hunter (“run the other way when you see her name”) and you have already seen the beginning of downward spiral in your sales department, I’m sure.  It’s going to continue, because with all things exploitative, the reign always comes to a halt.Jonathan’s reign of terror is.  And the publishing industry’s exploitative role in all of this is too.  And Karen, there are only so many scandals out there, and people are getting tired of reading about others’ sex lives.  Why don’t you write about yours.  Give ‘em something to talk about.....

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Sincerely,

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Terry McMillan

If the founders had wanted a dictatorship by the minority we would not have a Senate (or an electoral college but that’s another story). We would simply pass laws based on the amount of people in any given area. In this country, the majority holds the lions share of power but the minority rights are supposed to be protected as well.

Getting back to my original point. Because my friends are in the Majority, they are blinded to the discrimination that is hidden in plain site in this country. It is fair for minority groups to have “dicriminatory” organizations because the majority (Whites) already have them as well. Where are they? To find them you have to understand the code. Black History Month reversed to White History Month can be decoded to History. Black Congressional Caucus -> White Congressional Congress == Majority of Congress. Black Enterprise Magazine -> White Enterprise Magazine == Money Magazine. And so on. Just remove the “White” prefix and you will see that there is indeed an large number of “majority” organizations and institutions. I hope this clears it up for everyone.

Sex is not to be associated with any emotion. Period. Sex does not mean a) the person you’re fucking is in love with you (regardless of what they scream out) b) the person cares about you. c) the person wants to see you again.

The simple rule I try to follow is this: do I want something more than a long, intense nut? If the answer is yes, I’m going to have to have a talk with this potential partner BEFORE we get nekked. Now, when you indulge in the freak side, there’s a simple etiquette that should be followed. It’s called discretion. Just because we indulge, that doesn’t mean we have to tell everyone who will listen about our adventures. And if you’re doing it just so you have a story to tell, STOP IT.

If you enjoy being fisted by someone wearing a lab coat, happy orgasm to you! If you’re obsessed with midget porn, happy stroking! If you want to be the recipient in a bukkake party, with brothas of all shapes, sizes, and colors while someone licks between your legs, and your hands are busy stroking a clit, and someone is lightly twisting your nipples………..sorry, having a moment, but you get the idea.

In comes Karrine Steffans. She fucked ½ of Hollywood and wrote a book about it. Then she fucked the other half and released a new book this month. Great. Just great.

So now, she’s spilling all the secrets. And I don’t mean secrets of “who” but secrets of what people like to do in the bedroom. Karrine has accused rappers and radio personalities of being gay or bi. She wrote about giving a certain white, well respected actor an enema. She’s telling it all. Why should I care? I mean, it’s not my pussy right? Well, let me tell you why I care. I care because our community is quick to use one persons irresponsibility as a blanket excuse for what is wrong within the community. People immediately revert back to talk of “needing jesus” in life. Which invariably leads to talk about how sex is “supposed” to be. You know, the married kind, where you have sex on Saturday nights after the kids have been put to bed (and the man is on top). People (in general) do not respond well to change. From birth control to homosexuality, people are still hung up on semantics. Change and new ideas need to be brought about slowly.  Why is there so much faith placed on dogma? Because people know that the minute the planet realizes that sex and people interaction are mutually exclusive, it is no longer effective as a weapon. You can’t string someone along with sex if they can get it however and whenever they want.

Karrine fucked up on a bunch of levels. First, she was foolish to believe that her pussy and dick sucking skills would bring her fame. The truth is there are a lot of people out there with great pussy, dick, sucking, and licking skills…….what made her popular was the fact that she did it so easily.

Second, she thought she could work the “I made mistakes and I want to keep other young black girls from making the same mistakes” approach and get famous that way.  News Flash: young black women do not aspire to be whores.

We gave her a collective pass after the first book and she writes another? We tried to get rid of the “whore” label for her by giving her a collective passs and she picked that label right back up and attached it to her t-shirt with a second book. 

When Karrine books were published, the freak worlds collective groan was loud enough to be heard in Kerala, India. This was too much information for the community to handle. And what do we do when we don’t understand something? We throw rocks at it. Just about every black woman in America started the chorus of ……

“Ewwww she’s a nasty hoe”

“See? It’s women like her that I can’t get a man, I mean, why commit to me when they can have her nasty ass for free?”

“This is why men don’t respect women”

You know the routine. Instead of seeing this for the isolated circus that it is, people use this as an excuse for what is wrong within our community. There is no shame in my freakdom, really, there isn’t. But I have enough sense to understand that not everyone is going to agree with my lifestyle and what I like to do in the bedroom. And when you bottom line it: what I do, in my own bedroom, with another consenting adult isn’t any other their business anyway.

So I keep my mouth shut. Not out of shame or guilt either. I keep my mouth shut because I don’t feel the need to explain my desire for facials to someone who is not going to be providing that service.

Karrine, have a seat and shut the fuck up.

PS: she’s not fooling anybody Karrine Steffans = Karen Stevens.

How else do you explain his behavior this year? He spent the early part of the year on radio and television defending ignorant rappers.Russell gave these self-serving, poor product producing, no talent having hacks a pass and wanted us to do the same. He went as far as telling an audience (on Oprah Winfreys show) to think of them as “poets”.

See? This is what happens when you start believing your own hype.

Remember those old skool jams? Russell wasn’t rhyming on those cuts. Remember when UTFO and ‘em started rockin the bubble goose?That wasn’t a Russell creation. So who the fuck is Russell Simmons anyway? Think about that for a second. This man does not have a legitimate piece of hip-hop and yet he is the most recognizable face (in terms of success) attached to it.

Now, before anyone starts talking shit, let me explain to you why Russell (and others ) are not as powerful as we think. Do you know who the following people are? William Socolov, Arthur Russell (Sleeping Bag Records), Rick Rubin (Def Jam Recordings), Steve Plotniki and Corey Robbins (Profile Records), Jerry Allen (BDP Records), Tom Silverman (Tommy Boy Records), Lyor Cohen, and Percy Miller. These are the people behind the scenes that make the decisions. Guess how many are black? One. Percy Miller AKA Master P. I don’t like Master P either but I cant front, he is the ONLY brotha in the business that owns 100% of his masters and the first rapper to be worth over $100 million. If you want to learn about business, follow this cat. Cuz for all the posing, P-Shitty, Jay-Z, and Suge Knight do for the cameras, when you bottom line it: they are bought and paid for. But I digress. A face is needed to convince the public that rap is a credible industry that can bring great success. Enter Russell. But do some diggin people! Who really owns Def Jam? Who owns Phat Farms? If you blurted out Russell, go to the back of the class.

I’m getting way off topic so let me get to my point. Whenever something that is so blatantly wrong happens involving black folks, white folks go scrambling to find someone black to place in front of the camera to say “no, it’s all a misunderstanding”. Russell Simmons has become the ‘go to’ guy. Then, Russell gets the nerve to say he wants to ban all rappers from using the words 1. nigga 2. bitch 3. ho. Aint that some shit? Apparently the man does not see the irony in complaining about something he not only helped create but defended a few months earlier. I don’t advocate the use of the words and they do need to go away……..however my immediate response to this situation was more of a finger pointing blame. Here it is:

You want 3?

Too late punk

Damage already done

You created this

So get ready…..

Eat your words

Swallow your pride

Be more humble

Say you’re sorry

Take your lumps

You want change?

Keep it moving

Walk the walk

Do unto others

Toss the bling

Shun the idiocy

Encourage conscious flows

Skool the fools

Cross your fingers

Pray it works

If it doesn’t

We’re all fucked

I repeat, Russell Simmons is an agent, and so was Tookie.