davidf

'I saw nothing in the conduct of Oprah to call it disgusting and racist. What is your reason for saying so?

Oprah refused any air time to Sarah Palin simply because she unashamedly backed Obama because he was African/ American. If you are going to pretend to run a neutral show you should not be so bias about your bias/racism. Could you imagine the outcry if the boot was on the other foot.

In saying that I am pleased that an African/American has been elected. Now Obama will need to do a bit more than just be able to paint himself as the good guy and Bush/McCain as the devils. That is the simple way many of our posters on OLO seem to view things.

Dear Runner,

I agree that it was unfair to give one candidate broadcast time ahead of another. However, she may have backed Obama for other reasons than colour. I voted for Obama because I thought he was by far the better candidate. Oprah may have done so for the same reason.

Since when, runner?

>>If you are going to pretend to run a neutral show you should not be so bias about your bias/racism. Could you imagine the outcry if the boot was on the other foot<<

Since when was the Oprah show regarded as "neutral"?

She is a flagrant promoter of anything that takes her fancy - books, shows, people.

The idea that every time she plugs the "Oprah's book of the month" she should provide equal time to every other published book is laughable. Or that every time Tom Cruise gets to jump on her couch, she should invite Nicole Kidman to get the other side of the story.

Her audience expects her to deliver judgments. It's what they pay her to do. If you want balance, go to a news channel. Like CNN. Or the "fair and balanced" Fox News. Tee hee.

Or, better still, make up your own mind.

I think it's great that Obama made it through. Takes race right out of the equation. Just as if Hillary had made it, gender would now be a non-issue. Or if McCain had succeeded, age and health would no longer be seen as impediments.

'S'all good.

Come to think JFK was accused of bias when he appointed Bobby as attorney-general. He denied bias saying that Bobby was the best qualified brother.

Last year the Cherokee nation, made a decision that their compensation monies ($ for stolen children: acquired through the United Nations), would not be paid to a certain group whom were identifying as being either "white" or "Black" in front of their Cherokee identification. Perhaps the Cherokee were making a point about indigenous identification being stronger and more important than skin colour identification, or perhaps they were prejudiced against a group of people whom were intermarried with other races; we do not know. Neither am I sure about whether Barak Obama, was one among those black US Congress Senators, whom spoke out against the Cherokee, accusing them of racism, and supporting the colour-based identification of a few folk of Cherokee ancestry. But what I am sure about, is that issues about the colour of our skin, are most often issues which have been caused by false arguments, and so as to distract everybody from what the real issues are.

I heard that in facebook a few user groups started up within hours of Obama's victory, calling for his impeachment. Best let the racist idiots show themselves up like that, rather than have their hatred festering into showing off with guns.

But as for the African-American programming on Australian television, I really don't think it is being put on with African immigrants and refugees settlement process in mind, but that it just happens to be the best of what Australian television stations can buy from America.

Part of the difficulty of even discussing racial issues, and the whole matter of negative racial discrimination, is that the white biased racists who imply that black skin is less intelligent, or less calculating, (and who also imply that whites are less good at hard labour), tend to also set traps for black folk to fall into, in which they are seeking to imply also, that their own racism is reciprocated, or even caused, by black dislike of whites.

How many times have white policemen, or white Howard government officials, implied that it was correct for Aboriginal Australians to regard their whiteness as faulted; but all the while, behind everybody's backs, the same white persons were thereby blaming the black folk they dealt with, as though blacks were the perpetrators of their own negative racial discrimination.

All arguments about any fact of our biology being less worthy than any other person's biology, are always wrong because our biology need always be accepted as essentially life sustaining.

My own skin is white with freckles, my hair is red (or used to be), and the co-ordination of the involuntary muscles in the lower part of my body, is akin to that normal for indigenous Australians, and unlike that present in any other entire racial group. My ancestors are English, Greek, German, and un-named in offical records. What does all that make me, if not simply me, my biological reality, combined with my hopes and dreams. I am no more or less than me, regardless of what my biology manifests in sustaining my life. We are each unique, whenever we are uniquely alive.

Culturally, I might never have learned to know my English, Greek, and German ancestry well enough, if I had not been included within indigenous culture as a teenager during the Bicentenary. But as for Barak Obama, within all the beliefs he holds to, what the total influence and effect of his skin colour has on his presidency, is far too complex an analysis for anybody but his nearest and dearest allies to figure out.