Once yOu Go Black..

So far, one of my favorite favorite allegations that Kitty Kelley writes in her book (and lets get this out of the way, anything Kitty Kelley writes in the book, whether or not she's the one who actually thinks it, is something that she's condoning enough to put it in her book and thus alleging about Oprah) one of my favorite allegations is that Oprah has died her skin to be more white:

"Look at her head shot," said Luvenia [Oprah's high school friend], pointing to the picture of Oprah in dangly earrings with peace symbols. "See how dark she is there? Big wide nose and all. Now [over three decades later] she's different. She looks like she has bleached her skin and maybe had some kind of surgery...The real Oprah is Sofia in The Color Purple. That's the real Oprah. Not the Photoshopped glamazon on the covered of her magazine who looks so light-skinned." (page 56)

I'm sorry, Kitty. Oprah has not colored her skin. Look at how light Oprah's skin is in this 25-year-old video from a Local Chicago News Broadcast with Oprah and Joel Daly on the April 12, 1984.




First of all, isn’t this clip amazing? Oprah’s subtle laugh and the repertoire with her co-anchor (PS--HER HAIR???)... she was obviously meant for greater things. Now compare her skin color there to this screen-shot from a 60 minutes interview with Oprah right before her talk-show went national more than two years later in 1986:



It's all lighting and makeup Kitty!! Puh-lease. (Have you ever seen under Oprah's eyes before makeup? Her makeup people are miracle workers, lets just say that.)

This is the Oprah skin-tone I saw her (Majesty, in the flesh, on April 23, 2010, we talked three times, she told me to stand for the rest of the audience...)

Later, Kitty easily connects Oprah's supposed skin color discontentment to the psychological evidence used in the Supreme Court decision that integrated public schools:

"Oprah's fixation with light skin is borne out by a famous psychological experiment cited in Brown v. Board of Education in which black children offered dolls of differing skin tones overwhelmingly chose to play with the white dolls." (page 56). Kitty goes on to discuss the experiment and its implication on black youth.

The fact that Kitty Kelley connects this general psychological experiment to explain a fake personal struggle of Oprah leaves me completely dumbfounded. This does not prove an Oprah-specific past incident but is a deep, internalized predisposition that one could seemingly apply to all African-Americans. The fact that Kitty Kelley mentions it in Oprah's biography, let alone connects it to Oprah supposedly bleaching her skin, is outrageous.