This condescending paragraph brought to you by Kitty Kelley...

So offensive to a "little Oprah homily" like myself:

"Yet Oprah's little homilies touched her audiences and reflected their own spiritual quest. As she evolved from a child of Old Testament preachers into a New Age theorist who loosely defined God as a vague force of the universe, she gave her viewers what she called "a spiritual reawakening," so that they could all, in her words, "live your best life." That phrase became such an Oprah mantra that she had the four words trademarked by Harpo, Inc, as her own. She led Live Your Best Life seminars across the country, charging as much as $185 per person, and attracted thousands of women. She passed out Live Your Best Life journals and encouraged everyone to write their aspirations in order to realize them. She distributed Live Your Best Life gift bags filled with scented candles and tea bags. She preached like an old-fashioned Baptist minister, but her Live Your Best Life sermons did not contain fire and brimstone. Instead, she offered huggy, feel-good messages about "living in the present moment" and "following your dream" and "listening to the voice," which, she promised, would lead you to "live your best life." And to the hordes of paying participants who wrote down every word she said in their Live Your Best Life notebooks, there was no better proof of this than Oprah herself." (Page 224)

Bias? There's no Bias.

I understand that I am biased, having begun my teachings with (read started watching) Oprah in middle school, taping every episode in high-school and watching on the weekends, scheduling classes in college around The Oprah Winfrey show at 4pm, later recording on dvd-r every episode of the 21st and 22nd seasons...and I love O. I acknowledge that my obsession and true belief that Oprah is a deity.

But I'm sorry, Kitty Kelley obviously has some major bias towards Oprah. This book is not just an overview of her life but a distorted probe into people's perceptions and recollections of Oprah. Kitty Kelley has an agenda: Make Oprah Look Bad. Nothing is more evident of this than the photo centerfold of miscellaneous Oprah photos entitled "Oprah Through the Years", aka the ugliest photos taken of Oprah every year (click to enlarge).


Note the facial expressions in each photo and Kitty Kelley's apparent inability in finding a normal photo where Oprah has a nice smile...really Kitty should be ashamed for putting those photos for years 1987, 1992, 1993, 2006 and 2008 (seriously, who would look good at that angle??).

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.

It's Time to Choose Sides.

I recently received a copy of Kitty Kelley’s “tell-all biography” Oprah for my birthday. Actually, I received two copies from separate friends for my birthday if that tells you how notorious my obsession with Oprah. However, I have been holding off, in protest, from opening the book for several months due to Oprah’s disapproval of this “so-called biography” and reports of fabrications and exaggerations. However I finally opened it, and after ranting and raving to friends, family, black women on Chicago Transit, and anyone else who will listen about how Kitty Kelley completely mischaracterizes Mama O, I have created this forum to post my rants. Enjoy.