Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry
Can Women of Color Ever Be Good Enough?
Oprah and Halle can never seem to get it right; they're always disappointing the black community. The question is: Why?
All black people are familiar with the idea of having to work twice as hard as their white counterparts to make a way. However, it seems that the equation must be at least doubled again for women of color.
Despite the pervasive gender and racial inequalities that pervade black women’s lives, making them eight times more likely to go to jail than their white counterparts. 25% of all black women live in poverty, almost three times more than white women, and black women also earn the lowest wages relative to their level of education. Black women are also less likely to receive healthcare and more likely to get it late. Yet black women keep on striving and thriving.
Negative images and ideologies of black women still parade the airways, depicting them as welfare queens, hos (Imus was far from original) and matriarchal bitches, who when they don’t have money are gold diggers and when they’ve earned their own money are too ambitious and not feminine enough. The double standards are endless and leave women of color between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
Fortunately, there are many women of color who transcend other people’s ideologies; charting their own revolutionary paths and creating a sense of self that is valuable, lovable, and enriching. Some of these women we shall never know; and maybe they are the fortunate ones if we can judge by the way the success stories of women of color are so often vilified.
Oprah Winfrey is the most successful woman of all time. She owns and presents the highest ranked talk show of all time, she inspired an entire anti-intellectual nation to read, she is the only black billionaire and she is the most philanthropic African American of all time. She has put the nation’s social problems on the map and has revolutionized self-help.
Likewise Halle Berry is the “best we have” to use Vivian Stringer’s words. She is an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Academy Award winning actress. She’s the first and only black actress to win an Oscar for Best Actress, and she has won a laundry list of Black Reel and Black Movie awards. She frequently appears in listings of the sexiest women in the world. She has survived domestic violence and personal trauma and still come out on top.
So why aren’t we satisfied with these women’s contribution to our lives and this world? Why is Oprah dubbed a mammy and Halle the tragic mulatto? Why are they condemned for their alleged lack of loyalty to the black community? What will it take to satisfy us?
Neither of these women is perfect, and we might argue that their mistakes have more impact because they’re famous. But celebrities are not gods. And maybe we don’t agree with every choice Oprah or Halle ever made professionally, but are there any celebrities for whom we could? And if so, how come they do not receive the wrath of public opinion these amazing women do?
It is not that we don’t have the right to evaluate the behavior of famous people or anyone else, but next time some words of judgment come to mind about successful women of color, please ask yourself two questions: 1) Could I have walked a mile in their shoes? 2) Does my contribution to the enrichment of the world surpass theirs? If the answer to either or both of these questions is no, your time might be better spent planning what great thing you are going to do today, rather than wasting time criticizing others.
