Howard Stern, thought it would be cute to “call out” Oprah Winfrey for “showing off her wealth” (article). First of all, Howard, go fuck yourself. Oprah knows damn well there are people struggling & that’s why she has charitable foundations. She can enjoy the fruits of her labor & be charitable at the damn same time. But your line of bullshit underscores another long running cultural aspect of America…white people’s need to regulate Black people’s prosperity. Too many of you have it in your minds that Black = poor and if we are too financially prosperous then a “correction” needs to be made. But the only real correction needed is for you to mind your fucking business, stop trying to regulate our pockets, and leave us the fuck alone.
There are plenty of stories of how Black people enjoy the fruits of our labor and white people want to “question” the legitimacy of how we acquired it. They feel the need to overly scrutinize our prosperity.. Hell, some gone so far as to follow their Black acquaintances to their neighborhoods to “validate” their standard of living. I lived in a neighborhood full of well-to-do Black people who had to put up with that shit. Our parents had to put up with it and we had to put up with it. Hell, I’m still putting up with it. Some mediocre dude wanted to admonish me about how “expensive” my car was & how I could’ve bought something cheaper “help” somebody with the rest the money. Like the brother who sold me the car didn’t get a commission, like my purchase didn’t add to the demand that keeps people within the supply-chain employed. Come to find out this dude was a Trustrafarian (trust fund kids who feign struggle).
But back to Howard’s bitch ass & his mediocre white male insecurities. Maybe you don’t realize this or maybe you do. But this need to regulate Black people’s prosperity used to be worse. It’s the same attitude that lead to several prosperous Black communities being subjected to racial violence at the turn of the 20th Century. The most notable of which was Black Wall Street (Greenwood District, Tulsa, Oklahoma) being burned down in 1921. Your ancestors didn’t want Black people living in their neighborhoods & told us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. But when we do just that & prosper, y’all wanna burn the shit down. What the fuck was that about, Howard? What the fuck is your problem with Black prosperity? I think you know. How about you fuck off & check your fucking bigoted attitude.