Nooo-prah!

As you must have heard by now, the most influential woman of the past quarter century announced her resignation last week. That's right, I'm talking about Oprah. That woman is an institution. Oprah's been on TV nearly the whole time the Bitch, please betches have been alive. When she ends her show in 2011 after 25 years on the air, we will in fact be 25-years-old. This could be quite the quarterlife crisis.

Alright, alright. It's not that serious. But the loss of Oprah from network TV is equivalent to losing your fabulous, rich aunt who gives good advice and has awesome connections. This morning, annoying conservative Chicago shock jock Mancow commented that once Oprah leaves the air, "women everywhere will be able to think for themselves again." Haha, very funny. There was a time in high school when I felt all self-superior (imagine that) and thought that I was above all the Oprah hype. I thought that she was just a loud middle-aged woman with an amazing gift of persuasion.

Now that I'm older I have to give the woman props; she is a successful, powerful woman of color. She is a shrewd businesswoman. She's generous. And she's damn smart.

In a matter of years, she became the Empress of the Media. Everything she touches turns to gold. Granted, she's run into some issues with her schools in Africa. She's working on it though; we shouldn't expect perfection from her every time.

And sure, over the years her name dropping got really annoying. But after a quarter century of rolling with movers and shakers, who can blame her for telling stories about her personal life, even if these stories just so happen to mention a lot of famous people.

She still does some of the best interviews out there. With her 'girlfriend' style, she's someone who puts guests and audiences at ease. She was relatable. She went through some shit before she got famous. And she had her struggles with weight. She was human; she didn't look or sound like the other mono-tone afternoon TV personalities.

She's accomplished a lot over the years. After Sesame Street, I'd say the Oprah Show contributed the most to my educational development. She's gotten Americans to expand their minds and expand their frames of reference. Dare I say it, she makes us care about the issues she champions.

And think on this: without Oprah, the next generation of girls will grow up thinking that the ridiculous charade of a talk show that is the Tyra Banks Show is acceptable TV.

I Swear to Bob, Tyra

Will Tyra ever learn? From her social experiments to this, having her models on Top Model take on new racial identities... she's just mucking things up. I know she thinks she's making a difference but, I wish one of her producers would be real with her and let her know that she's just being offensive. In light of all the disturbing highly-publicized blackface incidents of late, you'd have thought she'd nixed this idea for a photo shoot.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/tv.accesshollywood.com/americas-next-top-model-creates-stir-after-biracial-photo-shoot-20091029

The Wack-est Name Ever

Read this story. It will make you feel good:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/40874017.html

Poor woman. This Beloit, Wisc. native (of course) was born with the legal name Marijuana Pepsi. It's like the fates played a cruel, cruel joke on her.

In an earlier posting, Cris posted about how ridiculous some adjective Malu names can come off sounding to those who aren't Malu. And maybe to those who are too. But honestly, in comparison to the name Marijuana, nobody should feel ashamed to wear a name tag that reads Shiny, Pinky, or Gifty.

Now, Marijuana has some balls. I love that she didn't try to make her name appear more proper by changing her name to Mary Jane. I mean, this woman refused to compromise. Because the principle of the matter is, no one should be judged by their name. People with non-typical names are always going to be judged by society but, that doesn't mean it's right.

Now even though this article is all about exploiting her name, there's redemption in the fact that this woman didn't allow her name to hold her back. I can't count the number of times I've had to get into conversations over ethnic names. Or how many times I've been told that ethnic (usually "black") names can hold a person back in life. Keep them from getting jobs, promotions, etc. Because I read this article on the Chicago Tribune site, I was saddened to see that she was black when I got to the original article. I'm not saying that there's a correlation between her name and her race. That's just a coincidence that has resulted in a dual-burden for her advancement.

I know a lot of Indian people in my parents' generation who've taken on Caucasian-sounding names because they don't believe they can succeed in the business world with an unpronounceable name. One couple I know now goes by Ken and Barbie. And also, look about Bobby Jindal. I know he converted but did he really need to get rid of his Indian name?

This woman rose above arguably the worst name ever. She attended institutes of higher learning. She has a respectable job. Tyra Banks had a show a while back on which she asserted that people with over-the-top non-white-sounding names would be unlikely candidates for a job. Way to be stereotypical. All I can say is, in your face Tyra!