'Trump'-ing Oprah and Cosby

Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby are three zillionaires who reek of egocentric excesses that say more about them, rather than the purported cause de jour they are trumpeting. Maybe I'm being too hard on Oprah, but I'm certainly spot-on about Trump and Cosby.

Trump has filed for bankruptcy, twice - hardly what we should expect from someone billing himself as the biggest. the brightest and the best at everything. His golf course and real estate housing development in Palos Verdes, Ca., is embroiled in a multi-million dollar lawsuit by neighbors who have alleged property destabilizations and devaluations because of his project. Also I can never forget the full-page ad he took out in the 90s, libeling minority youths that were falsely arrested for the rape and assault of the Central Park jogger, as 'wilding animals'. After years in jail, the real perpetrator was caught, and the youths were all released, but without nary an apology from 'The Donald' who libeled them.

Cosby's corporate sponsors did not make him wildly rich without expecting a payoff somewhere down the line, and at a time and place that suits them. Apparently, now is the time for him to use his bestowed celebrity as a bully-pulpit to savage and disparage a segment of his own people. This is the ultimately selling of his soul, and once one starts down that road, there's no turning back. This explains why Cosby, despite heavy criticism, continues to spew his invectives, at and against, the defenseless 'lower classes', as he is now doing in his latest book and rounds of media interviews. He apparently values his riches more than the suffering he is causing and will continue to cause, his people to be subjected to.

Oprah has had a string of over-the-top personal investments that have turned sour. Her trumpeting of the book by Frey as her #1 book club pick, that turned out to be mostly fabricated, is just one of those that I remember recently. Another is her lavish reception for Obama at her estate in Montecito, Ca.. Well-heeled attendees were reportedly miffed and outraged that they were restricted only to the expansive lawn of the estate, and were not allowed to enter her home as a wealthy guest who paid so much money to attend, would normally expect. Now her lavish $49 million girl's academy in South Africa is in the spotlight because of alleged sexual abuse of some of the girls by a member of the staff. In this instance she has told of how personally hurt and betrayed she has felt, which leads me to believe that it is more about her feelings and ego, rather than about the feelings of the girls that have been abused.

Oprah and Cosby's brand of truth-telling' about the black community, could best be described as picking on the weakest and lowest segments of the community, for more fame, and for more profit. Cosby is now touring and hawking his book on all the major networks, where he is dutifully being given the mike to rant his dismissive venom on his own people. Of course nary a word about the 'cause and effect' of the dysfunction is given - because that would inappropriately indict the rich white boys that gave Cosby his fat book contract. It would also indict the systemic, societal racism that acts in one accord to neutralize and render ineffective, as many blacks as possible - by any means necessary. Listening to him you would think that the ills he is ranting against just happened out of thin air - like magic, with no cause other than the defective genes these 'lower classes' are born with. He is too much of a coward and bully to hold his sponsors accountable for the 'cause and effect' of their actions - plus he is not about to lose his well-paid lifestyle they have been providing over the years. Likewise Oprah would never dare confront the power structure that gives it's blessing to the system of inequality and white supremacy that is dished out to a segment of her people, by any means necessary. If you think Oprah's fortune is not conditioned on her following a prescribed program dictated by those sponsors who made her rich, you have a fool for a brain.

Some of us are apparently so stricken with celebrity worship, that we will confer credence, importance and integrity to the most inane and disingenuous rants of comedic buffoons and political sell-outs like Cosby, and increasingly, Oprah. Personally, I am not in awe of either of them, because I know their bully-pulpit is bought and paid for by their corrupt corporate sponsors, who made them rich enough to compromise whatever integrity they originally had.

It's undeniable that the corporate sponsors of Oprah and Cosby have made them disproportionately rich compared to most blacks, and even most whites - the question is why....and to what purpose?????

This same question must be asked of all who have been made rich by accepting various corporate sponsorships in the form of book deals, think-tank fellowships, speaking engagements etc., and who have also been lashing out at a defenseless segment of the black community. Their words have been a verbal lynching that encourages regressive public policies by racists in high places, who point to their words as proof of an innate, genetic dysfunction among the 'lower classes', which cannot be addressed and changed with liberal social policies and programs. Therefore many of the most needed, critical programs have been defunded or ended.

It's time to connect the dots and ask... why?????

Race or Class?

This is the question that is often asked, and the debate is on which is more important - and which needs to be focused on in pursuit of social justice for all? An increasing number of Americans are convinced that race and racism are all but gone, and should no longer be a factor when we formulate our social policies. At the same time they believe that class inequality is the new frontier and the only one worth examining and remedying.

I say that the two are inseparable, and there is most often a direct link of race to the class one is a part of. Is racism as egregious as it was during slavery and the sharecropping Jim Crow era in the south and the north? Certainly not, but race is still the kindling that begins the process towards inadequate health care, poor housing, inferior educational opportunities, discriminatory charging and prison sentencing, police profiling and excessive force, joblessness and a host of other ills. These are usually what determines the class of those affected, and although remedying class inequities are important, for a significant part of the population, race and racism should, and must be dealt with first.

If and when we muster the will and commitment to focus on ending racism as we know it, we will begin to see the uplifting of those classes that have been negatively impacted by systemic racism. This will benefit all of us who make up American society. We cannot have one without the other.