While I am no fan of Oprah or her as a candidate for The Presidency . . . taking that comment out of context reflects nothing accurately.
Her . . . very poorly articulated . . . intent was that some folks will never change and that only when they folks who hold the beliefs die with the beliefs begin to extinguish.
The caliber of folks we are catapulting to public office should be a fair warning of times ahead . . . .
I'm waiting for Al Franken to come storming back on the scene . . . .
Poorly articulated? Yes. Similar comments about the Irish problem were made by much better writers. Smarter, too. The proposal was to take away the children so they wouldn't learn the hatred. Racism is passed on from generation to generation.
The people advocating the current trendy progressive-socialist sentiments are not anti-racial...they are in fact the worst kind of racists. NOT seeing the world in terms of the progressive-liberal-neo-Marxist racial classist world view is being non racist. These people are the highest order of hypocritical scum. Using a weak form of reverse psychology to justify terrible ideas and taunting the opposition is hardly any kind of high ground or any step forward.
In short, they suck and their devout followers are legions of idiots in my view.
No doubt her comment was out of context. I'm not sure what context makes a segment of our population die OK. It would be fun to watch if Trump were to claim that a segment of our population just needs to age-out to achieve a better nation. Heads would explode, regardless of the context.
Swift is one of the original "science fiction" writers to use imaginary lands to lampoon politicians and government. It was "adventure fiction" back when maps still had blank spaces marked "here there be dragons" & Eldorado and Shangri La were possible just beyond the known. ( Russian science fiction political stories were often set on dystopian Mars colonies etc. To avoid criticism of The Holy State )
Was Swift serious? As a crutch. But not stupid enough to think that solution to passed down hatred was actually possible. Hence, satire.
Baby eating cannibalism was suggested too. Biting satire, that.
Sifo, in context, Oprah is correct. Not until folk like Bill Clinton, who proudly campaigned for Governor in front of a Confederate flag, and spoke lovingly about a dead Klansman at the funeral, pass away, will their racism be gone.
Ditto Barack Obama, who learned racism by a different path, his racism will live on as long as he does.
Does this mean Oprah wants Bill & Barry to die? NO! It means she sees that until they do, their racism will live on. Which is true.
The Irish children comment by Swift went further than Oprah, in that he saw that until you stopped the parents from infecting their children with hate, the hate would live on. ( the Irish problem is a religious war, not a racist one, but hate is hate )
In context I agree with Oprah on that one point. And disagree with her, because Swift was also right. Just letting the old haters die isn't enough. What is enough? Let me know when you figure it out.
Taking the kids isn't an acceptable idea in a free culture.... but it's been done. See Canada and the Native children taken to be educated. China and other Marxist countries take the kids for re-education too....
She's clearly aligned with the trendy, political left. Their tactics revolve around disdain, contempt, and multi-faceted, coordinated attacks on their opposition. Anyone that disagrees with them is labeled some and such kind of bad person. Hardly the stuff of unicorns and rainbows.
As I said, she's no better than those she claims moral superiority over.
My wife and I went to grade, middle and high school with the person who posted this... apparently her husband has special needs or is mentally impaired in some way.
I've watched with some interest as my grandkids attend schools that are highly integrated.
They are brilliant kids and pretty much just assume that the racial and ethic composition of their world reflects the world as a whole.
They see their friends as . . well, just "friends" . . not "Asian", "Hispanic", Black" or whatever the label so many of us feel compelled, by training, convention and habit, to attach.
Somehow... I'm pretty sure the Clintons, and Obamas are not the people O has in mind when talking about needing to die. Rick_a nails it...
She's clearly aligned with the trendy, political left. Their tactics revolve around disdain, contempt, and multi-faceted, coordinated attacks on their opposition. Anyone that disagrees with them is labeled some and such kind of bad person. Hardly the stuff of unicorns and rainbows.
As I said, she's no better than those she claims moral superiority over.