Oprah during race seminar: ‘Whiteness’ gives you an advantage no matter what

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Talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey said during a recent episode of her internet series that “whiteness” gives white people an advantage “no matter” what and praised a white guest for denouncing himself as racist.

“There are white people who are not as powerful as the system of white people — the caste system that’s been put in place — but they still, no matter where they are on the rung, or the ladder of success, they still have their whiteness,” Oprah said during an episode of the Oprah Conversation, entitled “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man: Part 1,” which featured former NFL player Emmanuel Acho.

“Whites have a leg up. You still have your whiteness. That’s what the term ‘white privilege’ is. It means that whiteness still gives you an advantage, no matter,” she said.

America is “run by whites,” Acho told Oprah, adding that he has warned his white friends about allowing their children to live a “white” life.

“Here’s what I told my friends with their white children,” Acho began. “Y’all live in a white cul-de-sac, in a white neighborhood, in a white city, in a white state. If you were not careful, your children will live their whole life white, and at [the ages of] 26, 27, they’ll end up being a part of the problem, because you just let them and allowed them to live a completely white, sheltered, and culture-less life.”

Acho continued: “As a black person, white people — the proverbial phrase of white people — they run America, CEOs, Fortune 500 companies, execs, ownership. They run America. Not an individual white person, but collective white people.”

“I firmly believe that if the white person is your problem, only the white person can be your solution,” he said.

Oprah also hosted a man named “Seth,” a self-described liberal who grew up in Manhattan in the 1970s, who said the “movement over the last month” has made him realize he is racist.

“You’ve become ‘woke’ during this period, and realized in that awakening that you are racist, right?” Oprah asked. “I just want to know how that happened.”

“I realized that I couldn’t be not racist,” continued Seth. “I realized that I either was a racist or an anti-racist, and I wasn’t — I’m not — an anti-racist.”

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