On Wednesday, a letter was printed in The Post that caught the attention of several of my friends and me. It discussed Fridays Live, a local student-produced sketch comedy show which includes sketches similar to the apparently racist antics popular in Saturday Night Live. The sketch in question is one starring Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham. Allen Henry played Stedman and Margie Pandora, a talented actress who has the apparent disposition of being Caucasian, portrayed Oprah.
We've all seen Oprah Winfrey's show. We know how excited she gets when she gives away large prizes to the members of her audience. Debra Wilson, an African-American actress from MADtv has often characterized Oprah Winfrey in the same way as Pandora portrayed Winfrey on Fridays Live.
In no way was the sketch making a comment on African-American culture. Rather, it only provided commentary on the antics of Oprah Winfrey herself. If this is the case, then why is it such a big deal whether or not the actress impersonating Oprah is black or white?
Sydney Epps, the author of the letter that appeared in The Post on Wednesday, compared the show with Amos 'n Andy. She gave a very good explanation of that show, and in truth it was very degrading to black culture. I, however, do not see how Fridays Live can possibly relate to Amos 'n Andy when the alleged black-face did not look over-characterized, and in no way was the transformation used to comment on the black race, but only Oprah herself. I agree with Epps in that there isn't a representative dedication to minorities in local newspapers. I do not agree, however, that the way to create this coverage is to slanderously cut a local TV show that is doing nothing harmful in making people laugh at Oprah.
I would also like to point out that somehow a harmless skit where a white woman portrays a black woman is taboo while it is perfectly fine for black students to dress up as the Ku Klux Klan, a prominent white supremacist organization, and walk around with lynches to place around the heads of white people during the Athens Halloween block party two years ago. That was a racist event I witnessed myself, but I never saw anything about it reported in The Post.
What I'm getting at here is that if we want to get past racism, as Epps claims that she does, we need to stop fretting over the little things and start looking at the bigger picture. Many of the Fridays Live cast and crew are very upset about the allegations of racism. Never in all my experience with Fridays Live have I ever felt an honest sentiment of racism among the group. I think in the future Epps should pay a little more attention to linking her allegations with the facts.
Ty Carnelison is a junior studying music production and philosophy.
4 Opinion
Letter to the Editor
