The media mogul spoke to the BBC about the racism of the past that still exists today and how no one is above it. ‘There’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs ... because he’s African American,’ she said of Obama.
Winfrey talked about race-based disrespect of Presidend Obama to the BBC: ‘There's no question about that. And it's the kind of thing no one ever says, but everybody's thinking it.’
Oprah Winfrey has never been one to hold her tongue.
That remained true when she sat down with BBC's Will Gompertz and detailed how no one is above the racism that still exists in this world today … not even the President of the United States, Barack Obama.
"There's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he's African American," she said. "There's no question about that. And it's the kind of thing no one ever says, but everybody's thinking it."
U.S. President Obama clasps hands with Oprah Winfrey during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s ‘I have a dream’ speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington August 28, 2013.
Winfrey, 59, used the example of Republican congressman Joe Wilson shouting out "you're a liar" during a 2009 speech President Obama gave.
"Remember that?" she asked Gompertz.
Oprah Winfrey was talking with the BBC to promote the film, ‘The Butler,’ when the conversation turned to history and politics.
The media mogul was promoting her movie "The Butler," which debuts in theaters in the U.K. and Ireland on Nov. 15, and naturally the conversation turned to historical references of slavery and bigotry from the past and now.
"It would be foolish to not recognize that we have evolved and that we're not still facing the same kind of terrorism against black people en masse as was displayed with the Scottsboro boys," she said drawing reference to the film "12 Years a Slave." "It's gotten better."
US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama chat with talk show host Oprah Winfrey in 2011. Winfrey told BBC that racism is still a problem. ‘There are still generations of older people who were born and breed and marinated in that prejudice and racism and they just have to die,’ she says.
Still, she remarked that there are places all over the world from Africa to Russia to the South, where she was born and raised, that people are scrutinized simply because of the color of their skin. But unlike the past there are laws in place to try and protect people from that today.
"If I'd been born five years earlier, none, not any of the benefits that I've been blessed to be successful with would have occurred," Winfrey, who was born in 1954 in Mississippi, said.
Oprah Winfrey puts it bluntly during her BBC interview, ‘It would be foolish to not recognize that we have evolved and that we're not still facing the same kind of terrorism against black people en masse as was displayed with the Scottsboro boys.’
However, she pointed out that despite the progress the underlying problems of racism are far from solved.
Movies like "The Butler" and "12 Years a Slave" don't paint a picture of the racism that existed in the past to show us that everything is great today, she said. Instead those films define the root of the problem that sadly still runs rampant in our society.
"That's where it all started, this is how far we've come, and this is how much further we need to go," she said. "Of course, the problem is not solved."
Winfrey feels that these dilemmas will remain unsolved until the deep rooted bigoted thoughts of class and race and the just cause of human indecency that comes along with it and has been taught throughout so many generations fades away.
"There are still generations of older people who were born and breed and marinated in that prejudice and racism and they just have to die," she added.
据《纽约每日新闻》网站11月15日报道，美国著名主持人奥普拉·温弗瑞接受采访时直率表示，当今世界仍然存在种族歧视，没有人能够超脱，包括美国总统奥巴马。
59岁的奥普拉从来不会保持缄默。11月15日，她的电影《白宫管家》（The Butler）在英格兰和爱尔兰首映。在宣传期间接受英国广播公司记者威尔·冈珀茨采访时，她的谈话自然转到涉及过去与现在奴隶制与偏见的历史。
她说，《白宫管家》和《为奴十二年》之类的影片并不是通过描绘过去存在的种族歧视现象 向我们证明，现在一切都很好，而是要明确说明，这些问题的根依然可悲地在我们的社会蔓生。从非洲到俄罗斯以及她出生和成长的地方，世界各地仍有一些地方的 人只因为他们的肤色不同而接受详细检查。
谈到奥巴马时，她说，“在某些情况下，也许可以说许多情况下，他不受尊重，因为他是非 裔美国人。这是不容置疑的事实，是那种没有人说出来，但是每个人都在想的事情。”她举例说，2009年奥巴马讲话时，共和党议员乔·威尔逊曾高喊“你是个 骗子”。她问冈珀茨，“你还记得吗？
不过，她也表示应该承认：“我们已经取得进步，我们面对的不再是当年斯科茨伯勒男孩遭遇的针对黑人群体的恐怖行为。”“现在已经好多了。”而且与过去不同的是，现在已经有法律在努力保护他们。
她说，如果早出生5年，她根本得不到让她取得成功的任何帮助。但是，虽然有所进步，潜在的种族歧视问题还远未解决。
奥普拉认为，如果不消除根深蒂固的阶级和种族思想，以及随之而来教导许多代人无礼待人的合法理由，这些难题将得不到解决。“现在还有许多生长并浸泡在那些偏见和种族歧视之中的老辈人，得等到他们去世。”