Spend enough time on Black Twitter (or X, or whatever), and you’ll pick up on certain unassailable trends. Among them is our staunch defense of Black celebrities we hold near and dear – for example, look at how we (temporarily) ran Keke Palmer’s baby’s father clean off of the internet over that whole Usher debacle, albeit temporarily.
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In the last week or so, I’ve witnessed Black social media come for the scalp of someone I never thought we would: our perennially beloved auntie Oprah Winfrey.
It started with Taraji P. Henson, star of “The Color Purple” film dropping today. She went viral over a tearful interview in which she insists that Black woman actors have to fight to earn what they’re worth in Hollywood. Henson later expounded on those comments at a SAG/AFTRA Foundation career retrospective, admitting that she almost walked away from “The Color Purple” over the pay disparity.
Winfrey, who starred in the Alice Walker novel’s first film adaptation in 1985, is a producer of the new film, leading many to believe she’s at least partially responsible for Henson’s salary woes. There was also a Dec. 12 press shoot in which Henson, Winfrey and company gathered on top of the Empire State Building. Winfrey looks footloose and fancy free, but according to the freelance internet super sleuths, Henson’s body language suggests she’s not exactly feeling the mogul.
My own mama, completely unaware of that press shoot or the chatter around it, told me that she noticed Henson cutting her eyes at Winfrey as Jennifer Hudson showered Winfrey with praises during the cast interview on her show.
It’s a bit silly on its face to deduce exactly what’s running through folks’ minds by looking at them on video. Regardless, I’ve never seen so many anti-Winfrey tweets and videos before.
Other powerful and prominent Black celebrities are also getting the business on Black X/TikTok, but for different reasons: Actor Christian Keyes uploaded an Instagram video Dec. 15, suggesting he was sexually abused by a powerful Black man. I’m not at all a fan of Keyes’ dancing around his abuser’s identity, as it’s feels like he might be looking for a hush check (see: Diddy and Cassie) instead of being at the epicenter of a genuine indictment of abusers.
He knows that men who are innocent of his allegations are getting dragged through the coals and he’s letting it happen. And boy, has it been a veritable shitstorm: Considering Keyes’ proximity to Tyler Perry content, many assumed out the gate that he was the one – a ball they everyone picked up and ran with until Bishop T.D. Jakes wound up on the culprit list for reasons I’ve still yet to discern.
Combine this with the fact that Jakes is also at the center of a (entirely unsubstantiated) rumor that he was involved in orgies with men at Diddy’s famous parties, where he acted out his role as a “power bottom” (Google it…just not at the office), and we have one of the country’s preeminent Black pastors accused of being a gay sexual “deviant” who frequents parties with our current Public Enemy #1.
Jakes made it clear during his Sunday sermon that he’s not here for your shenanigans.
Between Winfrey, Perry and Jakes (and of course, Diddy), it feels as if powerful Black people are being scrutinized by other Black folks to a degree that they’ve never have before. We tend to admire and respect the accumulation of wealth by our own in a country that was literally built for us to not have it, but we’ve also realized that not even Black people hit the “B” in billion without exploiting real people. And that includes Winfrey.
That’s why she’s catching a fair amount of that “she’s always been an a**hole” chatter that has her fellow talk show mogul Ellen DeGeneres not-outside these days. It’s resulted in the trending of Mo’Nique, who has been vocal about her animus toward Winfrey and whom she insists joined together with Perry and Lee Daniels to blackball her from Hollywood.
Mo’Nique insists Winfrey stabbed her in the back in the interest of building up her show and claims that Perry wanted her to work for free. If those two very powerful, very influential moguls with all of their friends targeted anyone Black in Hollywood, they probably wouldn’t even be able to get a job securing on-set food tables.
I think it’s a bit too early to tell if Black folks’ aversion of late toward rich and powerful Black folks is a flash in the pan, or if we’re simply fed up with maltreatment of our own. But truth is, everyone loved Diddy a month and a half ago – - but his name is in now buried deep in mud. Winfrey was everyone’s auntie a week ago, but Henson has us viewing her with a very different lens.
As for Jakes, well…there’s always a mixture of disappointment and schadenfreude when religious leaders and influencers get caught up doing the shit against which they preach. My guess is that we will learn more about him very soon.
There aren’t very many Black billionaires like Winfrey, Perry and Diddy. It sucks that each now has a stink on them that suggests their wealth has made them not very good people. Having money is not at all a bad thing…but can you have too much of it and remain a good human…?
Regardless, we need to make a collective Christmas Day prayer that Rihanna doesn’t get caught up in any billionaire bullshit.
Straight From 
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