Oprah Winfrey, 63, made a remarkable and unforgettable speech at the 2018 Golden Globes after she received the Cecil B. DeMille award. This award is an honorary Golden Globe Award given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”.
Winfrey is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, but is also an American media proprietor, actress, producer and philanthropist.
Up on stage Winfrey took the opportunity to use her platform by saying,“it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award”.
Her speech has impacted many people, including quite a few at Parkway Central. After interviewing several people, I truly got to see the effect that her speech had on individual lives.
Junior Chayse Williams, is involved in many organizations such as The Superintendents Social Justice Leadership Advisory Council and Brave Space. “Oprah’s speech honestly empowered and warmed my heart. I have never had someone in the media who is so well known and outspoken about the situations affecting me and people that look like me,” Williams said.
For Williams, Oprah’s speech was inspiring and essential in order to speak out about topics that get pushed under the rug or misrepresented.
Junior Avery Cooper, does what she can to stand up for herself and to not let others push her down. There are many different ways to do this and everyone expresses their empowerment in different ways. Cooper expresses herself by what she wears and how she treats people.
“I wear whatever I feel comfortable in and what I want to wear, not what other people say I should. I also don’t let others push me down or make jokes about how girls can’t do this or that. Oprah’s speech made me feel really inspired and glad that there are movements that empower women who have felt belittled or inferior,” Cooper said.
Regarding the media, Winfrey believes that the media could potentially give a false representation of what’s going on, or even a lens or filter of reality.
”To — to tyrants and victims, and secrets and lies. I want to say that I value the press more than ever before as we try to navigate these complicated times, which brings me to this: what I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have,” Winfrey said.
Social media has been a major source of news for teenagers and young adult.
“You get news instantly, especially with the rise of social media, plus, you get multiple filters over stories or events that may give the public an inaccurate image of what’s being reported,” junior Alex Edelman said. Social media has a big influence on the youth of the world.
“Oprah for president” has been a growing catch phrase.
“I’m thinking she is not going to be running for president,” Winfrey’s best friend, Gayle King, said on CBS. “I do think she is very intrigued, and I also say, as I’ve heard for many years on the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show,’ you always have the right to change your mind. But that is certainly not something she’s considering right now.”