Move over, Bill Cosby, you've got some company.
Oprah Winfrey, who made headlines this week with the opening of her $40 million, all-girls leadership academy in South Africa, is none too happy with how inner-city American
kids
take for granted an education.
In an interview with Newsweek's Allison Samuels, the billionaire media mogul said she has given millions of dollars to American schools, but has become disenchanted with the materialistic attitude among children.
"Say what you will about the American educational system — it does work," she told Newsweek. "If you are a
child
in the United States, you can get an education."
She added: "I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school."
While some focused on the good deed of her opening a school to train the next generation of female leaders in South Africa, others focused on these statements, angry that a women who grew up poor in Mississippi would be so dismissive and callous in her critique of inner-city children.
My e-mail box blew up with folks wondering why she didn't open a similar school on the South Side of Chicago. Others called her an elitist slob who has forgotten where she has come from. Yet a few others were flat out ticked off by her painting the mindset of inner-city kids with a broad brush.
While I understand this position, and am fully aware of the serious shortcomings of the American education system — especially when you note that many suburban schools, because of high property taxes, look like college campuses, and those attended by mostly black and Hispanic children are falling apart — Oprah is dead-on in her assessment.
