OPRAH WINFREY SHOW, THE: WISHES IN BLACK AND WHITE (TV)
Summary
One in this talk show series hosted by Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah awards her weekly “Use Your Life” award to Jason Warwin and Khary Lazarre-White, founders of The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a center in Harlem dedicated to providing support to underprivileged youths. This includes facilitating social services, educational resources, after-school programs, and summer camps. Some of the lessons they strive to embody include prevention of violence against women and the importance of education as a means of creating better lives. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Oprah discusses modern efforts to make his vision of a post-racial society a reality. One such effort comes from Erin Gruwell, a high school English teacher who was put in charge of a class of “rejects” simmering with racial tension. When she intercepted a note in class depicting a racist caricature of one student, she decided to abandon her usual lessons in favor of teaching lessons about notable examples of “man’s inhumanity towards man,” particularly the Holocaust. Using the Freedom Rides as an inspiration, she fashioned her class into “Freedom Writers,” using writing as a means of expressing their feelings about themselves and each other. The exercises prove to be successful, as do various trips to museums and sites of importance to the Holocaust. Gruwell and two of her former students are interviewed about a book about her experience, collecting diary entries from two of her students. They deliver heartfelt messages to Gruwell, thanking her for her dedication and the positive impact she has made on their lives.
Part of the show is inspired by a collection of photography and commentary asking ordinary people what their “wish” would be to help end racism, and several offer their commentary in a video segment. Oprah also has a guest, Steven Stroud, who recounts his story: he grew up in an abusive household before being made a ward of the state, becoming a delinquent. He eventually joined a neo-Nazi hate group, the North American National Socialist Silent Order, and felt at home there owing to a racism-fueled upbringing and that it gave him “an excuse to be angry.” After assaulting a Jewish boy he was placed in a juvenile detention center and eventually in a foster home. Steven recounts feeling overwhelmed by the unconditional love of his foster mother Linda, creating a profound change in his psyche and outlook on life. Upon realizing the deleterious effect of hatred on his life he changes his ways and now works speaking to young people, helping them to leave hate groups and dispel their racism. He believes that racism is a “symptom” of a lack of self-love and actualization and works to spread that message around the country. He talks about experiencing acceptance from people of other races, and of reconciling with the boy he assaulted years afterward.
Next, Oprah interviews Theresa, an African-American woman born in New York City who moved to the South, encountering intolerance from white people around her. This heightened her anger to the point where she became racist against white people, partially due to her father’s assertions that the two races could not coexist peacefully. In 1999 she is called to serve upon a jury for a murder case; the accused consisted of an elderly white man and a young African-American man, and Theresa recounts feeling as though the former “corrupted” the latter into committing the crime. Interacting with the other jurors for days on end helps her to confront her own racism and anger. She becomes determined to have a white friend in order to change her mind, and finds one in the person of a woman named Susan, and their close friendship essentially dissolves her racism. Theresa discusses her evolving feelings towards white people and talks about how she and Susan met and became friends.
There is a video segment on Ammie Murray, a woman in Dixiana, South Carolina who worked for years to save the local church from repeated racially-motivated attacks and desecrations in the mid-1980’s. She led an effort to restore the church, and in the process brought the community together as a means of overcoming racial divides. Murray received death threats for her actions, and following the church’s reconstruction in 1986 over 200 incidents of vandalism took place, culminating in arsonists burning the church to the ground in 1995. Murray was devastated by this, but spearheaded an effort to rebuild the church, gaining supporters from across the nation. The rebuilt and rededicated church opened in 1998, and Murray eventually died from cancer in 2000. Oprah interviews her daughter Christy about the reconstruction effort and the support for Murray’s project from the community. Oprah concludes with a tribute to King’s efforts and vision for the future and his role as an inspirational figure many years after his death. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Syndicated
- DATE: November 30, 1999 4:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:43:31
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 122068
- GENRE: Talk/Interviews
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - News/Talk; TV - Talk/Interviews
- SERIES RUN: Syndicated - TV series, 1986-2011
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Dianne Atkinson Hudson … Executive Producer
- Katy Murphy Davis … Supervising Producer
- Alice McGee … Supervising Producer
- Dana Newton … Supervising Producer
- Ellen Rakieten … Supervising Producer
- Oprah Winfrey … Supervising Producer
- Andrea Wishom … Producer, Associate Producer
- Kandi Amelon … Producer
- Jill Baranick … Producer
- Amy Coleman … Producer
- Lisa Erspamer … Producer
- Angie Kraus … Producer
- Jill van Lokeren-Kuenstler … Producer
- Jack Mori … Producer
- Lisa Morin … Producer
- Laura Grant Sillars … Producer
- Jill Adams … Associate Producer
- Jeanne Carrow-Kurtzhalts … Associate Producer
- Candi Nichols Carter … Associate Producer
- Terry Goulder … Assocaite Producer
- James Kelley … Associate Producer
- Kim McCabe … Associate Producer
- Lesia Minnor … Associate Producer
- Tara Montgomery … Associate Producer
- Andrew Wishom … Associate Producer
- Heather Aldridge … Associate Producer
- Kevin Borenstein … Associate Producer
- Dana Brooks … Associate Producer
- Lisa Carl … Associate Producer
- Marin Connor … Associate Producer
- Ray Dotch … Associate Producer
- Cynthia Goldberg … Associate Producer
- Kelly Groves-Olson … Associate Producer
- Jennifer Kinnear … Associate Producer
- Jenna Kostelnik … Associate Producer
- Becky Liscum … Associate Producer
- Sandra F. Peddicord … Associate Producer
- Gregg Sherkin … Associate Producer
- Jillian Straus … Associate Producer
- Michelle Cumbo … Associate Producer
- Leslie Grisanti … Associate Producer
- Suzanne Hayward … Associate Producer
- Stacy Strazis … Associate Producer
- Bob Bates … Field Producer
- Mary Donahue … Field Producer
- Rita Thompson … Field Producer
- Joseph C. Terry … Director
- Oprah Winfrey … Host
- Khary Lazarre-White … Guest
- Jason Warwin … Guest
- Erin Gruwell … Guest
- Steven Stroud … Guest
- Christy Murray … Guest
- Maya Angelou
- Pete Cristimilios
- Martin Luther King Jr.
- Ammie Murray
- Cornel West
- Marianne Williamson