Brilliant and Interesting Paper
CMST 438
Assignment #4
If you were to ask a young person in today’s society who their role models are they would probably answer one of two ways. Many would say their parents and the rest would probably name a celebrity of some sort. It could be their favorite athlete or their favorite movie actress or actor. The disappointing thing is that the majority of youth will not say the president or someone else in an actual leadership role. Fifty years ago this was not the case. If you asked someone that same question they would have no problem saying the president because it use to be a position that demanded respect. In light of this, celebrities today should realize that they have the unfortunate task of being a role model for kids. When thinking of a celebrity that actually deserved some of this admiration, Oprah Winfrey came to mind. If there is any celebrity out there that actually deserves to be looked at as a leader and emulated it is Oprah.
Oprah Winfrey, born in January 1954, by all accounts should not have ended up the successful woman that she is today. She was born in the slums of Mississippi by two unmarried teenager parents. Her father went off in the military and her mother moved away and put Oprah to live with her grandmother until she was six years old. Her grandmother was a strong influence in her life but that role model was taken away when her mother decided that she wanted Oprah to live with her. During her teen years she would be sexually abused from age nine to fourteen. After then living with her mother for a few years she was then sent to live with her father where she would also give birth to and lose a baby. With all of these obstacles in her way and no real successful role model to look to Oprah Winfrey should not have ended up being the most successful black woman in America, but she did.
In the book “Finding Oprah’s Roots”, Oprah Winfrey explains how she was in a...
