Oprah Winfrey - BBC Comments on Racism lyrics

[Clip from The Butler] Oprah: My greatest hope was, I don't want to embarra** myself. I was already going through all of the criticism for the network and the network not working, and I could just hear in my mind, people saying, "Should've kept her day job. That was so long ago. She should've...", you know? So I was worried about, to an extent, not being able to measure up to the moment. And so the fact that I was able to actually do the work, go in, and create a character. Will Gompertz: The issue of the civil rights movement and the way that black people around the world are treated, particularly I suppose...around the world. O: Around the world. WG: Around the world. Places like Russia, you know. O: Around the world. WG: I suppose, from a movie point of view, what the movie and the messages within the movie hold, and the other movies we were discussing, and [Scottsboro boys], are these historical comments, or are we still looking at a contemporary issue? O: Good question. Well phrased. Good job. It would be foolish to not recognize that we have evolved, and that we're not still facing the same kind of terrorism against black people en ma**e as was displayed with the Scottsboro boys. It's gotten better. Are there still places where people are terrorized because of the color of their skin, because of the color of their black skin? Yes. But there are laws that have allowed us to progress beyond what we saw in the Scottsboro boys, and beyond even prejudice that we see in The Butler. I mean, his ability to go in...One of my favorite scenes ever -- spoiler alert -- is him going in and asking for the raise. I think that's one of the finest acting jobs I've ever seen. You know that moment? WG: Of course. Are you saying, problem solved? O: I'm saying, problem not solved. I'm saying, that's the beauty of a film like The Butler, and it's the beauty of a film like 12 Years a Slave, and it's the beauty of what we're seeing onstage with Scottsboro Boys, is that it allows people to see where the root of the problem started. It allows people to see, oh, that's where it all started. This is how far we've come. And now, this is how much further we need to go. Of course the problem is not solved. As long as people can be judged by the color of their skin, the problem's not solved. As long as there are people who still...And there's a whole generation -- I said this for apartheid South Africa, I said this for my own community in the South. There are still generation of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die. [Clip from The Butler] WG: So bringing it back to the themes of the movie, do you think there's-- has it ever crossed your mind that some of the treatments Obama and the challenges he's faced and some of the reporting he's received is because he's an African-American, and if he wasn't an African-American, if he was a white guy, this wouldn't have happened, he wouldn't be treated quite the same way. He wouldn't have to deal with quite the same confrontations? O: Has it ever crossed my mind? It's crossed my mind probably as many times as it's crossed your mind. Probably it's crossed my mind more times than it's crossed your mind. Just the level of disrespect when the senator yelled out, "You're a liar." Remember that? Yeah, I think that there's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs, and that occurs in some cases, and sometimes even many cases because he's African-American.