Oprah Invites Accused Rapist to Show Premier, Media Celebrates

May 5th, 2007 3:01 PM

The Chicago media were all agush on May 4th over the opening of Oprah Winfrey's musical treatment of The Color Purple. Breathless were the reports of who was in attendance and star struck was the celeb watching as the limos pulled up in front of the Cadillac Palace Theatre in downtown Chicago.

But one "celebrity" that was invited by Oprah to attend the opening performance should raise eyebrows and should have spawned condemnation of Oprah Winfrey for his invitation; yet, the media was strangely silent about the impropriety of the invite.

Before I go on with who the off color Color Purple guest is, a recap of just what the theme of this musical is all about is called for to speak to exactly why this particular guest should never have been invited to this premier, much less given star treatment.

The Color Purple is, at its core, a story about the rape and abuse of children by adult males. Certainly the supposed uplift of the thing is in how the young girls in the story overcome the abuse that they are put through. But, in essence, this is a misanthropic tale of how evil, evil men rape their way through a family of young black girls.

Now back to our inappropriate guest for the opening of The Color Purple, the musical.

As the sycophantic Chicago media stood with microphones in hand and cameras rolling, who was to walk out onto the red carpet but the "musician" R. Kelly. Yes, the same R. Kelly that has often and repeatedly been accused of raping teenaged, girls.

And, not a single voice was raised in the Chicago media about how inappropriate this invitation was!

ABC TV even reported the disgraced pop singer as saying, "It really inspired me to be who I am today”.

Inspired him to "be" what he is today? What a child rapist?

Though not convicted as of yet, Kelly has been several times in hot water for his dalliances with under-aged girls and no one, not even Kelly, denies that he has been linked with a multitude of very young girls. So, it is astonishing that, given his troubles, Oprah Winfrey invited this ne’er-do-well to her opening. Especially given his history of sexual predation in juxtaposition with the play's subject matter.

Disgustingly, the Chicago Sun-Times even gave R. Kelly the opportunity to plug his new album in their report of this celeb fest. It was wholly inappropriate for this man to have been invited to this show, conviction or not. Isn't it people like Oprah who are famous for tsk-tsking even the slightest appearance of violence against, or any mistreatment of, women -- especially black women?

What do they say: even the appearance of impropriety is a serious charge? Don’t the media and the left constantly employ guilt by association by protesting the appearance of controversial conservatives at any particular venue, attempting to shut the appearance down? Constantly they find no problem protesting an Ann Coulter appearance or an appearance by a conservative religious figure, by contrast. Yet, there was R. Kelly, effulgent, all smiles and backslapping, hobnobbing with the social elites at Oprah's show with the media lapping it up.

So, it makes one wonder just how much Oprah is against child rape if she has no problem rubbing elbows with the likes of an R. Kelly. And not just rubbing elbows by happenstance, but doing so by her own invitation.

What kind of "message" is Oprah sending to young teenaged girls with this regrettable invitation, anyway?

Could it be: Don't let anyone rape you... unless he is famous?