Photo Credit Paulette Singleton
Oprah Winfrey received a standing ovation after giving a powerful and inspirational speech as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2018 Golden Globes. Oprah began her remarks recognizing the profound and historic moment, by discussing Sidney Poitier, who won the 1964 Academy Award for best actor, becoming the first black man to win an Oscar. She went on to acknowledge being inspired when eighteen years later, in 1982, Poitier received the Cecil B DeMille award at the Golden Globes. Thirty-six years later, Oprah becomes the first black woman to receive the prestigious award. Bravo. The incredible Miss O never misses an opportunity to lift up those who came before her and paved the way for her to live her best life.
“It is an honor – it is an honor and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them and also with the incredible men and women who have inspired me, who challenged me, who sustained me and made my journey to this stage possible.”
The Women of Hollywood and activists attending the awards this year wore black in solidarity with all of those who have courageously come forward to tell their personal stories of sexual abuse, harassment and misconduct systemically perpetrated by powerful men not only in the television, film and the media industries, but also in business, politics and sports as well. The evening was full of speeches and remarks that continued to bring an acute awareness of the endemic problem sexual harassment has become throughout the nation on every level of public and private life. This is a historic and powerful moment of national reckoning as women (and men) come out from behind the wall of silence and shame to demand CHANGE and inspire critical discourse lifting #MeToo from just a hashtag on Twitter to a powerful and transformational Movement.
Oprah took the opportunity and the enormous weight of the moment to address the victims of sexual abuse; she noted that the recent revelations about Hollywood’s endemic sexual misconduct go well beyond the entertainment industry, saying that the issue “transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace”.
She then expressed her gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they had children to feed, bills to pay and dreams to pursue.
Bravo Oprah! A true humanitarian, who always by her grace, charity and genuine care for others, demonstrates why her life is an incredible achievement in itself. The Hollywood Foreign Press bestowing the Cecile B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award only acknowledged what we already knew. Thank you Oprah for using your platform in the service of others, for using your voice to recognize the voiceless and faceless among us. Bravo Oprah! You deserve a Standing O!
