Talk-show host, producer, channel-owner and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey will be in Bloemfontein, South Africa today to receive an Honorary Doctorate in Education from the University of the Free State.
It it so fitting that Ms. Winfrey will be awarded at this particular university, at this time.
The university has recently suffered some controversy as a result of some racist, humiliating actions on the part of four white students against black workers of the university. Without going into details, the incident cast a spotlight on the racial tensions that exist at the university and the lack of racial integration amongst students.
Winfrey has for a long time now been a role-model to black people, and particularly black women, all over the world because of her strength and accomplishments despite the odds that were heaped against her; a poor, young, black woman from the South of the United States.
So how fitting that she should be awarded by a university that is grappling with its' own racial issues and tensions.
Hopefully this event will serve as a reminder to the university's black students of all they can accomplish because of individuals like Winfrey. And, hopefully, it will also be a way for those white students who are unable to move away from their racist ideals to be able to view black people as people who are equally as intelligent, skilled, hard-working and capable as they are.
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