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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oprah-winfrey-old-white-people-have-to-die/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/oprah-winfrey-old-white-pe... - FALSE

leereeves 9y ago
She did say: > there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die. She didn't actually say white, but what else was she referring to?
- InitialLastName 9y ago
  Let's not be reactionary and engage with the context of what she's saying. This is exactly the way social tides change. At a first approximation, people develop attitudes when young and retain them until they die (it takes quite a lot of effort to change the mind of an adult, very little to change the mind of a child). If you have some social issue where you can see a generational wave, part of what's going to change the "average" attitude is for the older generation to die off. She's not saying "kill all the old racists" or even "I'd like these people to die". She's saying "our society's average attitude towards race relations is going to shift in [what she thinks is the right direction] as the generation of people who were raised in a time when open racism was the prevailing attitude die off".
- da_chicken 9y ago
  If that is an accurate quote, I don't really see it calling for violence which is what people seem to be damning her for. Rather, it seems like that's what she's suggesting is that a certain segment of the population will never be convinced not to be racist because they've just been racist for too long. The only way for racism to die out in America, then, is for this segment of the population to die out as well. A lot of American GIs coming back from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam developed a real and lasting hatred of all Asians. Nothing would change their mind because of their wartime experiences. The only thing that will change that feeling in American culture is when those men all die and nobody else carries such experiences with them.
  - tracyshaun 9y ago
    Exactly. I didn't hear it as a call for genocide but just a rational reflection on the fact that a certain generational segment will have to die before significant changes are possible.
- snowwrestler 9y ago
  > Eine neue wissenschaftliche Wahrheit pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, daß ihre Gegner überzeugt werden und sich als belehrt erklären, sondern vielmehr dadurch, daß ihre Gegner allmählich aussterben und daß die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Wahrheit vertraut gemacht ist. > "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck, Nobel Prize winning physicist who helped invent quantum mechanics The impact of generations on social change is not an uncommon or violent way to look at the world.
  - SeanBoocock 9y ago
    Especially true of the evolution in scientific thought as Thomas Kuhn famously argued: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Re...
- greglindahl 9y ago
  This is an extremely common opinion among progressive Southerners of every color.
joering2 9y ago
I see, so the proof that she didn't say so is a website with 3 embedded youtube videos where ... she says exactly that. Hmm, okay.
- sarvinc 9y ago
  Yes, she said it. From what I can tell you've used what she said out of context. The way you used the quote implies that Oprah Winfrey wants these people to die or is imploring other people to kill the subjects of her quote. If you did not intend to use the quote out of context I'd suggest, in the future, using the full quote. When given the full context of the quote your post makes no sense.

leereeves 9y ago

She did say: > there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die. She didn't actually say white, but what else was she referring to?

InitialLastName 9y ago
Let's not be reactionary and engage with the context of what she's saying. This is exactly the way social tides change. At a first approximation, people develop attitudes when young and retain them until they die (it takes quite a lot of effort to change the mind of an adult, very little to change the mind of a child). If you have some social issue where you can see a generational wave, part of what's going to change the "average" attitude is for the older generation to die off. She's not saying "kill all the old racists" or even "I'd like these people to die". She's saying "our society's average attitude towards race relations is going to shift in [what she thinks is the right direction] as the generation of people who were raised in a time when open racism was the prevailing attitude die off".
da_chicken 9y ago
If that is an accurate quote, I don't really see it calling for violence which is what people seem to be damning her for. Rather, it seems like that's what she's suggesting is that a certain segment of the population will never be convinced not to be racist because they've just been racist for too long. The only way for racism to die out in America, then, is for this segment of the population to die out as well. A lot of American GIs coming back from WWII, Korea, and Vietnam developed a real and lasting hatred of all Asians. Nothing would change their mind because of their wartime experiences. The only thing that will change that feeling in American culture is when those men all die and nobody else carries such experiences with them.
- tracyshaun 9y ago
  Exactly. I didn't hear it as a call for genocide but just a rational reflection on the fact that a certain generational segment will have to die before significant changes are possible.
snowwrestler 9y ago
> Eine neue wissenschaftliche Wahrheit pflegt sich nicht in der Weise durchzusetzen, daß ihre Gegner überzeugt werden und sich als belehrt erklären, sondern vielmehr dadurch, daß ihre Gegner allmählich aussterben und daß die heranwachsende Generation von vornherein mit der Wahrheit vertraut gemacht ist. > "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." - Max Planck, Nobel Prize winning physicist who helped invent quantum mechanics The impact of generations on social change is not an uncommon or violent way to look at the world.
- SeanBoocock 9y ago
  Especially true of the evolution in scientific thought as Thomas Kuhn famously argued: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Re...
greglindahl 9y ago
This is an extremely common opinion among progressive Southerners of every color.

joering2 9y ago

I see, so the proof that she didn't say so is a website with 3 embedded youtube videos where ... she says exactly that. Hmm, okay.

sarvinc 9y ago
Yes, she said it. From what I can tell you've used what she said out of context. The way you used the quote implies that Oprah Winfrey wants these people to die or is imploring other people to kill the subjects of her quote. If you did not intend to use the quote out of context I'd suggest, in the future, using the full quote. When given the full context of the quote your post makes no sense.