Dibs

He’s got a hunch that Oprah Winfrey doesn’t like black men, and he’s talking about it on radio shows nationwide. Syracuse University finance professor Boyce Dewhite Watkins, author of What If George Bush Were a Black Man?, fuels his claim by pointing to the recent feud between Winfrey and Ice Cube — who, along with other top rappers, resents never having been invited to appear on Winfrey’s show. A fan of Cube, Dr. Watkins explains in a press release that “the presence of very prominent black men on Winfrey’s show does not mean that she does not have a bias against black men.” He elucidates: “If you have a Grammy Award, next to your Nobel Prize, next to your Academy Award, then you are OK with Oprah…. But if you are a rank and file black man, you are more likely to be put on the show if you are ‘on the downlow’ — secretly gay — or beating your wife. I rarely see the spotlight placed on black men who are on the front lines working hard in their communities to educate and empower their people.” As revealed on his blackmanbush.com web site, Boyce feels “ostracized for even saying the words ‘black man’ in my research.” On a Fox radio show, he called Condoleezza Rice “Aunt Jemima” and “Bush’s personal porch monkey.” He doesn’t remember where he said “I’m living proof that you should never give an angry black man a PhD, ‘cause he might kill somebody with it,” but he firmly assures us that he did indeed say it, somewhere.