What losing Oprah really means

"When we lose a powerful black female presence from a landscape that, however much progress has been made, is still far too white (see: Congress, the Supreme Court, the Oscars, the news media, law firms and science departments, etc.) and too male (see: Congress, the Supreme Court, the Oscars, the news media, law firms and science departments, etc.) it’s not like we get 20 more — or even two more, or, uh, one more — to take her place. ... But we forget how standard a white male media universe is, and we forget how extraordinary it was to have had one ruled by Oprah Winfrey. ... Oprah has made blackness more visible, has helped familiarize a country’s daytime audiences — not always the most politically progressive — with people they might otherwise not have known." (Rebecca Traister, Los Angeles Times)