Tonight Oprah Winfrey will be giving away $200,000 pairs of diamond earrings to each person honored at her Legends Ball for famous African-American women; on Wednesday and Thursday, Oprah will honor Elie Wiesel and 50 high school students who wrote about the relevance of his account of the Holocaust in “Night.”
The juxtaposition of diamond earrings and the Holocaust says something about the paradox that is Oprah. Those contradictions seem to meet in her shows. Oprah gives equal honor to media celebrities and those who commemorate historic atrocities.
Lucy Young doesn’t see any paradox. She is my student at Oakton, and her essay on “Night” was one of 50 winning entries in Oprah’s first high school essay contest.
Each of the winners was flown with a guardian to Chicago for the taping of a show airing from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday. Wednesday’s show will be a lead-in, featuring Oprah and Wiesel touring Auschwitz.
As Lucy recounts her whirlwind day as a celebrity, the buildup to the taping seemed to have a drama all its own. The first night, students met with the producers. The next morning, after two hours of hair and makeup styling, they rehearsed four times with an Oprah stand-in.
Finally, they could hear Oprah’s distinctive voice introducing them, and it was time for their 15 minutes of fame! During the first commercial break, Oprah greeted each of the 50 individually.
“It was so personal! She and Elie Wiesel clearly had a friendship, and they both made us feel special,” Lucy said. She says there were two incredible moments: the look on her mother’s face as she was introduced on stage, and the moment Oprah announced that each winner would receive a $10,000 college scholarship.
Yet Lucy’s high point — greater than a mother’s pride or any cash award — was when Clemantine, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide and one of the student essay winners, was presented with a remarkable surprise. Without ruining it for viewers, I’ll simply reveal that her scholarship paled in comparison to Oprah’s very special, entirely human gift. You just have to tune in on Thursday.
On her return, Lucy kept repeating how “cool” Oprah is. When pressed, she declared that Oprah is “one of the only TV personalities who consistently uses celebrity to do good.” Oprah’s aura — celebrity? philanthropy? — is reflected in the rosy glow Lucy has had since her return.
Oprah is a puzzling phenomenon. She is unimaginably rich, yet seems to derive pleasure from books about struggle, and interviews with those who have experienced adversity. Elie Wiesel and Lucy Young would seem to have nothing in common, yet Oprah Winfrey brought them together.
And she changed the lives of 50 students, including a Rwandan teenager who thought genocide was the end of her family. Wiesel and Oprah showed her, Lucy and all viewers of this Thursday’s show that genocide does not extinguish spirit and eloquence.
Is it “Lucy in Wonderland?” Or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds?” Oprah represents both philanthropic altruism and modern materialism. Perhaps they are not contradictory. Lucy thinks Oprah is “the coolest person I’ve ever met.” Tune in Thursday to decide for yourself.
Erica Jacobs teaches at Oakton High School and George Mason University. She can be reached at [email protected].
