Oprah Winfrey brought the Golden Globes audience to their feet with a powerful speech as she accepted the Cecil B DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday night, prompting speculation about a run for the White House.
The notion of the talkshow host and entrepreneur running for president against Donald Trump in 2020 was raised by the awards’ host, Seth Meyers, in his opening monologue.
“In 2011, I told some jokes about our current president at the White House correspondents dinner, jokes about how he was unqualified to be president,” Meyers said. “And some have said that night convinced him to run. And if that’s true, I would just like to say, ‘Oprah you will never be president.’”
After Winfrey’s speech her partner, Stedman Graham, told the Los Angeles Times: “It’s up to the people. She would absolutely do it.”
Celebrities used Twitter to urge Winfrey to run. The comedian Sarah Silverman tweeted “Oprah/Michelle 2020” while the actor Leslie Odom Jr wrote: “She’s running. A new day is on the way.”
After an introduction by Reese Witherspoon, the actor and philanthropist took to the stage to address racial injustice and sexual abuse on an evening in which women wore black to show support for the #MeToo movement.
Winfrey began by discussing Sidney Poitier, who won the 1964 Academy Award for best actor and, in doing so, became the first black man to win an Oscar. Eighteen years later, he received the Cecil B DeMille award at the 1982 Golden Globes.
Winfrey said: “In 1982, Sidney received the Cecil B DeMille award right here at the Golden Globes and it is not lost on me that at this moment, there are some little girls watching as I become the first black woman to be given this same award.
“It is an honor – it is an honor and it is a privilege to share the evening with all of them and also with the incredible men and women who have inspired me, who challenged me, who sustained me and made my journey to this stage possible.”
She continued: “I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. We know the press is under siege these days. We also know it’s the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice.”
Addressing victims of sexual abuse, Oprah noted that the recent revelations about Hollywood’s endemic sexual misconduct go well beyond the entertainment industry, noting that the issue “transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace”.
She went on: “So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue.
“They’re the women whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and they’re in academia, engineering, medicine and science. They’re part of the world of tech and politics and business. They’re our athletes in the Olympics and they’re our soldiers in the military.”
Winfrey then referenced Recy Taylor, a black woman who was abducted in 1944 in Alabama and raped by six men. When her story was reported to the NAACP, Winfrey explained, Rosa Parks investigated her case but was unable, in the Jim Crow era, to bring her abusers to justice.
“Recy Taylor died 10 days ago, just shy of her 98th birthday,” Winfrey said. “She lived as we all have lived, too many years in a culture broken by brutally powerful men. For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up.”
“So I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon!” Winfrey concluded, as the audience gave her a standing ovation.
“And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say ‘me too’ again.”
