Oprah has a new documentary debuting on the Smithsonian Channel this weekend about the racial disparities in healthcare and with COVID. She went into great detail with the LA Times talking about the film, The Color of Care discussing racism, healthcare, celebrity privilege, mask mandates and even “COVID amnesia” where people seem to forget that we’re in the middle of a pandemic.
She spoke about the enormous amount of privilege that she has where when things go wrong, she can pretty much get whatever is needed. But she pointed to a time in the mid-2000s where she has a thyroid prblem misdiagnosed by multiple doctors afraid of telling her exactly what was wrong out of fear of her fame. In the case of mask wearing, she very much supports wearing them stating she feels it’s too soon to stop doing so. She does, however respect those who want to quit wearing them.
But she expressed concern over our mental state around COVID right now saying, “I don’t recognize a country where you’ve lost nearly a million people and there hasn’t been some form of remembering that is significant. Not at the opening of a speech or mentioning in a State of the Union.” And she makes a valid point. COVID in general has caused anger from all sides from people who haven’t felt they’re being protected enough, those who feel it’s not real and ready to physically fight over any type of methods put in place to protect the public. She went on to say “Who are we that we don’t recognize the significance of that acknowledgment?”
The film’s director Yance Ford said “When you see something that gives you the opportunity to expose the function of something as old as racial inequities in healthcare, it’s an opportunity to make a difference in our culture.” And as for working with Oprah, he said “Anyone who gets a call from Oprah Winfrey, who has been responsible for so much enlightening, meaningful, important content in our culture—that’s a day you’ll never forget.”