At the 75th Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night, where activists and actresses joined arms to say "time's up" for sexual abuse, Oprah Winfrey delivered a moving speech in which she reflected on the achievements of other black individuals in the entertainment industry and called for a more equitable world free from sexual harassment and assault.
Winfrey shared her memories of watching actor Sidney Poitier become the first black man to win an Oscar, and later the Cecil B. DeMille Award, noting, "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 the same award." She also expressed gratitude for the #MeToo movement that has swept through Hollywood and across the country in recent months, and all the women who have shared their personal stories about experiencing abuse.
"But it's not just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It's one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace," she said. "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 farmworkers. 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."
Decrying "a culture broken by brutally powerful men" in which "women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men," Winfrey highlighted the story of Recy Taylor, a black women who fought for justice after being raped by six white men in Alabama the 1940s, and who died last week. She concluded by praising the women and men who are "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."
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The Cecil B. DeMille Award recognizes recipients for their "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment."
