Monday, June 27, 2011

Oprah Winfrey Receives South African University Honorary Doctorate

Oprah Winfrey Receives South African University Honorary Doctorate: BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa – Oprah Winfrey accepted an honorary degree from a central South African university infamous for troubled race relations, saying the institution had turned an ugly experience into a model for confronting the challenges of reconciliation and remorse.

Winfrey on Friday came to a school where, five years ago, four White students made a video humiliating Black housekeeping staff—they are shown eating a stew the students had mimed spiking with urine—and expressing opposition to integrating the historically White University of the Free State. Jonathan Jansen, who in 2009 became the university's first Black rector, called for the four to be forgiven and rehabilitated.