take the hood out the boy/girl. You see, Calvin didn’t see continuing his education as high a priority as getting back home to the homies and under his mother’s wing and humble abode.
“I learned from that experience,” says Winfrey. “…It isn’t enough to give a person a new life or money or a new car; you have to teach them how to fish themselves.”
After having been forewarned after the first dropout (she wasn’t going to be there for him anymore if he pulled another stunt like such) sure enough, with this being the second time around; she made good on her word and cut him off and lose.
‘I want to ask Oprah, “Why did you leave me? Why did you leave me?” I’m still empty. I’m still searching. I don’t have closure to this. I just don’t understand.’
‘I was young. I made a dumb decision, and Oprah wouldn’t forgive me. I feel like what she did was wrong,’ said Calvin, who later became suicidal after she ‘abandoned’ him.
Fast forward twenty+ years later: still relevant and successful, up to and including countless movies, retirement, cable network purchases, Twitters and having made 80 million dollars in one day (from investing in Weight Watchers)’s just a couple weeks ago, soon after Calvin reappears-at last left, having not spoken to Oprah since the early 90s.
It wasn’t such a problem that he showed up after the taping of Colbert, but it was that she had gotten wind that the boy had sold his story to Patrica Shipp’nem over at the National Enquirer in what was most probably a decision to take their money and trust a try or go at it on faith that his long lost (almost adopted) mother would give him the closure he sought. He obviously chose the latter which of course wasn’t going to be without a camera crew.
So when Calvin showed up (with the camera crew), she didn’t want to talk to him because she knew it was a setup as, their photogs were front and center recording and taking picture of the entire scene.
“As I left, and he was looking so forlorn, he was like, ‘Can I speak to you?’ So I said to somebody on my team, ‘Will somebody get Calvin’s number so I can contact him later? I didn’t realize the whole thing was a setup. When I realized the whole thing was a setup, I was no longer interested in speaking to him.”
As far as how the rumor got started that she was buying BET, it was simple: the satirical site CreamBMP posted the fake article but despite (if you look closer at some of their other article titles e.g.; “Donald Trump on N.W.A. ‘They Not the Only N/%%as With Attitudes I Know,'” “Raven Symone Say’s: ‘I’d Accept a Letter to Join ‘KKK,'” and “Rick Ross Calls Off Engagement Because Fiancee Didn’t Like Lemon Pepper Wings, despite a laughable and unsavvy header like: “Oprah Buys BET for $800 Million Cash-Promises To Make It for Black People Again,” people still thought the story was true (considering it really was probable-all things “Oprah” considered).
So all you hopeful wait watchers have now gained the truth: There are no plans and deals for Oprah buying the BET network, and to say (needless) Oprah is: seedless yet and still, when the story broke-it left many questioning whether or not it was Oprah who was wrong for simply dropping out of the the young boys’ life like such. I for one (like you probably read) had an experience like such where I had a very influential person in my life around that same impressionable time in my life but peer pressure and the inability to see the future for you that they have for you really does leave them powerless and trying to contend with something that typically is an uphill battle (if the youngster is unwilling to bend and able to see the greater-later) like I mentioned about it in another blog (about it):
Mentors are important.
Mentors and people to see and want to hone in on the potential in you is an important slice of life, because too, my own personal experience was such that I had a mentor back when I was 10-13 years old who worked her damnedest to shape my thinking, prepare me for life, and worked hard to oversee my not falling into the traps and perils of poverty.
Despite my being from a neighborhood of drugs and poverty and crime myself, as a
