America 1982-Chapter 185 - 70: I Should Be Shot_3
The background actors on the set, most of whom were black, all burst into laughter when they heard Oprah’s words.
"All right, let’s welcome this trouble-ridden white young man to the stage, Tommy Hawk."
With blond hair and a dull suit, Tommy Hawk walked into the studio somewhat nervously, bowed respectfully, and shook hands with Oprah before sitting down on the guest sofa. He waved to the audience who gave him a smattering of applause, and then his hands were clasped between his thighs as he looked at Oprah with a bewildered and shy smile.
Oprah internally cursed at how good this asshole’s acting was. Backstage, although his speech and reactions were a bit excessively excited, he certainly wasn’t bashful or shy. But now as soon as he got on the show, he instantly transformed into a paradigm of a white person not accustomed to the stares of black people.
Picking up the card in her hand, she briefly introduced Tommy’s identity to the audience, such as a Stanford University student, founder of Actor Corporation, etc. As she finished, the few claps that were there completely vanished. Tommy even noticed the background actors exchanging puzzled looks with each other, their eyes full of curiosity, as if they were about to ask outright,
"Why bring such a white nerd to a show watched by black people?"
Seeing Tommy’s getup, Oprah flipped over her question card and started to ask him randomly. She smiled and asked, "So, how nervous are you really, Tommy?"
"I’m not nervous, ma’am." Tommy hunched his shoulders slightly, looked at Oprah with a bewildered gaze, then quickly averted his eyes to an empty space and nodded vigorously at the air, saying, "That’s right, not nervous."
The audience below immediately burst into laughter, seeming quite pleased with Tommy’s reaction of claiming he wasn’t nervous while avoiding their gazes. As expected, this guy was about to become the target of Oprah’s teasing on this episode.
"Which makes you more uneasy, your company’s lawsuit trouble or sitting here?" Oprah asked with a smile.
Tommy lowered his head to think for a moment before looking back up, "I don’t have any trouble, Ms. Winfrey, nor does my company. I’m not uneasy, I just don’t know... I don’t know how to communicate with my black friends. As you mentioned when you introduced me, I’m from Rhode Island where there are very few black people. I hardly had any black friends growing up. I’ve always wondered whether I should stand up now like in The Cosby Show and do a complicated handshake and fist bump with those in the audience. I think those moves are cool, I practiced them a lot in front of the TV, but I never had any black friends to try them with..."
"Does anyone here know the handshake from The Cosby Show when black brothers meet? Let’s see if he’s lying," Oprah challenged as soon as she saw Tommy pretending to be friendly towards black people.
If Tommy was lying, he would only face greater embarrassment.
A black man stood up in the audience. Tommy looked at Oprah who signaled him to proceed, then walked up in full view of everyone and the cameras, reaching out his hand and completing a greeting routine that included a series of moves like high fives, handshakes, and fist bumps.
After doing so, Tommy carefully asked the man, "Did I do it wrong? That was my first time."
"You did great. If you dressed in street clothes and darkened your skin, I would almost want to call you ’nigga,’" enthused the black audience member.
This time the applause was for Tommy. He walked back to the sofa amid the clapping and sat down, returning to the pose with his hands between his thighs, looking into empty space. Seeing his demeanor, the audience couldn’t help laughing again.
"Want to say something?" Oprah asked Tommy with a smile.
At this point, however, Tommy turned his head towards her. His gaze was gentle yet strong, ensuring everyone could hear him say, "I want to say that I haven’t lied, neither here nor anywhere else."
"Wow~" The unexpectedly powerful statement, paired with Tommy’s gaze toward her, made Oprah momentarily lose her composure, then she immediately realized, this bastard was trying to take over my show!
She suppressed the instinctive praise that almost slipped out and the typical question about his company’s lawsuits. Instead, wanting to test Tommy’s responsiveness, she paused for two seconds before asking another question:
"You previously took part in a telemarketing show in Florida and you seem like a completely different person compared to now. Let’s see how you were back then. To be honest, if you continue like this, it makes me think you’re somewhat hypocritical, Tommy, but that’s quite normal, after all, most white people are."
As she spoke, Oprah motioned to turn on the studio’s TV, and it began to play highlights of Tommy’s telemarketing performance in Florida, where he was dynamic, getting the audience to stand up, applaud and cheer loudly.
"Getting back to my previous question, want to say something?" Oprah paused the video at the moment when Tommy was about to throw his jacket to the audience and asked. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶
Tommy cursed Oprah countless times in his mind. How much hatred did these black people have for white people? Seeing a white person appear on the show, they seemed eager to embarrass him on the spot.
