Oprah Winfrey is promoting a new movie in which she appears. Coincidentally, a few days ago Oprah shared a fable about how America still is racist- it takes place in Switzerland.
Oprah Winfrey insisted that she WAS a victim of racism and she experienced what ‘people of black or brown color experience daily’, in an interview with a Swiss newspaper published today.
Oprah, one of the world’s richest women, revealed on Entertainment Tonight last week that she felt discriminated against when a sales assistant in a luxury Zurich Boutique refused to show her a $38,000 handbag designed by Tom Ford and named after Jennifer Aniston.
‘I was asked if I am confronted with racism,’ she told Swiss daily Blick in an interview in Los Angeles on Monday night but not published until today.
This experience wasn’t obvious- it was subtle:
‘My answer – not in the same way as others because I am so well known. Except on Twitter, no-one dares confront me with the N-word. I feel discrimination in a different way.
‘My antenna receives an underlying “what is going on here?” I called Zurich an example, because it was happening.’
Asked if she was being ‘particularly sensitive,’ she said: ‘No! I know of no black man who was never stopped by police because of his skin color, or persecuted, but it’s different for women. What I’ve experienced in Switzerland happened only once before in my life.
The saleswoman in question has a different memory of the event:
The sales assistant who refused to show U.S. talkshow billionaire Oprah Winfrey a luxury handbag costing nearly £25,000 claims the superstar lied about what happened in the luxury Swiss boutique where she works.
Speaking anonymously to Sunday newspaper SonntagsBlick, the Italian bag lady said she felt ‘powerless’ and in the grip of a ‘cyclone’ after Winfrey went on TV in America to claim she had been the victim of racism.
Winfrey was in Switzerland in July when she walked into the Trois Pommes boutique in Zurich looking for a handbag to match the outfit she was going to wear to old friend Tina Turner’s wedding.
She claims the sales assistant refused to show her the black crocodile leather bag because – seeing a black woman – she automatically assumed she would not be able to afford it.
Now the saleslady has hit back, stating: ‘I wasn’t sure what I should present to her when she came in on the afternoon of Saturday July 20 so I showed her some bags from the Jennifer Aniston collection.‘She looked at a frame behind me. Far above there was the 35,000 Swiss franc crocodile leather bag.
‘I simply told her that it was like the one I held in my hand, only much more expensive, and that I could show her similar bags.
‘It is absolutely not true that I declined to show her the bag on racist grounds. I even asked her if she wanted to look at the bag.
Then the saleswoman makes a great point:
The saleslady went on: ‘This is not true. This is absurd. I would never say something like that to a customer. Really never. Good manners and politeness are the Alpha and the Omega in this business.
‘I don’t know why she is making these accusations. She is so powerful and I am just a shop girl.
‘I didn’t hurt anyone. I don’t know why someone as great as her must cannibalize me on TV.
‘If it had all taken place as she claimed, why has she not complained the next day at the wedding of Tina Turner with Trudie Goetz, my boss? She was there also at the Turner wedding as a guest. I don’t understand it.
Curiously, this has happened before – accompanying another racially themed movie release:
June 22, 2005 – Luxury store Hermes on Wednesday apologized to Oprah Winfrey for turning her away last week, saying that its Paris store was closed to set up for a public relations event when the talk show host stopped by.
“Hermes regrets not having been able to accommodate Ms. Winfrey and her team and to provide her with the service and care that Hermes strives to provide to each and every one of its customers worldwide,” the store said in a statement.
“Hermes apologizes for any offense taken due to such circumstances.”
The store said the incident occurred on June 14 around 6:45 p.m., about 15 minutes after the store closed. It said Winfrey and her team arrived at a time when “a private PR event was being set up inside.”
Harpo Productions spokeswoman Michelle McIntyre said Winfrey “will discuss her ‘crash moment’ when her show returns from hiatus in September.”
“Crash” is a film dealing with race relations. The phrase “crash moment” refers to situations where a party feels discriminated against on the basis of skin color.
The New York Daily News cited sources close to Winfrey as saying the talk show host was first rebuffed by a clerk and then a store manager. The Daily News reported Winfrey had gone to the store to buy a watch for singer Tina Turner, her dining partner that night.
Tina Turner both times? What are the odds that Oprah would find a racist sales clerk on both trips to see Tina Turner right around the time a new movie involving Oprah is being released?
But now she’s sorry she ever brought it up:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey says she’s “sorry” about the media coverage that emerged after she said she experienced racism during a trip to Switzerland.
“I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I’m really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I’m sorry that I said it was Switzerland,” Winfrey said Monday night at the Los Angeles premiere of “Lee Daniels: The Butler.”
“I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don’t expect that you would be able to be there,” she continued.
BTW, the bag Oprah wanted to buy? It’s a crocodile skin bag. That’s an interesting purchase for PETA’s 2008 Person of the Year, no?
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
She’s in the same category as Sharpton and Jackson…
This whole story is hilarious…
“I think that incident in Switzerland was just an incident in Switzerland. I’m really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I’m sorry that I said it was Switzerland,” Winfrey said Monday night at the Los Angeles premiere of “Lee Daniels: The Butler.”
Only because it was easy for reporters to find the store, interview the saleslady, and find out that Opie-rah was wildly exaggerating her claim of racism.
Sadly for her and others of her ilk, I, like so many others, have become immune to the claim of racism. It has become a word that now means “The claimant is a pathetic crybaby”.
@Petercat: It also means that the claimant is a racist.
She is only sorry that she mentioned it because she got caught playing the ‘card’.
PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews described the horrors of the exotic-skins trade as shown in a PETA video narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix and described how farmed reptiles are beaten over the head before being skinned alive.
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/prefs.asp?chgpref=1&video=cold-blooded_horrors_peta
PETA’s advice?
Dump the croc.
What’s next for PETA?
Dump the O.
Opie playing the victim, playing the race card, trying for street cred. Next she’ll be out get a tat.
PETA have removed all mention of Oprahs award:
http://www.peta.org/feat-personofyear-08.asp
Here is the archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/20081221211936/http://www.peta.org/feat-personofyear-08.asp
Crocodile tears!
Yes it is true, there is not even one racist in all of the entire United States. We are a fully perfected country.
@john
You missed the irony entirely. That’s ironic.
Of course the irony here is that Oprah could have not only afforded the $38,000 hand bag but could have bought ownership of the store as well. Now instead of whining about someone questioning her ability to buy anything she wanted because she didn’t look wealthy because either of her skin color, demeanor or attire, she had the means to make the point very powerfully by purchasing the store itself. But no, whining takes so little effort. Let’s not solve the problem when prolonging it to get attention is so much more self righteously satisfying.
Victimhood is the self righteousness of the morally weak minded. Self righteousness used to be viewed as a moral failing, but in the liberal view of the world it is the highest goal of attainment. A truly low bar indeed!
As God said of King Saul via Samuel, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” … and hence his fall from grace.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+15&version=NIV
Oprah has been blessed with so much and yet she remains so small in her own eyes. Here is a person with means/power to change attitudes around the world and chooses not to. Why?
@john: Better than any other, racially speaking.
We are the least racist country on the planet.
Oprah is worth nearly $3 billion and she’s still whining? Give me $3 billion and you can fail to show me all the handbags on Earth.
I frankly do not buy this story because if it really bugged her Oprah would have said something to her pal the store owner.
@john: There are plenty of racists in America, John. Many are simply those who use race, not as a reason to discriminate, but as a weapon to gain power.
You know if I went to Zurich and was refused to be shown a $38,000 handbag, I would instantly assume it was because I was black. No, wait a minute! I’m not black! Because I was white! No, that can’t be right, either…because I was beige!!! People of Pallor unite!
If Oprah had smacked a heavy duty Am Ex card on the counter, the clerk wouldn’t have cared if she was green.
Anyone know the color of the heaviest duty American Express Centurion card?
LOL
@DrJohn: Actually, I do, but thought it the better part of valor not to mention it!
The judge Bill Oreilly said the clerk was an idiot. Case closed.
@bburris: As in “Oprah”
Winfrey is part and parcel of the American “race pimping” industry.
Who is actually surprised that she acts like a “race pimp”?
She certainly has proven Phineas Taylor Barnum’s accuracy about the character of the American public.
She’s “race pimping” away …, oh she’s “race pimping” away …
Why not?
“Race pimping” has helped make her filthy rich.
Yep, she’s a real piece of work.
So………Orca found out that there’s no NAACP overseas. SURPRISE!!!
Guess what lardass…….people in foreign countries have the freedom to discriminate for whatever reason. I’m not saying that this is the case here but it seems that “she, whose behind rivals that of the FLOTUS” got a wake up call.
Not everyone in the world is going to bow down and kiss your enormous ass.
Get over it.
good that it’s only some of them but they are yelling too loud and expect what?
the only thing they get is a feeling of being sorry for them no matter how rich they are, they diminish their humanity and it doesn’t go away, they feel small,
good the whites who have a history of ancestor having been slaves, they did not let that diminish them,
hey it’s time to get over that time, you who feel small have been emancipated a long time ago,
stop propagating that hate you where told to dragged like a boulder, to your children who because of it are attacking the young whites because of your hate propagation,,
you as a parent or educator or big mouth leader,carry the responsibility alone,
it’s not the white’s problem but you’res.
@Rides A Pale Horse: You beat me to it. Orca Winfrey- you’re so busted. I’ve noticed that she’s very gravitionally challenged. I guess I’m a lard ass ist who practices lardassism. The black croc purse was manufactured and so was her pity trip.
@dscott: #11
Because she, like so many others, is an attention
whoreaddict. It doesn’t matter how many millions she has, if one salesclerk in Switzerland doesn’t recognize her, then in Opie-rah’s mind, her life is a failure. That is what this is all about, not any bigotry by a clerk, but the clerk not knowing who she was.I doubt if I would recognize her in public, either. Does that make me a bigot? Or just someone who has
discriminatinggood taste in entertainment?@ilovebeeswarzone: #23
Right on, Bees!
Everyone born in the USA today is born with the one thing in common*:
Opportunity.
What they do with it is up to them.
*I’m ignoring their share of a crushing national debt.
@Petercat: Eric Berne’s book from the 60’s, Games People Play, had one called NIGYYSOB – “Now I’ve got you, you son of a bitch”. Some people take great pleasure in being offended. Oprah might like getting off on being offended so much, she has to leave the States to experience it.
Racism- it’s an easy and cheap way to get headalines. Plus, the media will cover it without fact-checking it or being concerned about the truth. We have turned into a country of winers and crybabies who worry about hurting each other’s feelings instead of doing what is right.
NYC Hotel Kicks Out ‘Duck Dynasty’ Star After Confusing Him For Homeless Man
At least the store in Switzerland let Oprah in.
@PROOF#27 – Never heard of it but LOVE it!! Also your comment, yes, I agree 200%…
sometoo many people (Liberals) just live off the phony drama they create… they need to just suck it up and get over it…There is a tee shirt out there somewhere that says:
You find it offensive, I find it funny…that’s why I’m happier than you.
Great ‘dig’ at liberals/Progs…and those doomed to eternal whining…LOL
Oprah=APE