Saturday, August 10, 2013

Get Over It Oprah


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From the Denver Post:  Switzerland is a glamorous playground of the rich and famous, filled with glitterati from princes to movie stars. It's also a land with a sometimes uneasy relationship with foreigners—especially when they aren't white.
Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a $38,000 handbag, telling one of the world's richest women that she wouldn't be able to afford it. Winfrey earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine. "She said: 'No, no, no, you don't want to see that one. You want to see this one. Because that one will cost too much; you will not be able to afford that,'" Winfrey, appearing on the U.S. television program "Entertainment Tonight," quoted the clerk as saying. "And I said, 'Well, I did really want to see that one.' And she refused to get it." She brought up the incident during an interview about her new movie, "Lee Daniels' The Butler," which opens next week and focuses on civil rights and race relations in the U.S. She was asked to open up about her own experiences with discrimination.   http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23828046/oprah-gets-swiss-apology-racist-encounter
With all the stories I have read, I have this question: What was she wearing?
I've seen Winfrey several times in public.  When I drove for an airport shuttle van in Milwaukee, when I was at the airport, on several occasions I saw Winfrey go through the airport with her boyfriend, Stedman Graham, and when she went through the airport, she wasn't dressed fancy, usually just jeans and shirt.
Her company bought a lake side house in Hancock, WI. and one time Winfrey was jogging down the road in this tiny community (less than 500 people) in her jogging clothes and we waved to each other.
So, what was Winfrey wearing?  Maybe she dressed like she couldn't afford the handbag.
I also suspect the employee works on commission, so I don't think she discriminated based on Winfrey being Black, but may have discriminated on how she looked.  If the sales girl wanted the commission, she would have shown the more expensive handbag, but she probably going for the sure sale, in her mind and tried to show the least expensive bag.
So, get over it Oprah, you weren't a victim of racism, you were a victim of a stupid sales person.
And what were you wearing and why hasn't anyone asked her?

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