Oprah Winfrey: Swiss store employee denied me service because I'm black
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Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah Winfrey was just named as one of the 2013 recipients of the
President's Medal of Freedom. She has countless awards and is one of the world's richest women. And she's co-starring in "Lee Daniels' The Butler," a film that opens up next week. But while in Switzerland last month for
Tina Turner's wedding celebration, she says she was denied service at a handbag shop, with a shop assistant telling her the bags were "too expensive" for her.
As Winfrey told
Entertainment Tonight on Monday, "I was in Zurich the other day, at a store whose name I will not mention. I didn't have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had my little Donna Karan skirt and my little sandals on. But obviously 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' is not shown in Zurich.”
She explained further that she had gone into the shop, asked to see a particular bag, and was denied by the shop assistant. When she pressed, the assistant told her "you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able to afford that."
The bag, reported the
International Business Times, cost $38,000; the store was called Trois Pommes. She left the store without making a purchase.
Winfrey insists the denial came from racism. "There's two different ways to handle it. I could've had the whole blow-up thing and thrown down the (American Express) black card, and all that stuff but why do that? But (racism) still exists, of course it does."
Blick newspaper said that the owner of the boutique has since apologized for the incident, saying it was a "misunderstanding."
This is not the first time Winfrey has been shut out by a store;
in 2005 she visited a Hermes shop in Paris and was denied entry. Whether it had to do with her race or the fact that the store reportedly had just closed when she arrived depended on differing versions of events.
http://www.today.com/entertainment/...loyee-denied-me-service-because-im-6C10883523
That's what she gets for being a part of the constant portrayal of black subservience and poverty.
That is BEYOND offensive. Who would say that to a customer without knowing if that customer could afford it or not? Yes it's racism. I would've made a statement if that happened to me. I would've bought that store and fired you.
fixed