By your logic you know nothing about me and yet you're projecting on me an image of a race crazed person blinded by Hollywood's projections and images, who see's all white people as some sort of mythical brotherhood. No, I am actually going on what your words explicitly said. This is different from how you're treating the clerk. And one who can't think objectively and analyze a specific situation regardless of what past situations I may have seen or been in. Also, by your logic you want to give everyone the benefit of the doubt even if their actions are plain as day. In the real world no one is going through a rolodex or checklist of prejudices trying to figure out which one they have been subjected too. Innocent until proven guilty is bad now? By your logic, you will see racism in everything and grow up a victim, as I mentioned before. Cognition is much more complex than 'black and white' reasoning. We should respect that fact.
Oprah has been alive a lot longer than you and I combined probably. Irrelevant in this matter. She is also known to identify as a 'strong black woman'. This makes her oversensitive to racial context. She is intelligent and I think she knows racism when she experiences it first hand. This is the crucial point. She 'felt' racially profiled. This is not the same as being racially profiled. To know whether she was, we'd need more information about the clerk's point of view. There is none, so why judge her anyway? 'Cause you like pointing out that racist people are still abundant? You're too eager.
Sure there are other forms of prejudice, and you are very right on that account, but I'm speaking about this specific incident. For you to shrug it off and come up with every other form of prejudice on the planet as an alternative for this situation, as if Oprah doesn't know any better, is actually pretty arrogant and condescending. No, I'm going by the information that is available. How would Oprah know what the clerk's motive was? From a look? From the fact that the clerk thought she wasn't rich enough? Maybe Oprah saw what she wanted to see. Even though she's rich people can still be racist towards her. Maybe she wants to feel 'black', promoting this movie of hers. Maybe not. Again, we don't know shyt. Quit acting like I'm being an apologist for white people when all I'm doing is exposing the faulty logic and racist motives behind these posters' comments.
You're thinking about this all in theory when there is an actual specific real world example right in your face. This is a very high-end exclusive shopping area in Zurich, Switzerland where the wealthy (MOSTLY white, not all white, some Arabs) shop. Now Oprah is very wealthy, but she doesn't look like the rest, so what makes her different and easy to differentiate?
The clerk probably does look for a certain sterotype customer but she probably also turns down many white would-be-customers because they don't fit that type. It doesn't mean she thinks all black people are poor or some bullshyt. Chances are fairly slim that she's never had a black customer in her entire life, even in Zurich. She just didn't think Oprah looked like she had money. White people get treated suspiciously in stores all the time too. Maybe Oprah was acting a little too arrogant and the clerk just didn't feel like helping her or kissing her ass. We don't know shyt about the entire situation.
Umm...not her clothes, but her skin color! I'm willing to bet that was the reason she was denied that purse. I don't have to know the store clerk or a genius to see discrimination based on race at play. Exactly. You're just assuming here basically. You're seeing what you want to see, based on insufficient evidence.
