This experience must be right up there with losing your job, having your wife lose her job, falling behind on your mortgage payments, feeding your children from food pantries, collecting a meager unemployment benefit (on which you will owe taxes), working odd-jobs for cash to try and get ahead, becoming homeless, living out of your car, moving to a family services shelter, being told you are not yet qualified for welfare or food stamps or subsidized housing, turning to day labor, being told by the government that they will give you work, being bused scores of miles to stock shelves at Wal-Mart or wash dishes at Dick Clark's Family Restaurant for minimum wage, then listening to the horror stories of your wife and children trying to survive in a run-down motel designated a shelter by the local government.
Oprah must have had a terrible day like that in Paris on June 14, 2005. Which experience led her close friend, Gayle King, to say to the media:
"Oprah describes it herself as one of the most humiliating moments of her life."
What did the evil Parisians do to Ms. Winfrey? My goodness! Since Ms. Winfrey pretends to be so socially aware and politically astute, the French must have done something remarkably untoward. What could they have done? Stupie Bush better send in the Marines, because we can't have one of our multi-millionaires abused by the French!
Poor Oprah!
The humiliating experience Ms. Winfrey suffered, one that ranks with having no health care for your children, attempting to terminate a pregnancy, or begging money from your family, is heinous. It crushed her very being, I'm certain.
Believe it or not, Hermes, the exclusive boutique chain that sells medium-quality products splashed with logos, had the audacity to refuse her entry to their boutique at Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore after the store had closed and while they were preparing the space for a private party scheduled for later that evening.
Can you imagine a greater humiliation than being refused entry to a retail outlet after it has closed for the day?
Though Ms. Winfrey hasn't accused Hermes of racism, her friend suggests
If it had been Celine Dion or Britney Spears or Barbra Streisand, there is no way they would not be let in that store.
Well, all of those women are world-renown (for better or worse) entertainers whose reputations proceed them everywhere in the world. Ms. Winfrey is an American daytime talk show host. Europeans probably couldn't be bothered with her: she is dull!
So, according to her friend, Ms. Winfrey really IS saying she was refused entry because she is a black woman.
As an American black woman I am certain she has experienced this sort of racism. America is rife with the insidiousness of corporate racism. The French aren't without their problems of racism, but they are more sophisticated than Americans, and anyone who has spent any time in Paris knows that there is more integration in Paris establishments than in any American city, including New York and Los Angeles.
Ms. Winfrey needs to frame it as racism, because she can't accept that nobody in Paris has a clue who she is, nor do they care two-merdes about daytime talk show hacks from the United States (I am surprised Americans care about them, but that's a different post).
Rich people and stars often get exclusive access to boutiques. It's not uncommon. Generally, however, they make arrangements.
Did Ms. Winfrey call the store earlier in the day to confirm an appointment? Anyone with a lot of money and a modicum of fame can call any boutique anywhere in the world and say they need an hour to shop after closing. If you are spending, and you give management a heads-up, you will be accommodated. If you waltz around the world acting as if you should be catered to at every moment, most service industry people will ignore you. Just ask Madonna or Naomi Campbell! They have both acted-out at high-end boutiques after arriving after-hours and being refused admittance. You act like an ass and you get treated like an ass, no matter how rich and famous you are. It takes little effort to be accommodated in a big city anywhere in the world.
Hell, I'm not wealthy and Sak's Fifth Avenue's flagship store in Midtown Manhattan stayed open almost an hour for me and my wife (then my fiancee) to shop. Why? We were pleasant, friendly, grateful and spending! They let us shop as the lights were dimmed and the doors locked and they were really nice to us. They showed us a secret exit and they treated us with the dignity we treated them.
I would have loved to have been a fly on the door when Ms. Winfrey started acting all indignant and asinine and demanding service.
But, then . . . wait! According to a story at The Bosh
A reader tells thebosh.com that Oprah was in the limo and a representative came to the door and did not identify the client as Oprah, she was never spotted and never mentioned.
"The limo driver said an American journalist wanted to come in the store to shop. The store had been closed for 45 minutes and the security policy is no one is to enter the store after hours. . . .
Journalist!?!? Hah! Yeah, me too: journalist! Winfrey is a hack! On top of that, the Hermes staff didn't even know it was the famous and important journalistic giant: Oprah Winfrey!
This is not an incident of racism, it's an incident of famous person stupidity. This is a confusion created by the over-inflated ego of an ass!
There is no controversy here! Oprah Winfrey is an ass! That's the whole story!
By the way, Ms. Winfrey: now that you are boycotting Hermes, maybe you can send 10% of your $225,000,000 earnings from 2004 to a homeless shelter or a food pantry.
Oh, I forget, you're rich and an ass! Never mind! Keep your money. You deserve to be miserable for the rest of your life with it.
Ass!
E online! article at Yahoo!
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