One of the most humiliating moments of Oprah's life
I've heard rumors she was rejected because the French have so much trouble with North African immigrants:One of the most humiliating moments of Oprah's life
French luxury store Hermes has apologised to American television celebrity Oprah Winfrey for turning her away from one of its Paris boutiques last week, saying when she came knocking the store was closed for a public relations event. The U.S. talk show host and "an entourage" unsuccessfully tried to enter a Hermes boutique on the posh Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. "People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store," said Gayle King, a friend of Winfrey who witnessed the incident. "Oprah describes it herself as 'one of the most humiliating moments of her life.'" "She's really OK. Her position is, 'I will shop where people appreciate my business, and I don't believe that any longer includes Hermes,'" King said. Normal closing time is 6:30 p.m., though high-end shops are known to make exceptions for celebrities. On that particular night, however, ``a private public relations event was being prepared inside,'' the Hermes statement said. "Hermes regrets not having been able to welcome Madame Oprah Winfrey and the people accompanying her to give them all the attention and service that Hermes is committed to giving each of its clients in the world," said the statement released Tuesday.
posted by Unknown @ 6:04 PM
6 Comments:
Oprah loves Palestinian terrorists, so I'm sure she get could get service at the Hermes store there.
Be black and prepare to be rudely ignored...
That is my understanding of the French as well. Now, how they got to >20% Muslim/African is beyond me and if anyone has a valid explanation, I would love to hear it.
The problem is very simple: Paris ( France ) has become swarmed with North Africans that work little compared to other french people and therefore have little money, and who also have atrocious crime rates. What it means, unfortunately, is that if above a certain percentage of your customers are North Africans, your store will likely suffer and/or go bust. That's the problem - people from Northern Africa are a lot less likely to buy something expensive and far more likely to steal it. Saying the french have some irrational hatred for North Africans or anyone who looks like them is just a way over oversimplifying the problem. A bit like american TV-shows often do, actually.
As for failing to recognize trash-TV-queen Operah, well, that's just one of the things I love about the french. They actually show educated and intelligent people on the tube, not amoeba-level, lowest denominator stupidifiers like Operah. The last time I looked at french TV they had an interview of a nuclear physicist talking about quarks and quantum level mechanics for half an hour straight whilst smiling smugly. I've watched a lot more american TV than I've watched french TV, but I never remember a hard science professor being interviewed on US TV about his work for more than five minutes straight. Or for any length of time, for that matter.
On simplicity: We could argue about semantics, but allow me rephrase myself for the sake of clarity: Blaming this incident on an irrational dislike for anyone from North Africa or anyone who looks like they're from NA is unreasonable, because negative reactions towards those people can be fully explained by their crime rates and buying power.
Your following questions are either based on false premises, and/or they require answers that are several pages long to do them any justice. Whether or not watching dumb TV-shows will make viewers dumb, if the french are being condescending or just realistic about mankind are the kinds of questions you seriously can't expect me to give a good answer to in the comments-section of a blog.
As to your final point, the US has a large percentage of black inhabitants, around 13% of the total population, mainly stemming from importing their ancestors as slaves. France however, has a black population of under one percent. So it's not too strange that no blacks have their own TV-show in France. I'm not an expert on french media, but I know that one of the national channels, Soir 3, at present has a black presenter in the main evening news.
Thanks for recommending me for french prez. I'll think about it if things start to slow down. There's another thing I like about the french - any successful frenchman has his own mistress. If he doesn't, he'll be looked at with suspicion: either he's queer ( not so bad these days ), impotent ( and you know what they say: you gotta have a fucker in the Whitehouse, etc. ) or even worse, some kind of moralistic pervert out to ruin the fun for everyone else. In fact I would bet that getting blown in the office by an intern or any other female is more of a norm than an exception for leaders in France. And nobody cares. How could you possibly dislike a country like that?
Everyone here seems to overlook the fact that the store was closed.
Somehow I don't think that Hermes would have let me in after hours either, despite my blond/blue coloring. Heck, the majority of people in the world, regardless of color, can't afford to buy anything in that store even when it IS open.
This is merely an example of celebrityitis, which has the following symptoms, an enlarged sense of entitlement, an ego that requires constant massaging, and the ability to delay personal gratification at the level of the average two year old.
Oprah needs to get over herself.
Everyone here seems to overlook the fact that the store was closed.
That little fact won't stop Oprah from having an hour long show on how Hermes is racist and how racism is still so prevalent in society. The audience will also chime in appropriately and show their shock and disgust as they try and unruffle the feathers of their "unbiased" and slighted host. Yes, I see it now and can hardly wait.
Post a Comment
<< Home