Wednesday, June 29, 2005

��TBogg��

��TBogg��: "'Oprah describes it as 'one of the most humiliating moments of her life.''

No. Humiliating is having to have to put your life on hold and re-open the store so that a woman who has made a career out of pretending to care for the common man can come in and browse around with her friends for an overpriced gift watch so that the recipient will be forced to acknowledge how fucking wonderful and generous she is. "

somebody give that man a cigar...
if the store was closed they was no reason to open the store for Oprah, me, or Queen Goldilocks...
sheesh...
give somebody all the money in the world and suddenly they think they are important.
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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why do you think this incident is even in the news? Because it doesn't happen to rich white folks. Exclusive stores like Hermes know how to cater to the rich. Don't doubt that they would have opened that store back up if it had been Nicole Kidman or Barbara Walters.

# posted by Fox's Vixen : 5:02 AM

8:51 AM
Anonymous said...

interesting point Mike. I agree that people shouldn't cater to the rich any differently. But how even handed is the treatment to rich whites? I get suspicious whenever people bitch about "playing the race card".

Check this article:




Whether Oprah Winfrey was turned away from a bit of after-hours shopping in Paris because of a racist employee or a special event, news of the confrontation outside a luxury store has evoked empathy and anger from many American people of color who say they are routinely treated poorly—and sometimes with outright suspicion—by sales staffs in this country.

In living rooms and Internet chat rooms, the Winfrey case has sparked discussion of what many see as a chronic problem for people of color—particularly in high-end stores—no matter how educated, wealthy or accomplished the customer. "The presumption in America is that if you have the wealth, you'll get—but where's Oprah's equality?" asked Bruce D. Haynes, a sociologist at the University of California, Davis. "It picks up on every inkling of discrimination that a black person might experience in daily life."



He added: "Many people are saying, 'I don't have the money, but Oprah represents what I could be' ... She's like the black Donald Trump. And if it can happen to Oprah, it could happen to anyone."



The incident occurred when Winfrey stopped by Hermes on June 14 to buy a watch minutes after the boutique closed. Though she and three friends said they saw shoppers inside, neither a sales clerk nor manager would let them in.



Winfrey believes the store's staff had identified her, according to a spokesperson from Harpo Production Inc., her company. Winfrey's friend, Gayle King, who was there, told Entertainment Tonight, "Oprah describes it as 'one of the most humiliating moments of her life.'" Harpo says Winfrey plans to discuss the incident in the context of race relations on her show this fall.



Hermes said in a statement it "regrets not having been able to welcome" Winfrey to the store, but that "a private public-relations event was being prepared inside."

Winfrey has often plugged Hermes products—a $135 tea cup and saucer was featured in her magazine in 2001 and was still on her Web site Tuesday, along with the company's phone number. But she has said she will no longer be shopping in its stores.

Many other people of color boycott stores where they receive poor service, according to Harriette Cole, author of How To Be, a book on black etiquette that recommends this tactic to counter biased treatment. Cole also recommends dressing well and, if followed, asking for shopping assistance.



"Unfortunately, this proves how deeply ingrained in global culture racism is," Cole said. "There is the assumption that a black person will do you harm, and/or the assumption that a black person has no place in a luxury establishment, cannot afford to buy the luxury item."



Michael Leake, a black pharmaceutical salesman in Toledo, Ohio, knows this experience all too well. "It happens all the time," he said. "That's just life." Once, at a high-end shopping center in Los Angeles, he said, a sales clerk referred to a white customer as "sir," but turned to Leake and greeted him with, "What's up, homes?" He confronted the clerk.



"I was like, 'How's he "sir" and I'm your homey? I'm interested in why you speak to him in a more respectful way than you speak to me. We've all got money to spend here,'" Leake said.



Indeed, many companies fail to grasp that big-spending customers now come from every background imaginable, said Luke Visconti, cofounder of DiversityInc, a New Jersey–based business that advises companies on diversity issues.



Hermes, in its treatment of Winfrey and its response, "blew it to a degree that's hard to imagine," he said. "It's clearly bigoted ... Think about what this did to their business. Think about all those people who have been oppressed [by this kind of behavior] who are going to be sympathetic to Oprah and not go back there."



Winfrey's influence is enormous: She reportedly earned $225 million last year, her daily talk show is seen in 111 countries and Forbes magazine recently named her America's most powerful celebrity. Some commentators have suggested that her extraordinary wealth, usually a buffer from the everyday trials faced by most blacks, has fueled her outrage.



But Emil Wilbiken, former editor of Vibe magazine, said it's not uncommon for black celebrities to receive poor treatment at high-end stores, where there are virtually no people of color in top positions. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs has devised a tactic to avoid poor treatment, he said.



"Puffy sends his people ahead to stores and shuts them down so he can shop privately, so this kind of thing doesn't happen," Wilbiken said. "I've worked with young people who wanted to be stylists and work in fashion and they've never gone into a high-end boutique ... because they were afraid. They didn't think they were allowed. What flashes in my mind are images of water fountains that say 'whites only.'"

12:11 PM
Kid Ornery said...

I'm just coming at this from the point of view of a guy who used to work retail...
at 7:15 if you knocked on the door of soundexchange I don't care if yr goddamn thurston moore or chuck d...I'm going home...
They say they recognized Oprah and I just can't imagine that they would have opened up for anyone if they wouldn't open for her...

I'm not saying she might not have trouble getting a cab, or suffer all sorts of indignations based on the color of her skin...
I'm just saying as a "normal joe" if I'm late to the mall then I'm screwed, and as a worker bee when the store is closed I want to go home...

1:15 PM
Anonymous said...

True, but Sound Exchange isn't Hermes, or any other fancy schmancy store. Employees at retail record stores (especially with employees like the ones at Sound Ex) treat everyone the same. I think if Oprah didn't think she could get special privileges at Hermes, she wouldn't waste her time trying to get in afterhours.

Now the reason given by them was they had some public relations event going on. Yeah, the brilliant thing to do is treat someone with her influence like that. If they didnt care of her celebrity status, thats cool. Just don't expect glowing reviews.

Now since they care so much about public relations (which I dont think SoundEx employees should have to worry about), that doesn't make any sense. this leads me to believe that the comment about how they have had problems with "North Africans" is the real reason why. There are conflicting stories as to whether they recognized her or not, but none of them justify her treatment. I am sure its an exageration that it was the "most humiliating thing in her life", but I think this goes to show that it isnt always just a class thing. The French are notoriously shitty towards North Africans.

1:43 PM

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