Oprah nixes HERMES: Paris Shop says don't come in

Money makes some Black folks rich but it still can't make some other folks less ignorant. In a tragic case of "mistaken identity" shopkeepers at Hermes in Paris apparently mistook Oprah Winfrey for an idiot. Maybe they saw her chocolate brown face and thought "beggar." Oops. The talk show host, and publishing and producing diva - and all-around sister with mucho courage - is said to have assured the public that Hermes need not worry about seeing her -or her credit cards - ever again. I hope she keeps her word, which frankly she's likely to do. I have a strong feeling word will be getting around and some other folks will follow Oprah's lead and give Hermes and their scarves some permanent "space." This "misunderstanding" as Hermes called it, is a regularly occuring social-psychological condition known to and experienced by many, many Blacks & other people of colour (gens de couleur, gente de color). I call it the "Your-Money's-not-as-good-as-White-folks'-Money Disease." Couturier Hermes has since apologised to Oprah, but honey ... it _ is _ too _ late. Hopefully le tax system francais has a business write-off specifically for financial losses due to racist stupidity. If they don't, they and a lot of other places should. And not just in France.

BBC News

"Luxury French boutique Hermes has apologised to talk show host Oprah Winfrey after refusing her entry to one of their outlets in Paris. A friend of Winfrey, who witnessed the incident, said it "one of the most humiliating moments of her life". [Hermes has a thousand excuses...]Hermes said a private PR event was being prepared so it was unable to accommodate the star at the time. A spokeswoman for the star's production company called it her "Crash" moment, referring to a race relations film. Winfrey, 51, who was recently named the most powerful celebrity in the world by business magazine Forbes, has said she is preparing to talk about the incident on her US show. The hugely successful TV star unsuccessfully tried to access the store after closing time, although shops are known to make special provisions for celebrities. People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store," Winfrey's friend Gayle King told US show Entertainment Tonight. A statement released by Hermes said: "Hermes regrets not having been able to welcome 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.

"Hermes expresses its sincere regrets for any misunderstanding that these circumstances could have caused," it added.

Winfrey's friend Ms King said the TV presenter has no intention of shopping at Hermes again.

"Her position is 'I will shop where people appreciate my business, and I don't believe that any longer includes Hermes'," she added.

Winfrey's show attracts about 30 million viewers each week, and is believed to have generated $225m (£123.6m) in revenues during the past year.

Comments

[John Du Preez]

Let's look at this from an outside perspective. If there is one country that knows all sides and all points of veiw when it comes to racisim it's South Africa. I'm a South African, and here's what we all think about the Oprah story in general: "Get a new line!" Claiming that a store is run by racists is not only unfair, but it's plain irresponsible from somebody in her position. Sure, what I can say is that the guard at the store should be fired on spot, and the store should make an apology (which they did), but after that I see no reason to take things further. It's easy to take this to a deeper level, but lets not. Let's just say that while some people are indeed still racist, there are some people that want to keep racisim alive by finding it in the smallest incident all the time. Racisim is bad in more ways than one, it's the ultimate "look at me, feel sorry for me" attention seeker because everybody tip-toes around the subject and is too afraid to take it by the horns. South Africans are slowly learning to live with one another, and realizing there are some things that we'll NEVER get along with together (but respecting each others culture non-the-less) ... it seems America is not as perfect as everyone seems to think, especially if their "famous people" act like idiots. [THANK YOU FOR WRITING; SOME OF US HAPPEN TO DISAGREE WITH YOU. YOU'RE IN SO. AFRICA. ACTUALLY, COLONIAL WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS CAME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE 1940S/50S TO MEET WITH, TAKE LESSONS FROM, CONSULT/"NETWORK" WITH SOME U.S. WHITES ON HOW-TO CONDUCT "SUCCESSFUL", EFFECTIVE SEGREGATION AND SUBJUGATION OF BLACKS. WITH REFERENCE TO ANOTHER, EARLIER COMMENTER, SOUTH AFRICA IS WHERE OPRAH WINFREY PUBLISHES AN EDITION OF "O" MAGAZINE, AND ALSO SPONSORS A GIRLS' SCHOOL. VERY, VERY FEW RICH WESTERNERS FROM ANY COUNTRY ARE DOING CONSUMER BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS WITH ANYONE IN AFRICA -- AS OPPOSED TO THINGS LIKE MINERAL EXTRACTION; MS WINFREY'S PROJECTS ARE INCLUSIVE OF SOUTH AFRICANS OF VARIOUS BACKGROUNDS -- INCLUDING SOUTH AFRICAN BLACKS. THIS IS INTENDED FOR CERTAIN OTHER FOLKS WHO COMMENTED BUT APPARENTLY NEED VICIOUS, PERSONAL NOT TO MENTION **UNINFORMED** ATTACKS TO MAKE THEIR "POINT."]

[olivia]

THE MOST REVEALING PART OF THIS COMMENT? -- ... "You found out you're not white after all." NOW *THAT* IS DEEP.

[Joanie Harter]

"JOANIE DEAREST" WRITES: "I hate celebrities with a passion, none of them have any class." [AND YET IT IS OBVIOUS YOU DO??? DIDN'T ANYONE EVER TEACH YOU THAT HATE IS A VERY STRONG WORD? JUDGING FROM YOUR REMARKS -- APART FROM YOUR EQUALLY REVEALING AD FEMINEM INVECTIVE -- YOU SEEM TO HAVE A VERY STRONG CRITIQUE OF THE PREVAILING U.S./WESTERN ATTITUDE TOWARD WEALTH AND MONEY. SO IF THERE'S ANYTHING GENUINE AT ALL ABOUT YOUR "CRITICISM" (TO PUT IT GENEROUSLY), AND NOT JUST THE SUPERFICIAL, RACIST RANTING IT APPEARS TO BE, YOU COULD PUT IT TO FAR BETTER USE. Cheers! ] >Joanie Harter continues:< ".... worthless butts. ... I don't think ... beautiful ... I wouldn't want to look like her ... fat ugly ... [AND, BY THE WAY, UNLIKE MOST OTHER PEOPLE OF HER ** PRESENT ** ECONOMIC LEVEL, WINFREY IS NOT A TRUST-FUND-BABY (DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT IS??) AND SHE DEFINITELY DOES NOT COME FROM A RICH FAMILY. SHE WORKS FOR A LIVING AND ENGAGES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WHO INTERACT WITH HER AND/OR HER MEDIA PRESENCE OF THEIR OWN* FREE* WILL.* I CAN ASSURE YOU OPRAH WINFREY SHARES MORE OF HER INCOME (AND INCLUDING SCHOLARSHIPS AND OTHER ASSISTANCE TO MEMBERS OF HER OWN FAMILY AS WELL AS PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD, ALL OF WHOM SHE COULD NEVER POSSIBLY MEET.) THAN DO OTHERS OF SIMILAR MEANS; OTHERS WHO ARE DESCENDANTS OF SLAVEHOLDERS, NOT OF THE ENSLAVED AS IS SHE. THEY DEFINITELY DO NOT COME FROM BACKGROUNDS ANYTHING LIKE MS WINFREY'S.]

[Debbie]

This has to be the most ridiculous story I've heard this year! [[APPARENTLY YOU DO NOT BELIEVE IN RACISM; AND/OR DO NOT CARE, OR WISH TO BE "DISTURBED".]]The fact that employees of Hermes would abide by instructions to close the store at a specific hour and not accommodate buyers who choose to shop after hours - perish the thought! [DID YOU STOP TO THINK THAT POSSIBLY THEIR SHOP POLICIES ARE NOT LIKE THOSE OF THE SHOPS MOST OF US ARE USED TO?] I don't care what the color, race, gender, or religious inclination is of the customer - when the sign says we're closed, WE'RE CLOSED!!! Guess what, Oprah, we little people have lives and families that we just might want to spend time with. Send one of your minions to find out what the store operating hours are, and then arrange to visit the store when it's open. For the record, I am a United States native and citizen and I am not of Parisian descent. I am female, 50 years old, with a relatively young family. Ok, I'm not black - so what! [INTERESTING STATEMENT - "SO WHAT," WITH EXCLAMATION...] Should I blame my local vendors because they won't keep stores open for me??? Try to deny that you've gotten where you are BECAUSE you are a black, opinionated woman. [AMAZING. I THOUGHT IT ALL STARTED BECAUSE SHE DID HER JOB WELL AT THE TV STATION IN BALTIMORE.] Oprah, get over yourself - you'll be a better person for it, trust me. Quit playing the race card. [???] You have no basis for doing so and lose all credibility with your audience. [I AM SURE THAT DEBBIE SPEAKS FOR HERSELF. Thanks!]

[catherine baker]

I'm retired from the airline industry and if I had a dime for every time a rich celebrity wanted me to inconvenience another customer just to accommodate them, I'd be rich enough to shop at Hermes. {Why didn't O. give them a call in advance so they could have the time to placate both her and the private party?} How many blacks do you ever see in her audience? If O knew anything about history, she would know that France is the least racist of any country in the world, [VRAIMENT?? That's French for "really?"] and because of that, many black GIs chose to stay there after the end of WWII. It appears most celebs praise her because they are afraid of her. Oprah has lost her humility and her power has puffed her up like a big ol toad frog. And the next time you watch her show . . . watch how many times she is looking at herself in the monitor and not at the camera. I prefer the kind of famous person who does anonymous works; cuz you know their heart is in the right place. O does good works so she can make a show out of how wonderful she is. She wasn't "humiliated" because she is black, she was "humiliated" because she was acting like a rich, superior, ugly american and Hermes didn't respond to her demands. [You have a right to your opinion - I totally disagree] They reminded her that even though she sees herself as all powerful, she had no right to demand they inconvenience the customer that was having the private party [THEY WERE NOT HAVING A PRIVATE PARTY]- she reminds me of the time Lucille Ball told a flight attendant on American Airlines when she was asked if she would like something to drink. . . she turned to her assistant and said, "please tell her that I don't speak directly to servants." yep, and everyone thinks lucille ball was almost godlike. Looks like oprah has come to the same conclusion about herself. [???] She is pulling the race card in order to distract the public from the fact that she thought she should be cowtowed to because she is rich and famous. I say while oprah encourages everyone to boycott Hermes, I say let's boycott Oprah!! and bring her back down to earth. [MERCI POUR VOTRE OPINION CATHERINE MAIS JE NE SUIS PAS DU TOUT D'ACCORD. If you don't understand that I propose you know less about France than you may think; but thanks!]

[nailah]

Hermes made a big mistake. Oprah is a woman with much power and influence. She can take an unheard of author and make their novel a best-seller by adding it to her book club. All she has to do is vow to never patronize this shop again for it to feel her pull on their profits. I wouldn't want to upset or make anyone feel unwanted, especially Oprah. If they were closed or had a prior commitment, make an acception. We all know Oprah is good for revenue. It is not like she is going to waste time browsing and not buy. If she does, so what? Let her do that too so she can remember the store for her favorite things episode. I close with the famous words of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, "You guys work on commission right? Big mistake, huge."