# Black people can't wear Hermes.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 23, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520 "2005-06-23T12:17:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/1 "2005-06-23T12:17:01Z")
First it was Gloria Vanderbilt, then Tommy Hilfiger\*, now Hermes!
Why they gotta be such haters?
[http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/22/oprah.apology/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/22/oprah.apology/index.html)
Jeez, I wish _I_ could get a public apology from a store that wouldn’t let me come in and shop 15 minutes after closing!\*\*
- Yeah, I know, it’s not really true that Hilfiger said he’d never have designed his clothes if he knew they’d be so popular with Black people . . . and Gloria Vanderbilt probably never said that whole thing about not designing clothes for Black booties, but work with me, here . . .
\*\* Yeah, I know that if you’re a person like Oprah, who’s bound to be mobbed by a million “fans” if you shop during operating hours, shopping after closing is the only way to roll, but come on, where is she getting the whole race thing, unless the store’s official apology said, “Due to the fact that all Black people look alike, we were unable to tell that the woman was Oprah. We thought she was just some regular Black schmoe, and we do not cater to regular Black schmoes after hours”?
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/2 "2005-06-23T12:23:00Z")
If this is ever moved to the Pit, I’ll express my true, unexpurgated feelings on the subject matter.
Till then, let me just state that Oprah is a self-important, self-aggrandizing, self-obsessed human.
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### Author:  [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/3 "2005-06-23T12:44:12Z")
> [@Turek](#):
>
> If this is ever moved to the Pit, I’ll express my true, unexpurgated feelings on the subject matter.
>
> Till then, let me just state that Oprah is a self-important, self-aggrandizing, self-obsessed human.
I considered posting it in the Pit, but really, for me it’s more of a head-shaker and less of a rant, and I haven’t had enough coffee yet this morning to work up the stunning array of goat-centric curses needed for the Pit.
Sorry.
But I gotta say I agree with you about Oprah, especially after that huge party she threw where she asked everyone to wear black and white . . .
. . . and she wore bright red.
I’m all for a stunning hostess outfit, and I’m even all for making it all about you, but if it IS going to be all about you, don’t pretend it’s about honoring someone else. Just invite people over, throw some food and booze at 'em, and rock your red dress all you want.
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### Author:  [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/4 "2005-06-23T12:54:05Z")
> [@auntie em](#):
>
> \*\* Yeah, I know that if you’re a person like Oprah, who’s bound to be mobbed by a million “fans” if you shop during operating hours, shopping after closing is the only way to roll
Then she should make arrangements with the store beforehand. Not show up there and demand to be let in after store hours. Twat.
I wonder how her fans, or The Holy Order of Oprahlites as my mother calls them, will spin this one, seeing as Oprah can do no wrong, blessed be her name. Twats.
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### Author:  [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/5 "2005-06-23T12:55:29Z")
Doesn’t she have “people” to do this for her?
I cannot believe that one of her staff did not call Hermes and ask that a selection of watches be delivered to her hotel suite and the choice made there.
I mean, come on–Oprah knocking on a shop door after closing? What is this, a movie?
And the race card thing is low, low, low. Thank God for surveillance tape (although it does not record voices that I know of).
IMO, she needs to get over herself–store is closed. CLOSED. Have it out with staff if you feel this wasn’t handled appropriately–and I mean YOUR staff, O.
Feel like going out and buying a Hermes scarf right now, just 'cause. Don’t wear scarves and don’t have any money for that right now, but if I did…heh.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/6 "2005-06-23T13:09:32Z")
I once asked to shop in a store 15 minutes after closing, and they refused me, too. Thanks to Oprah, I realize that they were discriminating against me because I am white. I don’t think the bloody machete, nor the freshly severed head of a Starbucks employee I killed because he gave me attitude, that I was carrying really had anything to do with it. It was my whiteness.
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### Author:  [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/7 "2005-06-23T13:23:41Z")
I’d have more respect for Hermes if they handn’t rolled over and become boot lickers. Why did they feel the need to apologize? For what? …Twats.
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### Author:  [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/8 "2005-06-23T13:28:46Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> I’d have more respect for Hermes if they handn’t rolled over and become boot lickers. Why did they feel the need to apologize? For what? …Twats.
But it’s _Oprah_, man! If Oprah runs you down in her car as you’re walking down the sidewalk, you apologize for walking. If Oprah walks into your vegetarian restaurant and wants 8 lbs. of veal, you apologize for your shoddy menu . . . and get her the damn veal. If Oprah sneezes while driving past your house, you kill your pets, burn your garden and raze the whole joint.
Nobody wants to be the next Beef Industry. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/9 "2005-06-23T13:34:19Z")
I realize I’m just a dumb spic, but why should Oprah or anybody else get special treatment?
She didn’t get kicked out for being black. She was told she couldn’t go in because the store was closed.
You go to a store when it’s closed, you can’t go in. Being treated the same as everybody else does not constitute discrimination. Being treated extra mega supah dupah nice because you happen to have a TV show does constitute a privilege.
Can someone give Ms Winfrey the Sesame Street version please?
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### Author:  [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/10 "2005-06-23T13:40:01Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> Can someone give Ms Winfrey the Sesame Street version please?
Sung to the tune of _Somebody Come and Play_:
Oprah, please go away
Oprah, please go away to-day
Nobody wants
to hear your sass
to give you a pass
to kiss your ass
Oprah, please go away . . . to-daaaaay . . .
(OK, that didn’t exactly get to **Nava’s** point, but again, lacking that coffee . . .
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### Author:  [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/11 "2005-06-23T13:49:46Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> I realize I’m just a dumb spic, but why should Oprah or anybody else get special treatment?
Because Oprah has hordes of mindless zombie followers brainwashed into doing whatever she says. If Oprah tells them to buy something, they’ll all go out and buy it. If Oprah tells them not to buy something, you’ve got a major problem. Companies need to stay on her good side.
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/12 "2005-06-23T13:57:12Z")
The story does say that the store was closed for a PR event, so perhaps it was closed during hours it is normally opened?? This doesn’t take away from the :rolleyes: ness of Oprah.
However, thanks to this I now know there is such a thing as a “ **Crash** moment”; I guess this is like her “‘Aha!’ moment”. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/13 "2005-06-23T13:58:02Z")
[QUOTE=Nava]
I realize I’m just a dumb spic, but why should Oprah or anybody else get special treatment?
[QUOTE]
Obviously, what Neurotik said.
You might as well ask why some actors get $20 million a movie.
Here’s a much nicer English version:
Smith’s influence on the eating habits of the average Briton has also been nothing short of phenomenal, with the sale of fresh cranberries rising by 200 per cent in a day after she included them in a TV recipe.
Average egg sales also rose by 54 million when she showed how to fry and boil them properly on How to Cook.
Her endorsement of a specific type of omelette pan helped to sell 90,000 inside four months.
In 2001, her iconic status in our culture was confirmed when she became the first person to have their first name listed in the Collins English Dictionary.
Under the entry “Delia”, the dictionary says: “Noun. The recipes or style of cooking of British cookery writer Delia Smith. A Delia dish.”
[http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1449482004](http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1449482004)
If a single action by one celebrity can increase sales by 54 million, companies will react!
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/14 "2005-06-23T14:15:55Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#):
>
> I’d have more respect for Hermes if they handn’t rolled over and become boot lickers. Why did they feel the need to apologize? For what? …Twats.
I believe the apology was something along the lines of “We’re sorry if you took offense but no offense was meant, we were simply unable to accomodate anyone due to the circumstances.” In other words, “we’re sorry you’re such a diva.”
I was annoyed that the “news” had to report someone’s comment that “if it was Celine Dion or Barbra Striesand they would have let them shop”. Er … that’s an opinion, how is that news? The store said they could not have accomodated anyone at that time. It sounds like Oprah didn’t make any arrangements in advance and just expected to get special treatment because she’s famous and now she has her panties in a wad and is going to make trouble for them.
One of her appeals is that she acts like “regular folk”, she worked her way up from nothing and she sympathizes with the working class. People who are still working class schlubs don’t sympathize with rich and famous people who act like the world owes them special favors. Any respect I had for her went way down with this.
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### Author:  [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/15 "2005-06-23T15:02:13Z")
> [@Wile E](#):
>
> I was annoyed that the “news” had to report someone’s comment that “if it was Celine Dion or Barbra Striesand they would have let them shop”. .
Which might have been true, because they might have been recognized, and the staff might have decided to accomodate them…But it was apparently happening in Paris. Who would know in France who is this Oprah? Apparently, she has some talk show. IOW, nobody not watching american TV would have a clue. On the other hand, both women you mentionned are world famous singers.
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### Author:  [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/16 "2005-06-23T15:28:17Z")
I hope Hermes has records of opening late for Halle Berry or Janet Jackson or similar and simply mentions this in a press statement that they only provide special opening times for important celebrities 😉
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### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/17 "2005-06-23T15:41:06Z")
Hermes discriminates? Sweet Zombie Jesus, mon! Say it ain’t so!
I kill me.
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### Author:  [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/18 "2005-06-23T16:03:14Z")
Man, this story’s got wings!
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Scrappy\_Hero\_Pup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Scrappy_Hero_Pup)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/19 "2005-06-23T16:14:10Z")
Seems to me that a less mercurial personality might have made more headway. 😃
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### Author:  [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-people-cant-wear-hermes/309520/20 "2005-06-23T17:00:26Z")
> [@gigi](#):
>
> However, thanks to this I now know there is such a thing as a “ **Crash** moment”; I guess this is like her “‘Aha!’ moment”. :rolleyes:
As someone who has seen the movie “Crash”, I am fully aware of what a “Crash Moment” is. It’s a moment when someone acts in a completely overexaggerated and unrealistic way towards someone of any race for reasons that are explained but don’t really make sense beyond giving them a reason to act in such a completely idiotic way.
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