Now that I think of it, didn’t the late Pope want to “beautify” Mother Teresa? Maybe the first step was sending the wrinkled old bat to Hermes . . .
I just love it when people chime in to say that racism is all in black peoples’ heads. Oprah must be imagining things. She’s got no right to complain. (And if she doesn’t shut up, we’ll put her in her place.)
How does that Elvis Costello song go? "I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused… "
No, that was Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Carson and Kyan thought it’d be a great idea for sweeps week, but unfortunately neither one was really “up” on current events.
Wow…I must have missed that post. Care to point it out?
Is this a whoosh? Who on earth said anything remotely resembling this shite?
I’m sure it’ll be easy to point out where anybody in this thread made such a sweeping generalization.
Ditto this.
Essentially, Oprah must think that she is so gosh-darned famous in every corner of the world that the only conceivable reason why people wouldn’t fall all over themselves to bask in her magnanimous presence is because they hate her, and the only way anyone could hate Oprah is if they hated all black people.
Ockham did not intend his razor to cut false dichotomies.
Personnally, I’m very surprised that she could have been recognized, since I stand by my comment that she’s virtually unkown, at best.
Now, maybe Hermes staff in given training in recognizing celebrities, or maybe even they just tell people they recognize them even when they don’t jut to avoid pissing them off…
I made the same comment in the other thread. She doesn’t look north-african to me…
Well, Hermes might as well close up shop; no matter what actually happened, they are now labeled the KKK of Paris. From the AP:
Well. So much for Hermes.
Are you fucking retarded? When did I ever make such a comparison? Why do you keep following me around distorting everything I say?
Devastating and horrifying are two words that come to mind. I’ve never heard someone say that being molested is really humiliating. I could be wrong, but I doubt that would be the word they’d use to sum up that experience.
Beverly Hills?
You didn’t make it-I did. You’re all up in arms about Oprah being the victim of racism because she wasn’t allowed to enter a store that had closed fifteen minutes before her arrival. But in another thread, when we call people evil for wanting to make their children feel ashamed of being gay, and send them to “straight camps” against their will, WE’RE jumping to conclusions and exaggerating. Because see, it COULD work.
If we’re not allowed to make judgments about Zac’s parents, how come you’re allowed to decide that Hermes is racist because they dare to turn customers away after they’re closed?
And you’d be wrong. Molestation IS humiliating. You feel ashamed, violated, and afraid to admit it happened.
Up in arms? I advocated the same attitude in both threads. We haven’t heard the whole story. I never said Hermes was racist. I said their story is less plausible than Oprah’s in my opinion. I think people are jumping to conclusions when they assume his parents have malicious intent and that they are evil. You don’t know the people and you don’t know their kid. Try to read more carefully.
Yes, because you are the spokesperson for every molestation victim. You need to get a grip on reality. Yes, being molested is humiliating, but I doubt that would be the first words one would use to descibe it.
Now, you see, Oprah cannot not be recognized. Everyone loves her. Everyone knows her. What happened, then, was that the clerks were obviously racist for not recognizing Oprah because, “all blacks look alike”. They obviously must’ve thought that and thus not recognized her. Because… how can you not recognize Oprah? How? HOW? HOW??? 
Actually, they did recognize Oprah. The clerks were just too afraid she might have brought Tom Cruise and they didn’t want anyone stomping all over the place. 
Point taken about “worst experience” as opposed to “most humiliating experience”, but my point still stands: During 34 years of clawing her way to the top of the entertainment industry, surely she must have had to swallow humiliations far more severe than merely failing to have her celebrity-ness properly recognized by some store employees.
God damnit. And when the real racist shit happens people can point to this and cry Chicken Little. I think that’s what BelowJob2.0 was getting at, but BJ2.0 (Cumming to a theatre near you.) seems to think that this is a case of racism. I disagree for reasons already cited.
Oprah, you aren’t helping yourself. You aren’t helping us (Black people as a whole). Tell your staffers to STFU and tell the truth: you couldn’t get into Hermes because your head was too big.
The Hook, Tom and Oprah are feuding.
The first article I read was similar to the one Eve posted above, except it mentioned they were setting up for a special event only. If this is so, they were correct to turn her away. Not only could Oprah have been injured by the setting up activities (Oprah beaned by ice sculpture, tonight on channel 3 news) setting them up for disaster, and/or they wouldn’t have been able to provide her with even a half-way decent shopping experience. Likely she’d have left in a huff because all the clerks were busy and it was noisy and chaotic. The clerks know this because they’ve probably been through special events before, Oprah’s opinion on the matter is much less well-informed.
If people were in there shopping, as I read elsewhere somebody in her posse claimed, why does she think she can come play as well? Those people shopping evidently set up after hours shopping and they might not appreciate the store allowing a bunch of strange people, who’ve not been cleared by security, in as well. It’s a serious security issue for some people, shopping after hours. The clerks would also know better than to ask the other patrons if Oprah could come play, too. It’s just not done.
With either scenario the Hermes clerks were damned if they did and they were damned if they didn’t. I believe they made the most fair and prudent choice.