Since it was only fifteen minutes after closing, I assume the people still inside had entered before the store had closed, and were simply finishing up.
Good point. I’ve had that happen to me. Nobody turned any famous people away though. Darn!
brickbacon, I agree with you about the good qualities that you see in Oprah. Her tragic flaw is one of the very things that has enabled her success: She appears to have an ego that knows no bounds. Under the same circumstances, I probably would too. At any rate, her heart is as big as her ego.
I could be mistaken, but my impression of the high end stores and designers in Paris is that they are not as impressed by celebrity as many Americans are. In France, they are the celebrities.
I believe that the usual procedure is to make arrangements for after hours shopping ahead of time. That particular day would probably not have been good since there was something else planned and arrangements were being made. Oprah should have been more courteous herself, but maybe she didn’t know that was expected.
The first reports that I heard said that the sales staff did recognize her or knew who she was. They are used to wealthy clientele of many ethnic groups. In general, the French don’t view people of color quite the way that Oprah perceives that they do. At least, that has always been my impression.
I don’t know the whole story, but thus far it seems that Oprah has over-reacted. Unless she was called racial slurs, I don’t think she has much room to complain. She was treated the same way that all of us would have been treated.
It’s going to be business as usual at Hermes.
You have put your finger on the distinction in women reared in West Tennessee and those reared in Middle Tennessee.
Oprah may be broadcast in France, but she’s certainly not widely known. I’m sure the shopkeepers took her and Gail King for Africans, that is, undesirable Third Worlders who might steal something or upset the other haut bourgeoise patrons.
Black Africans are often treated badly in France, though not as badly as North Africans or Arabs. Black Americans, oddly enough, are usually treated fairly well, so long as they’re known to be black Americans.
So, Oprah should have sent one her people in advance to work out an arrangement. Then she and Gail could spend all the money they wanted on overpriced googaws.
That doesn’t mean they weren’t turned away because they were black. They most certainly were.
I noticed among many of the posters a standard kind of response to accusations of racism. There is no racism, or if there is, it’s not important, or it’s really white people who are the victims of racism. “How dare these black people have the nerve to say anything. Don’t they realize that this is our world, and we let them live in it?” In short, the usual bullshit.
By all means, feel free, as the Froggies would say, " Va te faire foutre!"
Cite?
How can you make an absolute assertion to that effect unless you have special knowledge of the mental set and motives and prior history of the security guard?
You might want to take the whole Prozac and read again. Nobody has said that or anything resembling it. There most certainly is real racism, everyday. This just wasn’t it (imo) and it overreactions (such as your own) detract from the real stuff.
I’ll take Persecution Complex for six-hundred, Alex…
Fuck you and your accusations of the racism to the posters on this thread. (And exactly how do you know the race of the Dopers who are posting? Did the same disembodied childlike voice that told you Oprah was turned away only because she was black tell you?)
What the fuck, dude? Again, where did anyone here say such a thing.
FTR, there is racism. Black people are disproportionate victims of racism. Oprah was not a victim of racism by Hermes.
I actually have faith in Oprah. I think that she’s a good person amongst talk show host sleaze bags. I’m hoping that her show will be about the crazy rumor mill that spread over a non-event and that it wasn’t racist afterall.
Haj
Cite?! I got your cite right here!
Va fan culo! 
And Hermes deserves every single bit of bad publicity they’ll get from this.
Resolved: Belowjob2.0 is an douchebag.
My stance: Yes.
Oh darn, that should say “a douchebag”
Because I was originally going to type “an idiot” or “an asshole”
Really, any of those fit the comment just fine.
Seconded.
As writer of the OP I use my Executive Power to pass the amendment and thus belowjob is and remains a douchebag.
Gives secret white handshake to other Dopers.
Dude, I’ve heard about your “secret white handshake”. Just make sure you have a box of tissues handy. Tell the guys at the computer repair place that you got “albumen” in your keyboard. They’ll understand.
Douchebag, yes. Wrong about anti black racism in Paris, against Africans and people who look like Africans, no. Got it, schiessekopfs?
If you’re going to insult me in another language, at least fucking spell it right, scheißkopf!
And out of curiosity, how long did you live in Paris?
Belowjob is usually more rational in his posts and more forthcoming with cites.
BJ’s not going to like it when he finds out that his niece has been posting under his user name.
Longest I’ve spent in Paris was a couple of weeks. And its been, oof, over ten years now. I have friends and family members who’ve been over in the past couple of years. They tell me that there is anti black feeling there, mainly against Africans. The usual things - police beatings, being turned away from shops, snubbed in restaurants, denied apartments etc. Overall, though, most black Americans who’ve been speak highly of Paris, and you could make the case that black Americans are treated better over there than in the States.
As it stands now, I have no neices. Only nephews. They’re not old enough to surf the net, and if their mother caught them using language like this, she’d hang them by their thumbs. Not literally, of course. They would just end up feeling that way.
And one more thing, Sampiro. Feel free to toss my salad. It goes best with a tart vinaigrette.
Let’s see: belligerance, now homophobic rhetoric… I think a banning is in order. Anybody else?
Well, I guess that settles it then. Someone go start an “Ask the Parisian Expert” thread, we’ve got a bona fide pro-fesser here!
(Whether it’s homophobic or not could go either way, but certainly as much evidence lends itself to the charge of homophobia as to “An expensive boutique wouldn’t make an exception for Oprah and thus are racist”.)