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June 27, 2005

Oprah cries, again

Oprah, who recently declared herself a descendent of the Zulus despite the near historic impossibility thereof, has now decided that it must have been race that kept her out of a closed Hermes store in Paris recently. As Mark Caro comments in the Chicago Tribune:

Thank you, Oprah, for striking another blow for the common man and woman—-and America, too.

Our hearts all go out to you. There you were, in Paris, wanting to buy a present for your friend Tina Turner, and Hermes wouldn’t let you into the store.

Sure, they say you showed up at 6:45 p.m., and the store closed at 6:30 p.m. Sure, the store was preparing “a private public relations event inside.”

But they just don’t get it over there in France, do they? You’re an American. You have a God-given right to shop whenever and wherever you want to.

And you’re Oprah, so you can do whatever you damn well please. Don’t those people over there understand that celebrities are royalty? Regular rules do not apply!

It would be one thing if Oprah were just upset at not being let into a store after-hours. (And the store's security tapes back their account of the incident.) But she has turned it into a racial issue:

Oprah’s spokespeople implied that the incident was racial in nature, calling it her “‘Crash’ moment,” a reference to the current hit movie about racism in Los Angeles. ...

The problem I have now is that she plans to air this complaint when her show kicks off its new season in September—at least that’s what a Harpo Productions spokeswoman told the Associated Press.

Oprah, if something happened to you that was serious enough for you to make it an international issue, something that you’re terming a “Crash” moment -— the African-American woman in “Crash,” after all, is the victim of sexual assault -— then talk about it now, for heaven’s sake.

Don’t wait almost three months just to give your show a lift.

Transforming this incident into TV programming just cheapens it.

... Milk it for your own commercial interests, and you’ll only further the impression that it’s Oprah’s world and we -— and those Hermes nincompoops -— should just consider ourselves lucky to be living in it.

The timing raises one question, but Zorn doesn't address the question of how Oprah can be so sure that this was a racial incident. Sure, there's a 'problem' with North Africans in Paris, but Oprah is a South African--a Zulu--after all! But more to the point, we all have incidents where we ask for something unreasonable and have the request rejected, even at luxury stores. (For example, Neiman wouldn't replace my stolen wallet, and Burberry put me through hell over my broken umbrella.) It's hard to call an incident racially-motivated when store employees--who shouldn't be expected to recognize an American celebrity--enforce standard store policy. Was Oprah just out searching for a slight to declare racist and use it to fuel her stale talkshow?

When people like Oprah assume that incidents are racially motivated despite having no reason to make such an assertion, they aren't helping the cause. Living as a white person in Harlem, where I reckon race relations are tenser than almost any other neighborhood, I find myself involved in plenty of incidents that might be racially-motivated. I usually pretend not to hear. What empowers the racists--black or white--is the reaction their taunts evoke. Oprah's hysterical overreaction and crass commercialization of a non-racially-motivated incident makes me wonder what she'll have left in her tank if she ever were a victim of real racism.

UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune's website has published a very long list of people complaining about Zulu Princess Winfrey. Here is a good one:

It was a few years back when my brother and I were at a restaurant in the City waiting for our table. It was a Saturday afternoon and we had been patiently waiting for 45 minutes.

The host had just announced that our table was ready, when all of a sudden the door blew open and in flies Oprah and parks herself at our table. My brother very graciously said: "Excuse me, but we were just given this table."

She whips her head around and says: "Do you know who I am?" and my bro said, "I really do not care who you are; you are sitting at our table."

Obviously, she did not like that response. "I am Oprah Winfrey." We both exactly knew who she was, just testing the water. "This is my table and I am not moving," said Oprah.

And people idolize this insane woman? At least Jerry Springer is friendly enough to say "hello" in the elevator.

Posted by adrianjo at June 27, 2005 04:28 PM

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