Swiss Officials Apologize After Oprah Winfrey Became Victim of Racism

Oprah Winfreyrecently opened up that she had a brush with racism in Switzerland. While in the coutry to attend Tina Turner’s July wedding, she stopped by a posh Trois Pommes boutique where a clerk refused to show her a Tom Ford Jennifer bag, named for Jennifer Aniston, which was priced at 35,000 Swiss francs ($38,000) each. “I didn’t have my eyelashes on but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear …
but obviously the Oprah Winfrey show is not shown in Zurich,” the formerdaytime talk show queen recalled the brush in an interview. “She says to me, ‘No, it’s too expensive.’She said, ‘No, no, no you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You won’t beable to afford that one.’ ” “She refused to get it … she said, ‘I don’t want to hurt your feelings,’ and I said, ‘Okay, thank you somuch, you’re probably right I can’t afford it.’ Nowwhy does she do that?” she continued, adding, “I could have had the big blow up thing and thrown down the black card but why do that.” Swiss tourism officials have reacted to the matter, with spokesman Daniela Baer telling theAssociated Press, “We are very sorry for what happened to her.” The Swiss Tourism office also posted on its Twitter, “We are fuming – this person acted terribly wrong. We are sorry this happened to @oprah!” Meanwhile, the shop’s owner, Trudie Goetz, tried to play down the issue. “This is an absolute classicmisunderstanding,” so she said, claiming it was caused by her employee’s bad English. She apologized to Oprah for any inconvenience at her store, saying that her employee was trying to give Oprah multiple options. On Friday, August 9, Oprah tweeted, “Turns out that store clerk did me a favor. Just found out that bag was $38K!!! She was right I was NOT going to buy.”