USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: [Mwananchi] Oprah Winfrey 'victim of racism' in Switzerland: Billionaire told she can't afford expensive handbag../ color has consequences:)))

Been black is a ''curse in the white world''They just have to get used
to it.Black people are here to stay.!!!

Oprah Winfrey 'victim of racism' in Switzerland: Billionaire told she
can't afford expensive handbag

MATILDA BATTERSBY Author Biography FRIDAY 09 AUGUST 2013




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Oprah Winfrey
She is one of America's best-loved television personalities, is one of
the world's richest women and last month topped Forbes' list of 100
most powerful celebrities, but Oprah Winfrey is, it seems, sadly not
immune from racially motivated prejudice.

The US talk show host, 59, says she was the victim of racism during a
visit to Switzerland where she was attending Tina Turner's wedding
last month.

Winfrey said a shop assistant refused to serve her in an upmarket
Zurich handbag shop, having said the bags on offer were "too
expensive" for her.

The TV star said she left the shop without contesting the shop
assistant's behaviour but contributed her experience to a debate about
the continued existence of racism on a US television show.

Winfrey told Entertainment Tonight: "I was in Zurich the other day, in
a store whose name I will not mention. I didn't have my eyelashes on,
but I was in full Oprah Winfrey gear. I had my little Donna Karan
skirt and my little sandals. But obviously The Oprah Winfrey Show is
not shown in Zurich."

"I go into a store and I say to the woman, 'Excuse me, may I see the
bag right above your head?' and she says to me, 'No. It's too
expensive.'"

When Winfrey insisted she did want to see the bag the shop assistant
allegedly replied: "No, no you don't want to see that one, you want to
see this one because that one will cost too much. You will not be able
to afford that."

Winfrey, who is a billionaire, continued: "There's two different ways
to handle it. I could've had the whole blow-up thing... but [racism]
still exists, of course it does."

Blick newspaper reported that Trudie Goetz, the owner of the boutique
Winfrey was allegedly talking about, Trois Pommes, had apologised for
the incident and called it a "misunderstanding".

Oprah's allegations come amid a political row over plans by some Swiss
towns to ban asylum-seekers from frequenting public places such as
school playgrounds, swimming pools and libraries.

The draconian restrictions have been likened to Apartheid and angrily
denounced by human rights groups as intolerable and racist.

Switzerland plays host to almost double the number of asylum-seekers
per head of population of its European neighbours. It counts one
refugee for every 332 inhabitants, compared to one per 625 inhabitants
on the rest of the continent. Some 48,000 refugees are currently
seeking asylum in Switzerland.

In June this year voters took part in a referendum which
overwhelmingly backed moves to tighten asylum restrictions amid fears
voiced by the popular right-wing Swiss People's Party that the country
was being inundated with refugees.

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