Wish I could nail Dubya to the wall to fess up to BS like Oprah did with Hermes. Maybe she’s in training to eff him up anyway in one of her primetime specials:
Oprah Winfrey is not a diva. At all. No way. She is so adamant on that point that she brought the head of Hermès USA onto her talk show yesterday to admit it and apologize in front of a national audience.
“I would like to say we’re really sorry,” Robert Chavez, the chief executive officer of Hermès USA, said contritely. “You did meet up with one very, very rigid staff person.”
Ms. Winfrey corrected him. “Rigid or rude?” she asked with icy sweetness. He hastily assented. “Rigid and rude, I am sure.”
Hell, yeah. This went all over the black community, with responding comments like: “Even Oprah, with all that money? Sheeiiittt. That was foul.” It proved to many, that race still clowned class. It won brownie points for Oprah even before she and her caravan of supplies, food, John Travolta, Julia Roberts, and cameras arrived at the Katrina evacuee centers in Texas.
Even more, and I love this, too:
Most of all, [Oprah] said, she was hurt again when the Hermès company apologized in private, then released a statement that she said implied that “I was some diva trying to get in when the store was closed.” Ms. Winfrey explained that some shoppers were still in the store, and that she argued with the sales personnel only because a few members of her entourage had their hearts set on going in.
Ms. Winfrey turned to Mr. Chavez and requested a public apology. “Tell the people what you told me.”
Power is a wonderful thing, particularly when it can be used to punish a haughty French salesperson – or one of France’s most famous luxury goods companies. And it is not surprising that Mr. Chavez agreed to a televised walk of shame to make amends. After Ms. Winfrey discussed on a 1996 show whether mad cow disease could affect American beef, Texas cattlemen sued her, claiming that she had caused the price of beef futures to plummet. She won the case in 1998.
Ms. Winfrey was magnanimous in return, assuring Mr. Chavez that “you really did come correct.” And while she did not distribute Hermès scarves to her studio audience, she did lift the shopping fatwa, urging her fans to go ahead and buy a Birkin bag.
Maybe the unofficial buyers’ boycott and the accompanying bad publicity was screwing them mightily.
Why should this matter? That only Oprah is rich enough to apply this kind of pressure, but poor and middle-class people cannot?
I truly don’t believe that.
This kind of incident was not going to go away, period.
Especially if you call one of the most popular and famous broadcasters in the United States a liar and a diva. It was going to be a losing proposition in the long run.
Perhaps many members of the black community cannot afford to even enter Hermès, but even so, they and the rest of them who can loathe having to countenance this kind of BS treatment in shops, malls and other places of business. In other words, it is known as shopping while black. Having doors shut on you; being followed around in malls by security as if you’re about to steal something; waiting forever to get assistance as a customer. Sometimes it doesn’t rate to dress up, put on the warpaint, and look as if one is going to church rather than trying on the newest Timberland mukluks.
I heard something else too, that Hermès had had to put a stop to more African customers wandering into their stores (possibly the rich wives, girlfriends or mistresses of African or Caribbean Francophone elites). Right. You know that this is BS, too and racism at worst stemming from their anger at French departements allowing its citizens to migrate over there. As long as the money is green in the hand, it shouldn’t even matter. As for Oprah, the woman’s face is recognizable all over the world. Even the littlest island nation knows who Oprah is.
Progressives need to take note. This kind of feet-to- the-fire pressure is exactly the kind of thing we need to promote issues (Iraq, Katrina, whathaveyou) as well as competent spokespeople (Cindy Sheehan, Congressional Black Caucus, whathaveyou). 2006 is not that far away. Against all polls, opinion and sentiment, BushCo wants to sweep Katrina and Iraq under the rug.
Like Oprah, we shouldn’t let him.
Like Oprah, we should make him sweat.
We should get Repubs voted out in 2006 and 2008.
And like Oprah, we should keep up the pressure.
