Oprah Winfrey 'Victim Of Racism' In Swiss Shop

Billionaire U.S. media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she was the victim of racism on a recent trip to Switzerland when a shop assistant refused to show her a handbag because it was "too expensive." it seems, sadly she is not immune from racially motivated prejudice.

She 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. She said she left the shop without contesting the shop assistant’s behavior 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 apologized for the incident and called it a “misunderstanding”.

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."

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.