greeniis10
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Post by greeniis10 on Aug 13, 2013 12:13:35 GMT -5
Ah, so a convenient platform to use? I suppose I shouldn't be so cynical, but the movie promotion thing makes sense. Thank you for the info!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2013 12:16:17 GMT -5
No problem! So she can blame the whole kerfuffle on the "talking head" that asked her the racism question!
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Aug 13, 2013 13:25:34 GMT -5
A few years ago, Oprah showed up at a Paris shop when the place was closed and cried racism when they didn't wait on her. I'm inclined to think this latest incident is a publicity stunt.
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Aug 13, 2013 13:41:38 GMT -5
Oh, man. Don't get me started about car shopping. The funny thing is that the treatment is usually worse at the low and mid level dealerships. At the truly elite dealerships (Jag, Maserati, Porsche, Mercedes, etc.), they run out to kiss your butt no matter how you're dressed. Guess they've figured out the real money sometimes wears flip flops. Especially here in Florida. LOL I went to buy a car about a year ago. I was visiting different lots to test drive cars I was interested in. In all the lots except one, when I started strolling around the cars someone came out to talk to me. In one car lot, there were a couple guys who looked like salesmen standing near the door, but neither came outside. I finally went inside and strolled around looking at the cars in the show room - sales guys idling by the door, a couple more at desks, didn't seem to be any other customers but me. No one so much as looked at me. I left without speaking to anyone, then went and test drove several others I was interested in, ultimately buying one. I might have bought one of their cars, if I hadn't been invisible.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2013 13:54:54 GMT -5
Oh, man. Don't get me started about car shopping. The funny thing is that the treatment is usually worse at the low and mid level dealerships. At the truly elite dealerships (Jag, Maserati, Porsche, Mercedes, etc.), they run out to kiss your butt no matter how you're dressed. Guess they've figured out the real money sometimes wears flip flops. Especially here in Florida. LOL I went to buy a car about a year ago. I was visiting different lots to test drive cars I was interested in. In all the lots except one, when I started strolling around the cars someone came out to talk to me. In one car lot, there were a couple guys who looked like salesmen standing near the door, but neither came outside. I finally went inside and strolled around looking at the cars in the show room - sales guys idling by the door, a couple more at desks, didn't seem to be any other customers but me. No one so much as looked at me. I left without speaking to anyone, then went and test drove several others I was interested in, ultimately buying one. I might have bought one of their cars, if I hadn't been invisible. Was it a Dodge dealer? The same thing happened to DH and I when we went looking this spring! I thought they'd come by when we got in the minivan but no one came over at all. I dodged that bullet!
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Aug 13, 2013 14:36:04 GMT -5
It probably had more to do with the way she was dressed than her skin color. But as DramaQ said, how can you not recognize Oprah? I'm not even that into celebrities, but she's one of the very few I probably could identify if I met her.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Aug 13, 2013 15:02:53 GMT -5
My brother in law was at home one day and a sales person came to the door. He looked at my brother and law and asked if his parents were home, when he owned the house. So it can happen to anyone.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Aug 13, 2013 15:05:34 GMT -5
He looked at my brother and law and asked if his parents were home, when he owned the house
I've had that happen to me. I say "Nope" and shut the door in their faces. If I correct them they'll try to sell me something.
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nogooddeed
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Post by nogooddeed on Aug 13, 2013 15:35:27 GMT -5
It probably had more to do with the way she was dressed than her skin color. But as DramaQ said, how can you not recognize Oprah? I'm not even that into celebrities, but she's one of the very few I probably could identify if I met her. Maybe she didn't have her usual makeup and hair on. I've seen pictures of her without both and she looks soooo different.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Aug 13, 2013 16:04:01 GMT -5
It probably had more to do with the way she was dressed than her skin color. But as DramaQ said, how can you not recognize Oprah? I'm not even that into celebrities, but she's one of the very few I probably could identify if I met her. Maybe she didn't have her usual makeup and hair on. I've seen pictures of her without both and she looks soooo different. I hear her weight also swings wildly. So I can imagine someone not recognizing her because she's too fat or skinny to be Oprah.
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Phoenix84
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Post by Phoenix84 on Aug 13, 2013 16:04:39 GMT -5
He looked at my brother and law and asked if his parents were home, when he owned the house
I've had that happen to me. I say "Nope" and shut the door in their faces. If I correct them they'll try to sell me something. Well, you're also short, so I imagine many people assume you are younger than you actually are.
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hurley1980
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Post by hurley1980 on Aug 13, 2013 16:32:18 GMT -5
The sales lady has now come out and defended herself saying it was a language barrier issue and not a discrimination thing. She says her English is not the best, and also feels like Oprah is attacking her, and if there was a problem, Oprah could have said something to the girls boss who was also at the event Oprah was at later that day (Tina Turner's wedding). I think Oprah is just trying to drumb up publicity for her upcoming movie, and dragging a poor shop girl through the mud while doing so. www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/12/swiss-sales-assistant-accused-by-oprah-of-being-racist-this-is-not-true-this-is-absurd/I have a reverse effect, as I live in a lower income, blue collar side of town, and find that even when I am in a place just looking with no intention to buy, everyone treats me like their number one customer, because I'm wearing clean clothes, heels and carrying a nice handbag, instead of looking like a hobo who just came off the street......I shit you not, everyone in my part of town dresses like they are going to walmart (stained clothes, pj bottoms, etc), even if they are going to the one nice restaurant we have! I do have to watch what I wear with my heels though, as we have a pretty rampant prostitution problem here, and I dont want to give anyone the wrong idea! lol
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movingforward
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Post by movingforward on Aug 13, 2013 17:22:20 GMT -5
There is a certain city in Louisiana (which shall remain nameless ) where my parents lived for around 2 yrs and I swear to God everyone in this place looked like they just rolled out of bed and left the house. My mother and I both wore what we consider normal clothes but compared to these people we looked like we stepped off the cover of Vogue. I remember we walked into a restaurant once and the hostess looked us up and down and said "ya'll aren't from around here are ya?" The very same outfit I had on that day I also wore a few weeks later to a restaurant in Dallas, TX. I was actually being wined and dined by one of our vendors. I felt extremely under dressed when I got there and Dallas people can be awfully snotty (I really don't like Dallas much but have to go there for work sometimes). Where you are depends a lot on the way people treat you. Where I currently live (Austin) is pretty awesome. You see people dressed all kinds of ways and everyone is pretty much treated the same. Those trendy high end night clubs don't generally do well here. Someone always tries to open one and they always fail miserably. We are a laid back bunch... we are a lot like Seattle except hot as hell in the summer
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2013 17:38:19 GMT -5
In recent interview with "Entertainment Tonight," Oprah Winfrey recalled a clerk at an upscale Zurich boutique refusing to show her a handbag. Winfrey said she was told she could not afford the $38,000 purse.
"I'm in a store and the person doesn't obviously know that I carry the black card and so they make an assessment based upon the way I look and who I am," said Winfrey, who earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine.I heard them talking about this on the radio on my way in this morning and she admitted that she was "dressed down" while shopping. So I don't necessarily think they said what they said because she was black, but rather because of how she was dressed. What say you? What say me? I say that I'm tired of the race card being played all the time. If I don't tip, your color doesn't make a difference. If I don't buy a car from you, your color doesn't make a difference. If I don't like the color of your hair, your color doesn't make a difference (except in the case of blue hair, I hate that). The race card is now used for everything & I for one am tired of it. If I don't have to LOVE all white people (or Indian or whatever) then I'll be damned if I'm racist because I don't like a black person because they are black. This has been done to DEATH. I like who I like & don't like who I don't like & if confronted with the race card because one of those I don't like is black then I'm going to knock someone on their ass!
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Spellbound454
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Post by Spellbound454 on Aug 13, 2013 17:50:21 GMT -5
How rude...who do these freakkin shop girls think they are.?
They should be scurrying around anyone who goes in to the shop........ and providing the service they are paid for.
For some of the stories on this thread...I would be writing a letter of complaint and asking the manager if he thought it is ok for customers to feel belittled by his floor staff.........and he'd better grovel or I'd be shouting from the rooftops.
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motherto2
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Post by motherto2 on Aug 13, 2013 17:54:47 GMT -5
OK, so I just deleted everything I wrote because I'm trying very hard to not be judgmental these days. I'm just going to say I totally don't believe it was racist and I'm leaving it at that.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Aug 13, 2013 18:21:59 GMT -5
Before I was born my mom went with her then inlaws to Europe for a few weeks. While there they went to France and they were not allowed in quite a few shops. The shop owners or employees could tell that some of them were American (or at least thought they were as they moved before picking up the British accent) and had the impression they were just window shopping. She remembers clearly one of them saying they could come in if they knew what they wanted but without knowing what was in a boutique how could they know what they want.
Probably 10 years ago a guy who was a casual friend but more so friends with another buddy wanted to test drive a real nice car and the salesman basically told him to stop wasting his time. The next dealership let him after they ran his financial info. The kid's parents are ridiculously wealthy (think flying on a private jet around the world out of boredom on a weekend) from oil and the guy could live off the interest from his savings accounts alone back when you actual earned interest.
I can't say what the intent of the worker in the Oprah example was but I live in an area with some nice stores and if you walk in there underdressed you won't be taken seriously. They get a lot of lookyloo's who can't afford what's in there and those people work largely on commission and get jerked around sometimes by people who have no intent to buy. Regardless this isn't the type of story that warrants going public especially if you claim it's because of race.
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Spellbound454
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Post by Spellbound454 on Aug 13, 2013 18:30:28 GMT -5
So what.....Women like to try on lots of different things in lots of different stores before making a purchase.... Especially if its expensive...or they are looking for something they feel really good in. Its the way people shop.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Aug 13, 2013 18:46:07 GMT -5
There's a difference between going out with your gf's and trying on a bunch of things at the mall vs. going into a high end store that sells 30K+ purses. If I dress like a slob and go to one of the nicer car dealerships or rolex store they probably won't bother much with me and I wouldn't blame them. The majority of people who walk into those places "underdressed" can't afford what they're selling.
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ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ
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Post by ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ on Aug 13, 2013 18:53:17 GMT -5
I had the same problem in Beverly Hills on Rodeo Drive. I went into Giorgio Beverly Hills and was snubbed and ignored by the sales clerks. (It was a hot day, and I was dressed like a tourist - shorts, casual top, deck shoes.) I was also snubbed in Giorgio Armani.
When I went Gucci, I was treated well - and even rubbed elbows with a famous TV star who was trying on gowns for the Emmys and asked my opinion on a gown she'd chosen. Same with Chanel - they didn't give a second look to what I was wearing - There were a few celebrities there when I was and they were what you'd call "dressed down".
It's amazing how people judge you based on outward appearances.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2013 0:33:18 GMT -5
Somehow I'm thinking that Oprah's "dressed down" outfit costs more than everything in my closet added together!!
Clerks are snooty at certain shops & they do judge you by what you wear & how expensive your haircut looks. Any dumb-a$$ clerk that snubs me is going to lose the sale. Once in a great while I'll do a "pretty woman" and go back through a shop with my other bags and let them know that they lost a good sale and a customer for a lifetime. I'm kinda still that way about cars too.
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Aug 14, 2013 2:22:37 GMT -5
How dressed down do you guys dress when you dress down? The last time I was shopping for a car I was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt that said sarcasm is your body's natural defense against stupid. We went to a few different dealerships and I wasn't ignored by any of the salespeople. I was dressed pretty similarly last time I was in Union Square in San Francisco, and wasn't ignored by the folks in Neiman Marcus, Saks, or Nordstrum's and I really was just looking around with no intention of buying anything.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Aug 14, 2013 6:04:55 GMT -5
If you think wearing pajamas in public is ok, then maybe you should be snubbed until you learn to dress. I used to see women wearing bedroom slippers out in public and not when they had a broken toe, either! Unreal. Then they wonder why people treated them like crap. Are you really that stupid? Same people who name their kids freak names that relegate them forever to menial jobs or jail.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2013 6:53:48 GMT -5
There is a certain city in Louisiana (which shall remain nameless ) where my parents lived for around 2 yrs and I swear to God everyone in this place looked like they just rolled out of bed and left the house. My mother and I both wore what we consider normal clothes but compared to these people we looked like we stepped off the cover of Vogue. I remember we walked into a restaurant once and the hostess looked us up and down and said "ya'll aren't from around here are ya?" The very same outfit I had on that day I also wore a few weeks later to a restaurant in Dallas, TX. I was actually being wined and dined by one of our vendors. I felt extremely under dressed when I got there and Dallas people can be awfully snotty (I really don't like Dallas much but have to go there for work sometimes). Where you are depends a lot on the way people treat you. Where I currently live (Austin) is pretty awesome. You see people dressed all kinds of ways and everyone is pretty much treated the same. Those trendy high end night clubs don't generally do well here. Someone always tries to open one and they always fail miserably. We are a laid back bunch... we are a lot like Seattle except hot as hell in the summer Almost40 I agree with everything you said & it's the same around here. People tend to NOT judge you because of the way your dressed. Just yesterday we went to one of the local car dealers to see if a car fit our requirements. I was wearing shorts, shoes (no socks) & a shirt of some kind. I was treated with respect & other than the normal questions that they ask about what price range I was looking at the way I was dressed had nothing to do with the way I was treated. Of course part of that is that people around here tend to under dress 24/7 & you never know how much a person has by looking at them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2013 8:57:00 GMT -5
How dressed down do you guys dress when you dress down? The last time I was shopping for a car I was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt that said sarcasm is your body's natural defense against stupid. We went to a few different dealerships and I wasn't ignored by any of the salespeople. if you're a man buying a car, it doesn't matter what you are wearing.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Aug 14, 2013 9:23:28 GMT -5
OK, so I just deleted everything I wrote because I'm trying very hard to not be judgmental these days. I'm just going to say I totally don't believe it was racist and I'm leaving it at that.
Ummmm and it sounds based on what Oprah has said recently that it's more and more likely she just kind of made the whole thing up (or massively exaggerated it). Now it's more like she says she didn't use the name of the store because really she was just using this as an example of the kind of things which happens to black people. She's backtracking pretty hard after the clerk at the shop in question completely refuted her claims.
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Spellbound454
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Post by Spellbound454 on Aug 14, 2013 10:01:11 GMT -5
Crikey I wouldn't get dressed up to go and buy a car....If they ignored me I'd go to the front desk and say "I'm interested in taking a better look at the "whatever", can I take it for a test drive" Then bombard them with lots of questions. One place tried to fleece me with figures way over the odds. I said, "look I know exactly what this car is worth, (I did my homework) We need to talk a sensible price or we can't do business" They can usually start dealing if they want to.
As for snotty shop people....It makes me cross actually. The assumption that you go in their shop alone to buy something is nonsense. If they have what you want, you'll buy it...If not, then cest la vie.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2013 10:09:24 GMT -5
We tried to buy a vehicle last Friday. At first the salesman was asking "Can you put 1/3 down? Because of the financial crisis, banks need more downpayment". I said, "No, I want to put nothing down. The manufacturer is offering .9% for 60 months, but no rebate in lieu of the financing. I want to finance the entire vehicle price." After he returned from running our credit "No problem sir, would you like to finance the sales tax and registration too?" So it seems like he made an assumption based on us showing up in shorts and tshirts.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2013 11:05:54 GMT -5
We tried to buy a vehicle last Friday. At first the salesman was asking "Can you put 1/3 down? Because of the financial crisis, banks need more downpayment".I said, "No, I want to put nothing down. The manufacturer is offering .9% for 60 months, but no rebate in lieu of the financing. I want to finance the entire vehicle price." After he returned from running our credit "No problem sir, would you like to finance the sales tax and registration too?" So it seems like he made an assumption based on us showing up in shorts and tshirts. MMC that's the way you add that up? There could be a lot of reasons why he made that statement (which was totally bogus btw). My first thought was he was testing to see if you could be upgraded (more money sell a more expensive car). They always do the payment thing with me (what kind of payment can you afford) & I just see it as part of the approach. When my salesman (who was new btw) asked me what other cars I was looking at & tossed out 2 that were more than double the price of the 1 I was looking at. I also worked in that his company like to pad the car prices a BUNCH (like $6,000 on the more expensive car that I was looking at & $3,000 on the cheaper one).
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happyhoix
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Post by happyhoix on Aug 14, 2013 11:13:32 GMT -5
How dressed down do you guys dress when you dress down? The last time I was shopping for a car I was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt that said sarcasm is your body's natural defense against stupid. We went to a few different dealerships and I wasn't ignored by any of the salespeople. if you're a man buying a car, it doesn't matter what you are wearing. This. When I was buying my car a year ago, I went to the dealerships myself and test drove the cars myself. It's my car. While DH and I discussed and agreed on a price range, I picked out what I wanted. Everyone of the places that let me do a test drive asked me when I was coming back with my DH. Apparently, you need a penis to sign the paperwork for a new car. And at that one dealership I went to where they ignored me, you apparently have to have a penis just to test drive a car.
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