At the Core

I didn't say much about Oprah Winfrey's claim that a store clerk in Switzerland wouldn't show her an expensive handbag because she (Ms. Winfrey) is African-American.

For one, I believe that days are made better by ignoring Oprah Winfrey. For another, lots of people had been saying stuff about it, and most of them were either more insightful or funnier than I would have been. I can't remember where I saw my favorite joke, but it was something along the lines of how this might be one of the first times in the history of salespeople, who frequently work on commission, that one of them chose not to show the more expensive item.

As the link above notes, the shop owner and Switzerland have apologized to Ms. Winfrey. As another story notes, the store owner would kind of like to chat with the media mogul and denies anything like what Ms. Winfrey says took place actually happened. Ms. Winfrey, who was doing an interview to publicize her new movie -- a fact which is mentioned in most of the stories about this incident -- says she is sorry the whole thing got blown up so big.

What I'd been looking for, though, hadn't shown up yet. The Daily Mail story does note that Ms. Winfrey, who frequently speaks out on animal treatment issues and who received a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals award in 2009 for her anti-fur stance, was called to task by a Swedish animal rights group for eyeing a crocodile leather bag.

But so far I've seen nothing about the fact that Ms. Winfrey was going to the store to buy a new bag to go with her dress for Tina Turner's wedding, and the bag she looked at was $38,000. Yes. Oprah Winfrey, who grew up in poverty so severe she wore dresses made from potato sacks when she was a child, was going to spend thirty-eight thousand dollars on a purse to go with a new outfit. That's about a grand below the poverty line for a family of eight, and it was going to be spent on a purse.

Now, Ms. Winfrey earned her money. She can spend it however she wants, and I would be aghast at and against anyone who tried to write rules that said where and how much she could spend, or how much a shop could charge for its wares. She made the money and she's entitled to dispose of it as she sees fit.

But I have my opinion, and I'm entitled to dispose of it how I see fit as well. Even if the incident happened exactly as Ms. Winfrey said, rather than as the store owner says, the fault is not in any snooty store clerk's attitude. The fault is in the obscenity of planning to spend $38,000 on a purse.