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Oprah Winfrey: Clerk ‘Did Me A Favor’ She Tweets About Handbag Scandal

By Elaine Radford
Published on: 22:34 PST, Aug 9, 2013

Oprah Winfrey isn’t holding a grudge over the Swiss handbag scandal. A couple of tweets last night revealed that the TV talk show billionaire actually likes Switzerland and is ready to forgive.

To recap, Oprah has been promoting her new role in The Butler, which opens on August 16. The film follows the story of a man who worked for 34 years in the White House and became a witness to history, including the civil rights era.

When Entertainment Tonight asked Oprah Winfrey if she still experienced racism, she admitted that she did. While Oprah was shopping in Switzerland in July, a clerk refused to show her a $38,000 handbag, saying not once but multiple times that the billionaire couldn’t afford it.

The clerk clearly didn’t know who Oprah was. It seemed equally clear that she made the judgment based on the color of her skin.

After widespread outrage in American and British media, both the Swiss tourism office and the shop in question came forward to apologize.

Oprah didn’t name the Zurich store or its owner. But Trudie Goetz admitted that it was her shop.

Goetz claimed that the clerk wasn’t racist but just didn’t understand English very well: “I have to admit that the employee is Italian…It was a real misunderstanding.”

Whether you find that apology particularly acceptable or not is up to you. But Oprah Winfrey is not a person to sit around brooding and bitter.

As you can see, Oprah was surprised to learn the bag’s price:

Of course the decision whether or not to buy the handbag should have still been Oprah’s and not the clerk’s. But Oprah Winfrey is over it and ready to talk about something else:

[Oprah Winfrey photo by s_bukley / Shutterstock.com]

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