Media mogul Oprah Winfrey has said she was racially attacked during a visit to Switzerland.
The BBC reports that she said an assistant refused to serve her in an upmarket handbag shop in Zurich.
Winfrey, one of the world’s richest women, was apparently told the bags on display were “too expensive” for her.
Her
claims, made to a US television programme, come amid a political row
over plans by some Swiss towns to ban asylum-seekers from some public
places.
The BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Berne says human rights groups
have likened the plans – which include banning asylum-seekers from
swimming pools, playing fields and libraries – to apartheid.
Winfrey,
who stars in Lee Daniels’ new film The Butler, visited Zurich last
month to attend singer Tina Turner’s wedding. The Oprah Winfrey Show is
not shown in Switzerland.
Winfrey said she left the shop calmly without arguing, but that the experience was proof that racism continues to be a problem.
“There’s two different ways to handle it,” she said.
“I could’ve had the whole blow-up thing… but it still exists, of course it does.”
Her claims are a public relations disaster for Switzerland.
About 48,000 people are currently seeking asylum in Switzerland. It has twice as many asylum seekers as the European average.
Officials
say the curbs, which will also see asylum-seekers housed in special
centres, are aimed at preventing tensions with residents.
The country’s asylum laws were tightened in June.
Hear ye,hear ye...apartheid is yet to be stamped out. Let's stop kidding ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThis is shocking.
ReplyDeleteThis is crazy! In this day and age.
ReplyDeletedear oprah,
ReplyDeletewhy didnt you go to BREMGARTEN, switzerland, and ask for access to the public swimming pool?
that would have been a really good idea..
by the way, i'd gladly sponsor you a ticket to the swimming pool.
best regards,
verena r., switzerland