When Hermes sells saddles that cost five thousand dollars and purses that for some reason cost as much as a saddle, the doors are going to be locked all the time. It's quite easy for a group of shoplifters to make off with thousands of dollars' worth of goods, and merchants have found that it's simpler just not to let them in at all. So when it's closing time at Hermes and the staff are asked to decide whether to admit a group of people centered around a small rotund undistinguished-looking black woman, wearing (as the initial reports stated) a headwrap and ordinary clothes, it's easy to understand why the answer might be No.
I agree that Oprah was probably discriminated against. I also think that if a white person and asked for admittance under similar circumstances, he or she might be refused entry. This is more a matter of social class perceptions than racial discrimination.
Oprah may be too susceptible to liberal appeals, but she is far from silly. No one who pulled herself up from povery to become one of the richest women in the world is silly; she is an astute businesswoman. I have it on the very best authority that an immersion in the life of an escaped slave, to prepare for her Oscar-winning performance in "Beloved," focused her less on being a female Jerry Springer and more on social issues. She is a liberal, yes; silly, no.
It's a french thing.
What a spoiled American will interpret as racism is simply a respect for store hours for a frenchman.
It's hard, when bashing the French is a full time hobby, to understand that there are cultural differences that make American rudeness incomprehensible to your average frenchman.
No frenchman, no matter how famous, would attempt to have a store opened without a phonecall and reservation if that meant inconveniencing even an unimportant store clerk.
When in Rome, etc.