Two weeks ago, drumming up attention toward her movie, Oprah Winfrey made the bizarre claim that millions of African Americans were lynched.   Millions.  The true figure is 4,743 with one in four being white (1882-1968).
Last week Oprah Winfrey claimed she encountered racism in Switzerland while shopping for $30,000+ purses.   [<—we should all be $o unfortunate]
She made these claims while trying to draw attention to her soon-to-be-released movie “The Butler”;  another race-based grievance movie.
The Swiss store, and the hapless victim/clerk she targeted with her accusations, denied the allegations.   Oprah then tried walking back her accusation, well… sort of, but not really, because she’s Oprah, or something.
However, there appears to be a pattern here.
In 2005 while trying to draw attention to another race driven movie, The Crash, she had almost an identical claim.   The 2005 victim of her accusations was located in Paris, France.  The store was “Hermes”:

story.oprah.file.cnn.jpgVia CNN […]  “Crash” is a film dealing with race relations. The phrase “crash moment” refers to situations where a party feels discriminated against on the basis of skin color.

The New York Daily News cited sources close to Winfrey as saying the talk show host was first rebuffed by a clerk and then a store manager. The Daily News reported Winfrey had gone to the store to buy a watch for singer Tina Turner, her dining partner that night.

McIntyre confirmed that account for CNN.

The New York Post, in its Monday Page Six gossip column, reported she was turned away because the store had been “having a problem with North Africans lately.”

In comments to CNN, an Hermes spokeswoman categorically denied that allegation.

“There was never any discussion of North Africans,” she said. “The story is not true.”

The spokeswoman said Winfrey came to the store 15 minutes after closing and a security guard informed her the store was closed and gave her a card, telling her she could come back the next day.

Surveillance videotape of the encounter supports the store’s account, according to the spokeswoman.  (read more)

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