Oprah Winfrey's biggest mistake

OPRAH WINFREY'S BIGGEST MISTAKE
URL -http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/08/oprah-winfreys-biggest-mistake.html

Oprah made the biggest public mistake of her life by not telling the racist Zurich Store woman that she will buy that damned hand bag and should have insisted on seeing it… indeed, her in-action is a permission for the store clerk to continue with her racism. Shame on you Oprah!

This is the classic example of racism. About twenty years ago, one of my Black Attorney clients was looking to buy a new home - we talked, based on his needs I suggested  Perry Homes in Highland Shores - he laughed! I asked him what? He said he has been there and was given the classic treatment - precisely what Oprah went through in Zurich.

He really wanted that home, I took him and his wife to that subdivision - after the "welcome to Perry Homes spiel" - she said, these homes are expensive - and started giving the price range… I stopped her right there with my sharp - So?  I was outraged at her racism.  I was trained and I knew that is not what is taught in new homes. I was a veteran in the industry. I made the points to her, she was apologetic.  Of course, my client decided on another builder.

I thought, those days are gone, but surprised to see it exists in Zurich.

I am however guilty - once in 1987 another lady was denied access to a property because she was black. I was out of handle, but my friends in the business calmed me down, I continue to feel guilty about it.

It is much better than it was 30 years ago when I had experienced quite a lot of racism. Thanks God it is declining.

Oprah made the biggest public mistake of her life by not telling who it is - and without that the store can continue to be racist. Oprah you are wrong and shame on you. If you don't do the right thing, who will? Shame on you that you are a celebrity and did not do a things about the wrong.

We have come a long way in America, and thank God for America for the paving the way of civility and respect for every human. We have a lot more to go, but we are leading the world despite our deficiencies. 

Good News update:

Finally, I am glad Oprah got the apology and made the point, and made the big news. I do hope the the racist attitudes be questioned even from a business point of view. From a Moral point of view, those attitudes need to be punished from a mere reprimand to training courses in respecting others, no matter what race, religion or ethnicity they belong to. In public square - that attitude should not be acceptable.


I am glad it turned out to be a bigger event to make the point. Thank you Oprah for making that point. If your intent was to make a bigger point. I salute you, and I will withdraw my comment that you were wrong.

Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive societies where on one has to live I apprehension for fear of the other. He continues to offer pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him at www.MikeGhouse.net 

Oprah's blunder about India - http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/07/oprahs-blunder-indians-eat-with-hands.html

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Oprah was victim of 'racism' on Swiss shopping trip

Winfrey, one of the world's richest women, told a US TV programme that she was refused service in a handbag shop in Zurich and told that the products in the shop were "too expensive" for her.

"I was in Zurich the other day, in a store whose name I will not mention. I didn't have my eyelashes on, but I was in full Oprah Winfreygear.

I had my little Donna Karan skirt and my little sandals. But obviously 'TheOprah Winfrey Show' is not shown in Zurich," she told Entertainment Tonight.

"I go into a store and I say to the woman, 'Excuse me, could I see the bag right above your head?' and she says to me, 'No. It's too expensive.'"

The saleswoman went on to suggest she look at cheaper bags.

Winfrey said she left the shop calmly after the incident, but said that it proves that racism is still an issue.

http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/tv-radio/oprah-was-victim-of-racism-on-swiss-shopping-trip-29485861.html

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Oprah gets Swiss apology for 'racist' encounter while shopping


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/oprah-gets-swiss-apology-for-racist-encounter-while-shopping-1.1404042#ixzz2bUsTtS31
GENEVA -- It's a glamorous playground of the rich and famous, filled with glitterati from princes to movie stars. It's also a land with a sometimes uneasy relationship with foreigners -- especially when they aren't white.

Billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a black handbag, telling one of the world's richest women that she "will not be able to afford" the $38,000 price tag. Winfrey earned $77 million in the year ending in June, according to Forbes magazine.

"She said: 'No, no, no, you don't want to see that one. You want to see this one. Because that one will cost too much; you will not be able to afford that,"' Winfrey, appearing on the U.S. television program "Entertainment Tonight," quoted the clerk as saying. "And I said, 'Well, I did really want to see that one.' And she refused to get it."

Swiss tourism officials and the boutique owner were quick to offer apologies on Friday.
"We are very sorry for what happened to her, of course, because we think all of our guests and clients should be treated respectfully, in a professional way," Daniela Baer, a spokeswoman for the Swiss tourism office, told The Associated Press.

The tourism office also posted an apology on Twitter, saying "this person acted terribly wrong."
Boutique owner Trudie Goetz told the BBC that an assistant had shown Winfrey several other items before the "misunderstanding."

The newspaper Blick described the bag as a crocodile-leather Tom Ford design named for actress Jennifer Aniston, a fan of the American designer. It quoted Goetz as saying the bag was priced at 35,000 Swiss francs.

"I have to admit that the employee is Italian. Of course, she speaks English, but not as well as her mother tongue," Goetz said in a video interview on Blick's website. "It was a real misunderstanding."

Winfrey was in Switzerland to attend the wedding of her longtime friend Tina Turner, who has lived in Zurich for many years and has been quoted saying how much she enjoys living among the Swiss. Turner was granted a passport earlier this year, a process that typically takes years.

About 23 per cent of Switzerland's 8 million residents are non-Swiss, and the country earned more than $39 billion from tourism in 2011.

But Swiss authorities acknowledge that foreigners can encounter discrimination. Last year, a government-appointed commission reported that immigrants and "people who visit Switzerland as tourists or who seek asylum here, and people of a different skin colour" can encounter "xenophobia and racism in certain areas of life."

The nationalistic Swiss People's Party, which has the largest number of seats in the federal parliament, has won support through claims that immigrants can bring crime and social problems to a country that has been an oasis of stability even in Europe's darkest days.

In recent years, the People's Party has successfully campaigned to ban the construction of minarets in a country that has about 400,000 Muslims, and to tighten the country's asylum law. Swiss lawmakers also narrowly rejected a proposal to ban face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women in public spaces.
And this week, a row broke out over plans to bar asylum seekers living in the small town of Bremgarten from visiting public swimming pools and attending schools.

Human Rights Watch said the agreement by the Swiss migration office to let the town impose "house rules" to limit access to schools and sports facilities violates international law.

It wasn't the first time Winfrey has taken issue with treatment at a ritzy European boutique. In 2005, she was turned away from a Hermes shop in Paris 15 minutes after closing time. The store said it was closed for a private event.

A Hermes executive appeared on Winfrey's talk show to apologize for the "rigid and rude" behaviour of the employee. Winfrey complimented Hermes on its response -- including sensitivity training for employees -- and urged viewers to buy the company's products.


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/oprah-gets-swiss-apology-for-racist-encounter-while-shopping-1.1404042#ixzz2bUshgGad



Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam,Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building aCohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day atwww.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes his work through many links. 

TEXAS FAITH: Are Oprah, Deepak and the "God Within" school good or bad for religion?

Deepak Chopra - Oprah Winfrey

When one is at peace with himself or herself, God resides in him/her in full glory. God  in itself is neither good nor bad, it is like the nuclear power, in the right hands it is a blessing and in the wrong ones it will destroy families, communities and nations. God is within us and we can make him a villain or an all loving God through our actions, the choice is ours.

TEXAS FAITH: Are Oprah, Deepak and the "God Within" school good or bad for religion?

In his new book, Bad Religion, author and columnist Ross Douthat argues that since the 1960s, institutional Christianity has sunk to a low place - chock-a-block with heresies. Among them, the "God-within" theology that he ascribes to modern-day practitioners like Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra and Elizabeth Gilbert.

Douthat suggests that bad religion is any religious expression that doesn't go through formalized, orthodox channels. Or as writer Charlie Pierce boils down Douthat's thesis: "Christianity would have been infinitely better off is somebody had stopped the banjo Mass in its tracks." But doesn't Douthat fundamentally have a point? 

Aren't the formal channels of church, synagogue or mosque, of Buddhist temples or the Hindu Vedas -- aren't they all supposed to rein in makeshift, even self-indulgent, flights into "bad religion"? Put another way, can you find spiritual enlightenment outside a formalized religious structure and, having found it, still be a good Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Jew?


The question this week is this: Have Oprah and Deepak and the proponents of the "God Within" school caused more harm than good? Have they contributed to the deinstitutionalization of religion? And if so, is that okay?


Our Texas Faith panel weigh in with a thoughtful, wide-ranging discussion with some provocative ideas. Here's one: "Ultimately, the difference between an organized Church and a mass of unaffiliated spiritualists is the difference between an army and a bunch of people with guns."


Agree? Disagree? Read on after the jump. Ten Texas Faith Panelists contribute;

MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas

Oprah, Deepak and the other proponents of “God within”, perhaps would say in all humility that realizing “God within” is nothing new, they are simply reiterating the idea floated by the great spiritual masters like Zarathustra, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Jesus, Muhammad, the native American Chiefs, and others.

Their conversation has been a catalyst in knocking the arrogance out of religion, that theirs is the oldest, perfect, wisest, scientific, and the only one that brings salvation. Each religion is valid to the believer and their talk is restoring the pristine humility in each religion. Deepak and Oprah have indeed enriched the institution of religion, rather than de-institutionalize it.

The great spiritual masters have said that the ultimate truth about life is within you, it is your perception and your actions that deliver salvation.

A Muslim Sufi wrote, and I would be surprised, if Deepak Chopra has not quoted it.

Banday ko khuda mat kaho, banda khuda nahin,
Lekin phir bhi juda, banday say khuda nahin.

Don’t call the created a creator, the created is not the creator,
But then, the created is not a separate entity from the creator.

When Hindus greet each other with a Namaste, they essentially invoke the resident God (good) in each towards the other. The whole idea is to build the conversation, actions and thoughts on goodness.

Luke 17:21 “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” Jesus was clear, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,” he declared, “and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). From this interior plane of life, he is saying, we will gain all that is needful.

Quran, 50:16 “Now, verily, it is we who have created man, and We know what his innermost self whispers within him: for We are closer to him than his Jugular vein.” God knows everything you do, and he must be within you. He places the responsibility on individuals and adds, the best among you is the one who does good to his fellow beings.

“The cliché is that Judaism is about deed, not creed. But there’s a lot of truth in that,” said Jay Michaelson, a prominent Jewish writer and thinker, who says he believes in a Spinozian-type God. The “God does not exist; God is existence itself,” he said, summing it up.

In the Gathas, the Zoroastrian texts, “the One God, Ahura Mazda, is transcendent, but he is in constant relationship with human beings and the world God created through his Attributes. These Attributes are how God reaches the world, and how the world reaches God.”

The teachings are similar in all religions.

About 15 years ago, I gave a talk to Russians immigrants, I said, religion is an instrument, which could bring a balance to an individual, and build harmony with what surrounds him or her.

My host shared one of the most revelatory ideas about religion. After the breakup of Soviet Union, they opened the doors to religion, the salesman (clergy) immediately set up their shops in the convention center, and each one was selling his religion to the Russians. She said, “the salesman were giving circular logic, based on the idea that there is a thing called God, which they believed and understood, but could not prove, it was a strange phenomenon to us.” She said they finally had to develop criteria to evaluate different religions; one of them was how each one of them behaved.

When one is at peace with himself or herself, God resides in him/her in full glory. God/Religion in itself is neither good nor bad, it is like the nuclear power, in the right hands it is a blessing and in the wrong ones it will destroy families, communities and nations. God is within us and we can make him a villain or an all loving God through our actions, the choice is ours.

To view all the ten takes, please visit Dallas Morning News at:

http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2012/05/texas-faith-have-oprah-deepak.html

 

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MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly Texas Faith column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals. www.TheGhousediary.com is his daily blog.