The Latest Culture Clash: Oprah vs. Switzerland

It has not been a good week for Switzerland's international image, said the Financial Times on Sunday. That turned out to be a typical British understatement. Newspapers and networks around the world branded Switzerland a haven of xenophobes and racists. What actually happened in the Zurich shop when Oprah asked for that $35,000 handbag? It's yet another culture clash.

Nobody knows the exact facts of the conversation in the luxury boutique Trois Pommes between Oprah Winfrey and the salesperson (who is not Swiss but Italian, by the way).

But this much is clear: the incident turned into a public relations disaster for Switzerland.

For news outlets the world over (which of course faced a scarcity of newsworthy items to report on during the summer lull), Switzerland is now "the homeland of cement-heads" in which "aggressions" against foreigners are a daily occurrence, as the German magazine Focus put it.

It's quite funny to hear this from Germany, which has actually seen not only salespeople refuse handbags, but racially or politically motivated murders of foreigners.



Sure, no country is exempt from racism. But before we jump to the racism indictment, what are the actual facts of the case?

According to BBC News, Winfrey, a billionaire and one of the world's richest women, visited Zurich a few weeks ago to attend singer Tina Turner's wedding.

The Oprah Winfrey Show is not shown in Switzerland.

Winfrey claimed a sales assistant refused to serve her. She was apparently told one of the bags on display was "too expensive" for her.

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

Shop owner Trudie Götz told the BBC that Winfrey was "absolutely allowed" to look at the $35,000 bag, which was kept behind a screen.

"My salesperson wanted to give her the handbag in her hand. But she didn't want to take the bag," claimed Götz.

She said her assistant had worked in her store "for a few years and takes care of the most spoiled customers from all over the world." adding, "she is really a correct sales person".

Götz did not call into question Winfrey's perception of the events.
"I didn't take care of [Winfrey]. I'm sure she felt like this - but my salesgirl promised me she took care of [her] really the best she could. So it must have been a misunderstanding," she said.

Gotz said her assistant spoke both Italian and English, "but her English isn't as good".

"She tried to show Mrs. Oprah the same style in other qualities, because maybe she didn't understand what she wanted."

Refusing any customer a $35,000 handbag makes no sense, since the salesperson would give up a lucrative sale and the sales commission that comes with it.

Some of the bad rap Switzerland experiences stems from bad timing. The Swiss town of Bremgarten unleashed a public outcry for planning to ban asylum-seekers from the public pool.

Human rights groups have likened the plans to apartheid. Officials counter that the curbs are aimed at preventing tensions with residents.

Some 48,000 people are currently seeking asylum in Switzerland -- about double the European average.

One solution might be what the dark-skinned author Jonas Hassen Khemiri proposed in an open letter to the Swedish (and white) justice minister Beatrice Ask: to slip for one day into the other's skin.

That is how she might experience Sweden's daily and ubiquitous racism.

What do you say? Is Oprah Winfrey justified in speaking accusing "racism" or was it a simple misunderstanding? Is Switzerland a country of xenophobes? I look forward to reading you on my blog: http://thomaszweifel.blogspot.com/.

 
P.S. To learn more about avoiding cross-cultural fiascos (including hilarious cross-cultural jokes), check out Culture Clash 2, just published by SelectBooks. Or visit Manres.com for more tools.