If any of you actually read James Taranto’s column regularly
Right. That’s gonna be a big f’in NO. This reflects well on on regular Boing Boing readers.
For “arrogant,” read “uppity.”
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Yeah, but everybody speaks Cheese.
If this is true, which I am not convinced, then I believe being mocked by people who don’t read him regularly is only fair. He could have put “Swiss” in “problem quotes” or put in a footnote or said, “To paraphrase Obama” or anything to tip off his own readers - and those who come across this - that something was up. So again, if he actually knows that Swiss is not a language, I feel he deserves what mockery comes to him over this.
I agree that there is more to it than race. Another columnist pointed out that it might also relate to weight since expensive stores for women tend to treat anyone over a certain size badly. But that mental scorecard that people go through to see if someone deserves good treatment: clothes, watch, jewelry, etc. almost certainly includes skin colour. It may not be a deciding factor, but it would be hard to believe it isn’t there.
Surely not knowing that there is no Swiss language is ignorant, not stupid.
It’s not like Oprah a person who is famous for some movie they did in the 80s. I actually think the suggestion that if you are going to sell $40k handbags you might want to just take a look at pictures of the world’s female billionaires isn’t so outrageous. There are only so many of them.
huh? where was she described as ‘uppity’?
Hey, Swiss isn’t even that hard. Why, I know a 2 year-old who can quote any Pingu episode in its entirety!
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Actually, there is such a thing as Swiss language and many people in Switzerland have been working to have it designated as a national language.
Switzerland, especially Zurich, is an incredibly wealthy and cosmopolitan country. Affluent people from every part of the world pass through there for business, employment, and pleasure. It’s laughable to presume that someone working in an upscale store in Zurich would be, or would be allowed to be, either bigoted or unskilled.
Are you kidding? Oprah’s a non-celebrity over here
Plus, she didn’t speak Russian, so how the hell was the salesperson to know she was rolling in cash.
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I’m going to guess that billionaire Oprah Winfrey dresses in fairly high end clothes. The simplest, most obvious explanation (race) is probably right.
Do we know if the clerk was a member of the Swiss People’s Party?
I’m proud to have no idea what my presumed ideological opponents think! Long live the echo chamber.
(I have no idea what he’s like, but he’s not precisely “toxic rhetoric” so much as someone you don’t agree with.)
Derpy derp there Mr. Concern… Yeah, you have to read a WSJ hack “regularly” to “get” his column…
So… he’s conservative? That was sort of my point.
What about the link you provided makes you think that it’s awesome to read less and understand less of how many Americans think? And for that matter to dismiss me with “derps” and “concern driving trollies” for pointing out how proud of your deliberate isolationism in political thinking?
From where I stand, you sorta doubled down on your proud ignorance and disdain for people who don’t think like you.
(but, yeah, he does seem like a waste of time and not especially clever if you don’t care what people on the right are talking and thinking about)
Citation, please.
Why is that laughable?
German humor may be obscure, but “Bavarians as butts” is sniggeringly amusing in English.
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Call me a skeptic, but that story is full of holes.
I find it hard to believe that her show’s not on Swiss TV. More likely, this clerk was racist, and didn’t want to admit it.
Just like North America, Europe’s got a long way to go about racial matters.
Why do you find it hard to believe? She’s not on Italian TV, not on Austrian TV, not on German TV (except sometimes in clips during collections of “10 most [something] moments in TV”), … Why should she be? Are “Servizio Pubblico”, “TV Total” or “Willkommen Österreich” featured in US Television?
But i agree that generally speaking Europe has a long way to go on racial matters.
