Oprah Winfrey on "Racist" Incident over Pricey Bag

　　American billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey says she ran into Swiss racism¹ when a clerk at Trois Pommes, a pricey Zurich boutique, refused to show her a 38,000 US dollar handbag, telling one of the world's richest women that she wouldn't be able to afford it.

 

　　Winfrey quoted the clerk when she appeared on the US television programme "Entertainment Tonight".

 

　　"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.' And I said, 'Well, no, I really did want to see that one.' And she refused to get it! She refused to get it!"

 

　　She brought up the incident during an interview about her new movie, "Lee Daniels' The Butler," which opens next week and focuses on civil rights and race relations in the US.

 

　　According to Forbes magazine, Winfrey earned 77 million US dollars in the year ending in June.

 

　　Swiss tourism officials and the boutique owner were quick to offer apologies on Friday.

 

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

 

　　However, the nationalistic Swiss People's Party, which has the largest number of seats in the federal parliament, claims that immigrants bring crime and social problems to a country that has been an oasis² of stability even in Europe's darkest days.

 

　　In recent years, the People's Party has successfully campaigned to ban the construction of minarets³ in a country that has about 400,000 Muslims, and to tighten⁴ the nation's asylum⁵ law.

 

　　Swiss lawmakers also rejected a proposal to ban veils worn by some Muslim women in public.

 

　　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.

1 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

2 oasis   

n.（沙漠中的）绿洲，宜人的地方

参考例句：

• They stopped for the night at an oasis.他们在沙漠中的绿洲停下来过夜。
• The town was an oasis of prosperity in a desert of poverty.该镇是贫穷荒漠中的一块繁荣的“绿洲”。

3 minarets   

n.（清真寺旁由报告祈祷时刻的人使用的）光塔( minaret的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Remind you of a mosque, red baked bricks, the minarets. 红砖和尖塔都会使你联想到伊斯兰教的礼拜寺。 来自互联网
• These purchases usually went along with embellishments such as minarets. 这些购置通常也伴随着注入尖塔等的装饰。 来自互联网

4 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

5 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。