Why did they mention the "North African Gangs" problem Originally? Why did they tell her they knew who she was? This is a chain of command problem. The people working for Hermes weren't in sync with the head of the organization in terms of what is valued. Right or Wrong, the bad publicity is going to put a small dent in their sales and it was obvious that the workers were oblivious or they just did not care. Either way I would be mad if I was the Hermes President that my workers working under me would mishandle customers and cost the company money. No one cares about your money more than you do. Playing Devils advocate, If you focus on race and racism then you will see it in life. I remember on the show how Oprah tried to bring up the issue of race with Tom Cruise and his Son who is of African descent. I think she slipped the question in just to show the audience that Cruise had a "Black" child to promote adoption of all races of children (which was a good thing to do). However, you could see that it was an issue with her. Now combined with the fact that she was there with her friends who probably are somewhat more proccupied with racism then I could see how this could have been blown out of proportion. Oprah was shocked but for her friends it validated what they already had a belief in.