Former Amabassor Andrew Young had stepped down from serving on a Wal-Mart sub-committee after making remarks that were seen as racially offensive.
This is what he said:
"In the Sentinel interview, Young was asked about whether he was concerned Wal-Mart causes smaller, mom-and-pop stores to close.
"Well, I think they should; they ran the `mom and pop' stores out of my neighborhood," the paper quoted Young as saying. "But you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores."
Now the unfortunate fact of modern America is that many black communities have corner stores ran by people who are generally either Mid Eastern or Korean, and in the past some were Jewish as well. That's a fact. Now even today in Oakland, I can show you examples -- many in number -- of stores that are owned by persons such as those Mr. Young pointed out and do have substandard food and produce. In many cases the inventory hasn't been properly turned over in several months. But with that, the prices are up to three times higher than at a larger chain.
On top of all that, I've never seen one of these stores hire anyone black -- ok, once. That's it.
What Andrew Young pointed to is a fact and he should not be shunned for publically pointing to a problem that needs to be adressed by economic development officials around the US.
Moreover, people have to learn the difference between a racist remark and one that's racially concious. I do agree that Andrew Young should have nuanced his expression of the problem. I think what he should have said is "we need to adress the problems of store quality and price and employment where one ethnic group not African American establishes a store in a black neighborhood."
That would have -- or should have -- gone down better.
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