Andy Young Quits Wal-Mart Group After Racial Remark
Young to Quit Wal-Mart Group After Racial Remarks
Andrew Young, the civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador, said Thursday that he would resign as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group, acknowledging 'demagogic' remarks about Jewish, Asian and Arab business owners.
Young, 74, has been lobbying minority groups and civic leaders to accept Wal-Mart stores in their neighborhoods, a relationship that has drawn criticism from other African American leaders. In an interview published in Thursday's Los Angeles Sentinel, he was asked about the retailer's role in displacing mom-and-pop stores.
'Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom-and-pop' stores out of my neighborhood,' he told the Sentinel, the oldest and largest black-owned weekly newspaper in the West.
'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.'
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said that although it did not ask for Young's resignation, it supported his decision to step down.
'We are appalled by these comments,' spokeswoman Mona Williams said. 'We are also dismayed that they would come from someone who has worked so hard for so many years for equal rights in this country.'
Young, in an interview Thursday night from his Atlanta home, expressed regret.
'I understand I've created a whole firestorm out there,' Young said. 'It's unfortunate and I should not have said it, and I apologize for it. It has not been my experience or my meaning.'
Community leaders condemned his remarks.
'Paid Wal-Mart spokesman Andrew Young's racist comments are not only an affront to the religious and ethnic groups he attacked, but to the growing multiracial movement in Los Angeles and other cities that has a starkly different vision than Young and Wal-Mart's 'any job is a good job' mantra,' said Danny Feingold, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.
The alliance was part of a coalition of activists that two years ago defeated Wal-Mart's bid to build a store in Inglewood.
Andrew Young, the civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador, said Thursday that he would resign as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group, acknowledging 'demagogic' remarks about Jewish, Asian and Arab business owners.
Young, 74, has been lobbying minority groups and civic leaders to accept Wal-Mart stores in their neighborhoods, a relationship that has drawn criticism from other African American leaders. In an interview published in Thursday's Los Angeles Sentinel, he was asked about the retailer's role in displacing mom-and-pop stores.
'Well, I think they should; they ran the 'mom-and-pop' stores out of my neighborhood,' he told the Sentinel, the oldest and largest black-owned weekly newspaper in the West.
'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.'
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said that although it did not ask for Young's resignation, it supported his decision to step down.
'We are appalled by these comments,' spokeswoman Mona Williams said. 'We are also dismayed that they would come from someone who has worked so hard for so many years for equal rights in this country.'
Young, in an interview Thursday night from his Atlanta home, expressed regret.
'I understand I've created a whole firestorm out there,' Young said. 'It's unfortunate and I should not have said it, and I apologize for it. It has not been my experience or my meaning.'
Community leaders condemned his remarks.
'Paid Wal-Mart spokesman Andrew Young's racist comments are not only an affront to the religious and ethnic groups he attacked, but to the growing multiracial movement in Los Angeles and other cities that has a starkly different vision than Young and Wal-Mart's 'any job is a good job' mantra,' said Danny Feingold, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.
The alliance was part of a coalition of activists that two years ago defeated Wal-Mart's bid to build a store in Inglewood.
posted by Greg L at
1:32 PM
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