Boy, Andrew Young stepped in it this time.

[warrens]

I really like this guy, but what the hell was he thinking?

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."

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-young18aug18,1,1856004.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage

What he said is essentially true, but turning it into a racist diatribe is unreal. Yeah, ghetto stores, no matter who owns them, rip off blacks and sell shoddy, crappy food and merchandise. But to blame it on ethnic groups...the ones I used to go to in Harlem were owned by blacks, latinos, asians and arabs. I don't remember jews being in the bodega business, but maybe.

There is no racial aspect to it. It's a high-risk, high-profit and pretty sleazy business.

[PeaceProgProsp]

1. Bill Clinton's grandparents didn't rip people off when they ran

a mom and pop in a poor arkansas community with largely black population.

[Kahuna]

2. Yikes!!!!

:scared:

[Critters2]

3. This is embarassing

He's an ordained minister in my denomination. His Church and Ministry Committee should have a little chat with him. They would with me if I made racist comments that publicly!

[RufusEarl]

4. That's money talking folks, it's that simple!!

[Dogmudgeon]

5. This has happened to a lot of ethnic groups

When the finance community wants to "pump-and-dump" and manipulate property values for their profit, they often preferentially finance people from other ethnic groups and stir up trouble. It was once a very common practice, and was used throughout the South to keep black people from gaining any political power. But it was also used, for instance, in the North East against select Jewish, Irish, Italian, Hispanic, as well as Black communities. The Asians have very often been the ones used as the "wedge" groups, although this, too, has varied; recently, in Philadelphia, we've seen the Hmong being played off against the Chinese. Black and Hispanic folks are now frequently played off against each other.

The practice has been called "redlining", "greenlining", and even "blacklining", from real estate slang.

Most of this was officially outlawed in the 1960s, but it still goes on. Sad to say, a lot of the residue from these practices is still around, including hard feelings Andy Young may have.

So it's not just "my tribe is better than your tribe" stuff. It's the spawn of generations of evil, Machiavellian, hard-core social engineering.

--p!

Racism -- The Gift That Keeps On Giving.

[warrens]

6. I don't think this is redlining

Bodegas, with huge profit margins, are a way to nearly instant wealth for immigrant groups. If you're willing to work 14 hours a day or more (usually these stores are staffed by an entire family), you can get rich quick selling off-brand food, deli and produce seconds, near-expiring milk, cigarettes, beer and the like to people who do not have the cash or the transportation to go to an authentic supermarket.

It's one of the worst things in the retail world: the poorest people pay the highest prices for the most inferior goods. Go into any ghetto and you'll see it. Heck, I lived in Park Slope in Brooklyn, an affluent neighborhood, and at the other end of the neighborhood, there was nothing but bodegas and one really crappy supermarket.

But there's nothing racial about it. It's just a way for immigrants to make a lot of money quickly. The inner city residents know they are getting ripped off, and take it out on the store owner, no matter what race, but it's really a case of larger retailers being unwilling to invest in the inner city.

Dollar General, to give them a lot of credit, are now opening Fresh Market stores that sell dairy, produce and meat in small packs at low prices. There are only a few right now, but I imagine they will be successful as long as the stores can manage the shrink that goes with urban retailing.

[themaguffin]

7. Assinine, insulting and it defends Wal Mart

Mom n' Pop stores can't get the deals Wal Mart can. Do some overcharge beyond that? I'm sure they do, but is that the major issue? No.

Perhaps his name should be removed from Int'l Blvd in downtown Atlanta and added to the roads that enter Wal Mart lots.