Lying down with snakes

oops

Different Focus in Atlanta on Young’s Remark

By SHAILA DEWAN and MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: August 19, 2006

ATLANTA, Aug. 18 — Andrew Young built his fame as the first lieutenant of the civil rights movement, working closely with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and becoming the first black congressman from Georgia since Reconstruction.
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Instead, people who have known Mr. Young for decades seem rather satisfied that his comment that Jewish, Arab and Korean store owners had “ripped off” black neighborhoods, “selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables” had severed his link with his most high-profile client, Wal-Mart Stores, in whose defense he made the remark.

Referring to the remarks as being singled out from a long interview, Mr. Young said Friday in a telephone interview, “I thought this was kind of below the belt.”

“Now I don’t blame anybody,” he said, a day after apologizing for his remarks and resigning from the Wal-Mart payroll. “It was stupid of me to say in that context. No, it wasn’t stupid of me. I said it in the appropriate context. But I didn’t think about how it would read.”

His remarks drew ire from Jewish groups and advocates of diversity, dismay from Wal-Mart executives and a slap from the Rev. Al Sharpton.

But in Atlanta, the comments became an occasion to debate the focus of the civil rights movement and the fidelity of Mr. Young, now 74, to its ideals.

“My guess is that Andy was trying so hard to run a good race on a questionable horse that he stumbled off track with his unfortunate remarks,” said the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, a longtime associate of Mr. Young.

Tom Houck, an Atlantan who worked for the King family, said, “I talked to him today and I said, ‘Andy, you sleep with snakes, you’re going to get bitten by them.’ ”

Mr. Young made his comment to a reporter from a black newspaper, The Los Angeles Sentinel, responding to a question about Wal-Mart’s effects on mom-and-pop businesses.

“I was giving a rational explanation of a historic phenomenon,” he explained later. “Can you talk about ethnicity objectively without it being demeaning or stereotypical?”

He added that he had also discussed black merchants who overcharged the poor.

“The way this came out it makes me sound like I’m refuting everything I’ve done over almost 70 years, frankly,” Mr. Young said.

He defended his work, saying, “I still think that Wal-Mart is good for poor people.”

Critics, many also his friends, disagreed. When Wal-Mart asked Mr. Young to become the public face of a new group called Working Families for Wal-Mart that would promote the company and rebut its union critics, an open letter signed by 57 people, mostly clergy members, accused him of siding with the “filthy rich” and “taking a stand that is diametrically opposed to everything Dr. King stood for.”

Vernon Jones, one of a younger generation of black politicians who is chief executive officer of DeKalb County, Ga., home to the newest Wal-Mart store in the Atlanta region, said the company had created jobs and revitalized neighborhoods.

“No one can question the fact that Andy Young is for the little person,” Mr. Jones said. “He’s more for the little person than anyone I know.”
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Wal-Mart is not the first corporate client for which he has drawn criticism. In 1996, he was paid by Nike to inspect their overseas factories. He largely gave them a pass, helping Nike overcome criticism that it ran exploitative sweatshops.

Mr. Young’s critics say there is no better evidence for saying he has morphed from populist to corporate mouthpiece than his relationship with Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart took an interest in Mr. Young in February 2005 when he praised it at one of its Saturday morning meetings that frequently feature politicians and celebrities.

Mona Williams, a company spokeswoman, said that during Black History Month, Mr. Young told executives that “Wal-Mart had done more for poor people than any other institution in this country.”

But civil rights advocates criticize the company record. By its admission, the retailer has been slow to diversify senior ranks, turning recently to reducing bonuses unless executives improve promotions of women and minorities. The company is also the subject of the largest sex-discrimination lawsuit.
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“In his opinion,” said John Hope Bryant, the founder of Operation Hope, which fights urban poverty, “companies like Wal-Mart had simply introduced some much needed competition in our inner-city communities, helping to level the playing field for poor people.’’

Wal Mart underpays their workers and has been sued for not promoting black employees.
Now, if "younger" politicians don't get that, they may not be in politics for long. Wal Mart is America's largest corporation, yet acts like it has no corporate responsibility. Andy Young was window dressing.

Mom and pop stores can suck, but they need your business. Wal Mart may hire black people, but by placing them in low wage, no insurance jobs, while racking up massive profits is bad enough. Then there is the unpaid overtime and the refusal to promote blacks to management positions. An amazing record for America's largest corporation,