Posted on 08/17/2006 10:23:47 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
ATLANTA
Former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador Andrew Young has stepped down from his position as head of Working Families for Wal-Mart, the longtime civil rights leader said early Friday.
Young was hired by the group in February to help improve Wal-Mart's image.
"I think I was on the verge of becoming part of the controversy, and I didn't want to become a distraction from the main issues, so I thought I ought to step down," Young told The Associated Press.
Young said his decision came after a report in the Los Angeles Sentinel, which he said was misread and misinterpreted.
In the Sentinel interview, Young was asked about whether he is 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."
Young said he decided to end his involvement with Working Families for Wal-Mart after he started getting calls about the story.
"Things that are matter-of-fact in Atlanta, in the New York and Los Angeles environment, tend to be a lot more volatile," he said.
He said working with the group "was also taking more of my time that I thought."
Young came under fire from the civil rights community after his company, GoodWorks International, was hired by Working Families for Wal-Mart to promote the world's largest retailer. Young's company, which he has headed since 1997, works with corporations and governments to foster economic development in Africa and the Caribbean.
In an April letter to the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, Young said it was wrong for the church and others to blame Wal-Mart for world ills.
"I think we may have erred in not paying enough attention to the potentially positive role of business and the corporate multinational community in seeking solutions to the problems of the poor," Young wrote at that time.
Thanks for that link.
I'm making a Wal-Mart run today, too. I'll post my "Everything I Buy is Made in America" purchase list later. ;)
What an @ss this guy is! Hopefully this is a sign from Wal-Mart that they're going to stand and fight against the 'Rat infiltraters (infil-traitors?), as we've seen them start to do in a few other posts this week. :)
Ha Ha....
He should return all the money from this venture as well. He has very dirty hands......
Young should be ashamed of himself. American jews played significant roles in the civil rights movement.
In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel . . . . Mr. Young . . . apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview last night. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.
Wal-Mart management once again demonstrates its efficiency. Senior employee's major f-up comes to light in the morning, and he is canned before sundown. Not surprising, from the private company that put all local, state, and federal agencies to shame in the aftermath of Katrina.
Yikes, is that true, or just an alarmingly plausible throwaway line that you made up?
Andrew Young adds his name to the list of stupid a$$ed racist bigots.
Or......he was warned if he stayed with Wal-Mart he wouldn't get the usual lucrative speaking engagements any more and he would be shunned or blacklisted by black/labor special interests groups.
Most directors are hired for their names and for a special purpose. No way do most of these big names resign from highly-paid, no-work, cushy jobs inherent in being a director of a large corporation.
They either get the axe for some reason or other.....or they resign to hang onto the possibility of future highly-paid, no-work, cushy jobs.
Leni
I did mine shortly after my posting this morning. the only thing of questionable origin I purchased is the Lexmark ink cartridge for my printer...it says "assembled" in Mexico.
I did notice something in there this morning that I had never noticed before.......the flags hanging inside the entrances. As I've told you, I have to cross the state line into Maryland to shop at WalMart.....well the flags hanging from the ceiling are not only the US and Maryland flags, but also the Virginia flag.......that's so cool.
But I wonder if they will keep it up after they open their new store in this county next year...probably, because people like me will still drive to Maryland.....it's only 14 miles as opposed ot over 30 for the location of the proposed store in my county.
It's a shame how Wal-Mart is now the target and a democRat one at that, maybe Target is behind, lol.. just kidding.
No , it is just noodleheaded politicos mining votes from malcontents who don't have a clue about economies and choices afforded customers in robust ones..
It would actually be 176 million customer VISITS, rather than 176 million CUSTOMERS, with people who go more than once being counted multiple times (no store of that type has any way to track individual customers, when many are making small purchases with cash). But it's still entirely possible that the number who shop at Wal-Mart and the number who vote are neck-and-neck. I said "Yikes", but I'm not sure I really meant it. Given Wal-Mart's performance in the aftermath of Katrina, which was head and shoulders above that of any government agency (local, state, or federal), I had already suggested elsewhere that FEMA's responsibilities should just be contracted out to Wal-Mart. Perhaps the entire federal government's operations should be.
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