Posted on 04/05/2012 11:34:04 AM PDT by grundle
Marion Barry is mostly refusing to back down from remarks Tuesday that Asian business owners in his ward “ought to go.”
Barry made the comments Tuesday night, at a party celebrating his landslide victory in the Democratic primary race for the D.C. Council seat he’s held since 2005.
WRC-TVcameras caught the remarks: “We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”
Since then, outrage has mounted. One Facebook page appeared Wednesday, demanding that Barry apologize to the Asian community. By 1 p.m., it had more than 72 “likes.” One of his D.C. Council colleagues, Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), took to Twitter late Wednesday to decry the remarks as “deplorable.” Five suburban Maryland lawmakers of Asian descent — Democratic delegates Sam Arora, Kumar Barve, Susan Lee, Aruna Miller and Kris Valderrama — also called on Barry to apologize.
“At best, Mr. Barry’s attack on Asian Americans is deeply troubling, and at worst it is race baiting,” they said in a statement.
Asked why he singled out Asians in his remarks, Barry said, “Because that’s reality. Who owns these little restaurants? Who owns them? You know, Asians. . .Ninety percent of all the small restaurants in Ward 8, at least.”
He added, “We’re spending our money there, and we demand respect. We demand they participate in community affairs. We demand they give jobs to Ward 8 people regardless of their cultural situation. That’s as American as apple pie.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
There are. In Asia, an employee is expected to shut up and do what he or she is told. That isn't likely to work with anyone who looks like Obama's Son. :)
It’s because the Asian merchants do business through plexiglas shields to avoid getting robbed and shot. That has a depressing effect on the neighborhood business of armed robbery. It’s not fair, no justice. The young men in the area just can’t get ahead.
“Do you think there might be a small, tiny little chance that he could possibly be a racist?”
I don’t blame him for lashing out at one of the groups white America has brought in to replace the blacks (not that it will do him any good). While white America has paid a price for the influx of imported “replacement Americans” from Asia and Latin America in terms of wage suppression and job security, black America has been made irrelevant and invisible by them.
“Barry is a clown, but Asians generally don’t hire outside their own race or culture. There may be perfectly good reasons not to, but I get tired of hearing about the employment that immigrants supposedly bring to America. It’s more like a chain migration family affair.”
You’re right about that; Asians were imported to suppress wages in the tech sector specifically, via a fabricated shortage of tech workers. Even storefront tech shops in my area are Asian-owned and solely staffed by Asians; I don’t think they even reach out for American business (their signs are in Asian characters). While many are hardworking people, the benefits of bringing them in do not outweigh the costs to the American tech industry. Many of their businesses are unregistered and untaxed, and they really do just “keep it in the family”; there is no contribution to the larger picture.
Even after watching them end many Americans’ careers in the tech sector, Bill gates had the gall to complain that American kids don’t go into computers any more; he had threatened to move jobs to Asia & Canada if he wasn’t given his indentured servants, and when he was (I’m sure he preferred US law to protect him instead of India’s or Red China’s) he acts as though nobody noticed what happened...
“As for hiring Ward 8 residents to work in their businesses, perhaps it is because few if any residents apply for jobs, and when they do and are hired, do not show up for work regularly.”
We both know these jobs aren’t open to white Americans, either; they get around a lot of labor laws by employing related minors, and a lot of tax laws (income & payroll) by hiring friends & family.
Far be it for me to defend Barry or his EBT constituency (who’s money are they spending?) but I’ve been on the receiving end of Korean “customer service” in some of these stores and eateries and I can see his point. The worst of them are in those DC neighborhoods and should know what they are dealing with. They’d never survive in the ‘burbs with the attitudes I’ve seen. That Seinfeld episode with the Korean salon wasn’t totally off the mark.
My guess is that Asian restaurants don’t have quick service crack shops in the rear.
First the blacks chase the businesses out, then complain that there are no businesses in black neighborhoods.
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