The Powerful Return of Racism
In the Sentinel interview, Young was asked about whether he was 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." (Read the full story here.)
Now, this is awful bigotry right on the face of it. But let's look at some of the implications, too. Not only did Andrew Young, former civil rights activist at the right hand of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., make these remarks as part of a contract with Wal-Mart (though I admit that these terrible remarks are not Wal-Mart's direct fault), but people are defending him!
On the local TV news where I first saw this story, Rev. Al Sharpton stated that these statements were "unfortunate" (to say the least, Reverend). Folks calling in to Sharpton's radio show, however, were saying that Young's bigoted statements are "the absolute truth"! I think that it's terrible that I have to say that all of these callers were African Americans. Honestly, black people should know better. Yes, the sort of bigotry and racism that blacks have had to endure in this country for centuries is truly awful. I can't imagine treating another human being that way for something as trivial as skin color, or land of family origin. But just because they've had to endure it does not give them the right to be bigoted themselves. That needs to be repeated: an enduring victim complex does not give anybody the right to treat others like crap. And that's precisely what it is. The overarching African American culture (for those who are new here, this is a GENERALIZATION about a sub-culture, and not meant to apply to each and every individual) has trapped itself in a state of victimhood, rather than trying to move on. (See the Martin Luther King Jr. episode of The Boondocks cartoon for a fantastic satirical examination of this phenomenon.)
What nobody seems to understand is that if you want to celebrate civil rights, you need to support those rights for everybody, and not selectively say, "Ok, well... Gays, Arabs and Asians are out." Civil rights are not just for any one group or minority; they are for the human majority!
I think that Rabbi Marvin Hier (uh oh! Jew Alert, Code Red!) summed it all up the best when he said: "If anyone should know that these are the words of bigotry, anti-Semitism and prejudice, it's him. I know he apologized, but I would say this, ... during his years as a leader of the national civil rights movement, if anyone would utter remarks like this about African-Americans his voice would be the first to rise in indignation."
"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." (Read the full story here.)
Now, this is awful bigotry right on the face of it. But let's look at some of the implications, too. Not only did Andrew Young, former civil rights activist at the right hand of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., make these remarks as part of a contract with Wal-Mart (though I admit that these terrible remarks are not Wal-Mart's direct fault), but people are defending him!
On the local TV news where I first saw this story, Rev. Al Sharpton stated that these statements were "unfortunate" (to say the least, Reverend). Folks calling in to Sharpton's radio show, however, were saying that Young's bigoted statements are "the absolute truth"! I think that it's terrible that I have to say that all of these callers were African Americans. Honestly, black people should know better. Yes, the sort of bigotry and racism that blacks have had to endure in this country for centuries is truly awful. I can't imagine treating another human being that way for something as trivial as skin color, or land of family origin. But just because they've had to endure it does not give them the right to be bigoted themselves. That needs to be repeated: an enduring victim complex does not give anybody the right to treat others like crap. And that's precisely what it is. The overarching African American culture (for those who are new here, this is a GENERALIZATION about a sub-culture, and not meant to apply to each and every individual) has trapped itself in a state of victimhood, rather than trying to move on. (See the Martin Luther King Jr. episode of The Boondocks cartoon for a fantastic satirical examination of this phenomenon.)
What nobody seems to understand is that if you want to celebrate civil rights, you need to support those rights for everybody, and not selectively say, "Ok, well... Gays, Arabs and Asians are out." Civil rights are not just for any one group or minority; they are for the human majority!
I think that Rabbi Marvin Hier (uh oh! Jew Alert, Code Red!) summed it all up the best when he said: "If anyone should know that these are the words of bigotry, anti-Semitism and prejudice, it's him. I know he apologized, but I would say this, ... during his years as a leader of the national civil rights movement, if anyone would utter remarks like this about African-Americans his voice would be the first to rise in indignation."