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Remarks lead Young to quit Wal-Mart group

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 19, 2006

Civil rights leader Andrew Young, hired to help Wal-Mart Stores Inc. improve its image, said Friday he was stepping down from his position as head of an outside support group amid criticism of remarks he made that were seen as racially offensive.

Young, a former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador, was hired by Working Families for Wal-Mart in February.

"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 said.

Young, once a close associate of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said his decision to step down followed a report in the weekly Los Angeles Sentinel, which he said was misread and misinterpreted.

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."

Young, who has apologized for the remarks, said he decided to end his involvement with Working Families for Wal-Mart after he started getting calls about the story.

[Last modified August 18, 2006, 23:28:59]