The World 'Cusses Back' at MLK's Right-Hand Man

Aug. 18, 2006 — -- Andrew Young, a former ally of Martin Luther King Jr. and a central figure in the civil rights movement, was recently hired by a Wal-Mart support group to improve the image of the company. But he resigned Thursday night from that post after making racially insensitive remarks about Jews, Arabs and Koreans "overcharging us, selling us stale bread, and bad meat, and wilted vegetables."

When asked if Wal-Mart meant the death of mom-and-pop stores, Young told the Los Angeles Sentinel, "They ran the mom-and-pop stores out of my neighborhood, but you see, those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables.

"First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs. Very few black people own these stores," Young said.

Young, a two-term mayor of Atlanta, a former ambassador to the United Nations and a three-term congressman from the 5th District of Georgia, publicly issued a retraction and an apology Thursday night for his racially insensitive comments, asking "forgiveness of those I have offended" with comments that "run contrary to everything I have dedicated my life to."

Young, who is credited with coining the phrase, "You have to expect that if you cuss out the world, the world is going to cuss back," resigned from Working Families for Wal-Mart an hour after issuing the apology.

"I took on the position of chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart because I believe so strongly in the good that Wal-Mart does to lift up the lives of the working poor," Young said in a statement to The Associated Press. "The last thing I would want to do would be to distract from that good. Therefore, effective immediately, I am resigning the chairmanship of Working Families for Wal-Mart."

Wal-Mart responded rapidly, apologizing for Young's statements and admonishing him.

"We were ... dismayed that they would come from someone who has worked so hard for so many years for equal rights in this country. Ambassador Young has done the right thing to apologize and to ask for a retraction. We also support his decision to resign," company spokeswoman Mona Williams said.