Young apologizes for remarks

Andrew Young, the civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador, said Thursday that he would resign as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group, acknowledging “demagogic” remarks about Jewish, Asian and Arab business owners.

Young, 74, has been lobbying minority groups and civic leaders to accept Wal-Mart stores in their neighborhoods, a relationship that has drawn criticism from other black leaders. In an interview published in Thursday’s Los Angeles Sentinel, he was asked about the retailer’s role in displacing mom-and-pop stores.

“Well, I think they should; they ran the ‘mom-and-pop’ stores out of my neighborhood,” he told the Sentinel, the oldest and largest black-owned weekly newspaper in the West.

“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.”

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said that although it did not ask for Young’s resignation, it supported his decision to step down.

“We are appalled by these comments,” spokeswoman Mona Williams said.

Young expressed regret.

“I understand I’ve created a whole firestorm out there,” Young said. “It’s unfortunate and I should not have said it, and I apologize for it. It has not been my experience or my meaning.”