Andrew Young: Racist or Realist?

Andrew Young in an interview with the Los Angeles Sentinel, an African-American newspaper, said, “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." , this in response to a question about replacing mom and pop stores in neighborhoods with Wal-mart, who he worked for. Racist? Yes. Helpful? No. Insightful? Only about him. A very good article is here. It describes the fact he was removed from the UN after calling the British the original racists. Though I have also read it was because of an un-authorized secret meeting with the PLO (this article by the NYT is actually pretty good and seems to be lacking the usual slant). Evidently he believes, as many African-American leaders do that racism is a one-way street, and ONLY African-Americans can be the recipient of it. In his defense he did apologize and resign, but it will be interesting to see if there is any real outcry about it, or as so often happens, he is given a pass.