Black Folks And Everyday Low Prices

A lot of folks have problems with Wal-Mart. Local retailers. Unions. The list goes on.

But Wal-Mart has come up with a plan which is working. New stores are going up in poorer neighborhoods.

The pitch goes like this: Wal-mart is good for poor people of color because they get jobs and also get to buy cheap goods.

Of course executives don't mention the jobs come with notoriously low wages and that the company has cracked down on union organizing. But  Black cheap labor conservatives don't care.

Wal-Mart executives know that poor people of color are in no position to be picky about who brings what jobs to the community. Wal-Mart is the leading employer of Black and Latino workers.

But just how bad is Wal-Mart?

Wal-Mart has a health plan. But because few workers can afford it on the wages Wal-Mart pays, the company instead encourages its workers to apply for public assistance. So many of Wal-Mart employees are on welfare that some states want to tax them to offset some of their costs. 

Pitching proposals to poor communities who are desperate for jobs, private developers are able to exploit the failure of public policy to create jobs in these communities. New York City Coucilman Charles Barron had this to say in a recent Alternet article.

"There are plenty of other ways to create jobs," says Councilman Barron, who argues for increased investment in public infrastructure such as hospitals and schools to revitalize poor areas like his Brooklyn district. "Private developers," he continues, "manipulate the race question for their financial gain."

Like everyone else, I wanna save a few a few dollars. I shop at Wal-Mart. And I'm all for poor communities getting much needed jobs. But we need to distinguish between economic development and economic exploitation. And Wal-Mart smells a bit like explotation to me.

Comments

[Of Two Minds]

Thanks american black for this post about Wal-Mart and its relationship to black folks. And also for linking to our site: http://uraniumpresiding.blogsome.com. I think you are completely right on when you see the opening of new Wal-Marts in poor, minority neighborhoods as a sign of oncoming exploitation. Poor people all over are getting paid little to work at these stores , and then they can only afford to buy cheap goods made by even poorer people somewhere else. That's not cool at all, especially since the half cent Walmart makes on each transaction add up to significant profits for an already wealthy few. An already wealthy few that's now buying up very expensive American art. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/13/nyregion/13painting.html?hp

I think you can take an even stronger tone when chastizing the retail giant; especially since when you say "Wal-Mart has come up with a plan which is working," you mean *working for the further subjugation of the poor and disadvantaged.* It wasn't clear to me what your position is on Wal-Mart's practices until I reached the end of your post. When I got there, though, my head was nodding all the way.

If you want to read about how Wal-Mart denies its critics by spinning facts and rhetoric, also check out this article from Slate Magazine: http://slate.msn.com/id/2113954/