Subscribe
NewsOne Featured Video
CLOSE

What is it about Wal-Mart that breeds so much trouble? It isn’t clear whether or not the person who made the announcement was an employee or just an intrepid racist shopper who found their way to the P.A. system microphone. Either way, apart from being ignorant, this stunt sounds really juvenile. The store later used the announcement system to apologize, but some shoppers have opted to boycott the store over the incident. That response doesn’t seem particularly well-thought out: Isn’t a boycott a roundabout way of giving the announcer exactly what he wanted? – NewsOne

From CNN.com:

(CNN) — Police in New Jersey arrested a teenager in connection with a public-address-system announcement telling “all blacks” to leave a Wal-Mart store, a police spokesman said.

The 16-year-old boy is from Atlantic County, New Jersey, said deputy police chief John Dalesandro of the Washington Township Police Department. The suspect was arrested Friday in Atlantic County on bias intimidation and harassment charges, police said in a statement Saturday. He is in custody of his parents, police said.

UPDATED 03.17.10 – Announcement Told “All Black People” To Leave N.J. Wal-Mart

From MSNBC:

Wal-Mart officials are looking at security tapes after an announcement was made for “all black people” to leave a store in South Jersey.

A man used the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township Sunday night and calmly announced: “Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.”

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington were inside the store when it happened and told the Courier Post that customers and store employees looked stunned when they heard it.

“In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them [our kids] at home, and that’s tolerance for people,” said Ellington.

Ellington and other customers let store management and police know they were upset.

They asked the store to use the same announcement system to apologize to customers that night, which it did.

Wal-Mart management called the incident “unacceptable,” and said it’s working to make sure nothing like this happens at any other stores.

Click here to read more.

RELATED STORIES

Wal-Mart Sells Black Barbie For Half Price Of Same White Doll

Black Woman Faces 15 Years In Prison For Cutting Line At Wal-Mart