Race to the bottom-Wal-mart story from The Nation [View All]

[AlCzervik]

If you don't get The Nation you may want to read this article, it's very intersting and it looks at how Walmart words the race card.

article | Posted March 9, 2005

Race to the Bottom

by Liza Featherstone


Click here for info on Featherstone's new book, Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart, recently released by Basic Books.
al-Mart is working for everyone," read the newspaper ad, which ran in January in more than 100 newspapers nationwide, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. "Some of our critics are working only for themselves." The same day, the company launched walmartfacts.com, a website to counter criticism of the kind you may have read in this magazine. Along with some misleading information intended to make Wal-Mart's wages and benefits sound much better than they are, the new campaign materials feature many smiling African-American faces; the website explains, accurately, that Wal-Mart is a "leading employer" of Hispanics and African-Americans.

As Jesse Jackson and other black leaders have pointed out in response to this boast, the slave plantation was once a "leading employer" of African-Americans as well. But this ad campaign was only the latest salvo in Wal-Mart's fervent battle for the goodwill of black America, inspired by the difficulties the company is having as it tries to move into urban areas.

much more at link
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050328&s=featherstone