"Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now."
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Black-people-must-leave-NJ-apf-1749619349.html?x=0
Wow! this is disgusting and i hope it never happens again, They should make pin codes that you have to type in before someone can make a PA announcement
shoebie 
Mommyof2 
HappyNow 
Calico696 Shoebie - I agree with your pin code idea. That way only employees who know the pin code are responsible for the PA System announcements.
Even if they made pin codes, you're not going to stop someone from finding out what it is, if they want to make some stupid page into a store's intercom. I used to work at Home Depot, and teenagers occasionally found out the pager code and made asinine pages like this.
Rich Rich - there's almost never a way to fool-proof a system but having a pin code is better than having no code at all. Imagine what would happen if when you went to the ATM you didn't have to punch a PIN code and then left your card in the machine by mistake.
Giving the people that did this all this attention and notoriety is probably the biggest mistake anyone could have made. They're probably laughing and pretty happy with themselves now that they're "world-famous". It would have been better just to ignore it, IMO.
ianimal I saw this story this morning on Yahoos page early this morning. I thought about posting it because it said Washington Township ( South Jersey) then I thought that talking about it here is offending too. Like salt in a wound.
Firefly this is a tempest in a teapot...i know that this was a racist remark...does anyone remember a few months ago when Steve Tyler from Aerosmith went to a Home Depot in California and started singing over the P.A. system...it just goes to show...it was a vicious prank...i worked in a grocery store...and we had a prankster announce over the PA system that " attention shoppers all groceries are free for the next fifteen minutes"...try to explain that to customers...
klip That may have been an accident but firing this guy was no accident.
Wal-Mart worker fired over use of medically prescribed marijuana used to alleviate gnawing pain caused by sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35913492/ns/business-careers/
I'm not sure what is being referred to as an accident but there was nothing accidental about someone making a racist comment over the PA system. A group was negatively singled out based on a defining characteristic. Regardless of whether this is a prank or not, our society cannot tolerate this behavior.
Prejudice of any kind (sexism, racism, homophobia, etc) is vile an deprives people of their most basic human rights.
emaxxman Did they ever figure out who did it? With all their security cameras it seems odd they haven't addressed whether or not it was an employee or a patron who grabbed the mic.
Sandy 
cbgb i grew up in Hackettstown and the local area...you should have been here when ethnic... religious... racial ...sexual...insults were everyday slings and arrows to be dodged... not to mention physical confrontations on a regular basis...you had to develop a very thick skin to survive...there was no such thing as political correctness...then...i was chased home from school by bullies...assaulted and beaten in gym locker rooms by bullies...but crybabies were not tolerated... i learned to fight back...so a prank announcement over a Wal-Mart PA system does not scare me...all this political correctness cannot be retro-active... and no one can take back the difficult lessons i learned..."what ever does not kill you makes you stronger"
Follow up story - http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2010/03/arrest_made_in_racial_prank_at.html
BLDA 16 year old kid has been arrested for the prank - http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2010/03/atlantic_county_teenager_charg_1.html
At least it wasn't an adult. I hope the parents of this kid will take steps to make sure he fully understands the horrendous thing he did. But then again, apples don't fall far from the tree and the parents may be the source of his ignorance.
Calico96,
I hate to always be a broken record but..... do you wonder where this juvenile deliquent learned to hate? Everything begins at home.... everything.
YKW - I totally agree, which is why I made the "apples don't fall far from the tree" statement.
There can never be too much emphasis on the subject of racial hatred IMO. I find it absolutely disgusting.
"Attention, Walmart customers: All white people, leave the store now." In your opinion, would that be a racist comment as well? If it is not, please feel free to explain the difference.
Go to a Giants game. You'll see plenty of white guys wearing "Taylor" 56 jerseys.
You will not find a single black guy wearing a "Simms" jersey.
They'd be laughed at and ridiculed by their black friends.
Seem to me that the whites are the ones that have advanced more.
Reggie Voter whitey (I'm not making any assumption regarding your name),
Of course that comment would be racist. But I would like to offer something to consider -
There exists a channel on TV called Black Entertainment Television, though self-segregating, not racist, right?. What if there was a channel called White Entertainment Television? Would anyone decry racism?
The NAACP - The National Association for the Advancement of 'Colored' People, self-titled. To refer to a Black person as "colored" would be considered racist, although, a very close friend of mine from Jamaica expressly forbid me to refer to him as African American. His claim is - he considers himself American, period. However, based on his skin color, he must wear a different label - but then, he is Jamaican American, and he has that right to choose what he is called.
Reggie Voter - I don't know what you are talking about. I have seen black people wearing Tony Romo jerseys (damn Cowgirls...LOL), Manning jerseys (both Peyton and Eli) etc.
I don't know if I would wear a Simms jersey! At his core, he was a mediocre QB who had some great moments. But I see your point -- I doubt many blacks would be caught wearing a Roger Staubach jersey LOL!
Jay Reggie Voter, I find it amazing that you were able to examine the backs of every single guy at Giants game, did you get to see any of the game, LOL?
Bessie You can see the way this thread is going now which is exactly why I felt it was not a good idea to even bring it up. There is potential to offend more people by posting this than the actual incident. Let's end it.
"Attention, Walmart customers: All white people, leave the store now." In your opinion, would that be a racist comment as well? If it is not, please feel free to explain the difference.
whitey
Mar 20, 10 6:07 pmUm, of course it would be.
Sandy
sam: It's always a good idea to read before posting.
cbel 
what if the Wal-Mart PA prankster told all the Italians to leave the store...different reaction...Is there a problem here...
klip I have a Romo and Roy Williams (the safety) jersey but no Dat Nguyen jersey. Am I self-hating? I wonder.
Good point emaxx! Now that I think about it, I don't have a white person's jersey either. I have McNabb, Westbrook, Jackson, Jeter and A-Rod. Hmmm, I guess I should I run out and buy a Girardi, so I can stay within my kind....LOL
YKW said, "There exists a channel on TV called Black Entertainment Television, though self-segregating, not racist, right?. What if there was a channel called White Entertainment Television? Would anyone decry racism?"
YKW they do have White Entertainment Television.... they are called the Networks ABC, NBC, CBS, & Fox.
Tracy Tracy - I guess partly....LOL ;-)
The whole jersey comment was so silly it's absolutely ridiculous. I could care less what race my favorite athletes are. Or what race anyone else is for that matter, as long as they are decent people. A**holes come in all colors, and I'm an equal opportunity a**hole avoider. :)
Speaking of athlete a-holes:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/24/gooden.arrest/index.html?hpt=T2
I'm not saying it was right or wrong for him to say it, I personally don't really care, but for him to be arrested and charged with anything, other than maybe being given a ticket for disorderly conduct is absolutley ridiculous. Were not talking about being racist here people, were talking about free speach. Reguardless, if it was a black person saying all white people leave the store, I doubt it would even have been on the media's radar to air the story.
Dodge Commenting is no longer available.
