Does someone want to let this hack author know that black interest magazines have been grouped together on the rack for years?

So are the hair care products

I saw this, they had Ebony right next to Jet. Clear racism.

Wal-mart sells books?

I wonder if they segregate the car magazines from the fashion magazines. I bet they discriminate against science fiction by not putting it with the religion books too. We can't have Seventeen associating with Sports Illustrated, that would just be unclean!

UNC_Samurai: Does someone want to let this hack author know that black interest magazines have been grouped together on the rack for years?

I thought it was a well written article. A little snarky, a little "gimme a break", and the thought process breakdown is probably accurate.

It's not like anyone in WalMart is reading anyway.

Stupid conservatives, making this guy their hero...

/wait, what?

Yes because magazines that target a different demographic are the EXACT SAME THING as general interest books on a wide variety of topics.

Idiots.

MaxxLarge: UNC_Samurai: Does someone want to let this hack author know that black interest magazines have been grouped together on the rack for years?

Right? Maybe I should picket my local Walgreen's, too...because "Essence," "Jet" and "Black Hairstyles Monthly" aren't sitting closer to "Men's Health," "Redbook," and "Rolling Stone." Come to think of it, the Hallmark aisle has that "Mahogany" sub-section, too. What an outrage, or something.

Look, I'm no fan or defender of segregation (and Wal-Mart hasn't exactly been racism-free in the past), but COME ON. There are still real issues to get worked up about, aren't there?

Even the libraries (at least here in Baltimore) have a seperate display for new/popular African-American books.

And isn't this done in Target too (I think the Target in Towson, MD has segregated its books). I know I've seen it at the Borders in Columbia, MD...

Invisible Man and Mumbo Jumbo have no business being next to Ulysses anyway!

Next there will be black hair salons and black tv stations. Why are we going backwards, America??

WALMART HAS BOOKS?

tehbeermang: Wal-mart sells books?

Kind of makes you wonder who they are marketing to, as we all know that people who shop and work at Wal-mart can't read.

tehbeermang: Wal-mart sells books?

Not many, and mostly in combination with a box of crayons.

What if blacks enjoy that convenience?

Never get in the way of a libtard journalist playing with the hate-speech word du jour.... racism!!!

Are they half price like the black Barbies?

What a bullshiat article. Books and magazines are generally grouped by interest.

Just go to a Wal-Mart in Utah and head to the book section. You'll be amazed at the HUGE area carved out for the Mormon stuff. Apparently biographies about founders of the church are a big deal in the LDS church.

\Needless to say, there isn't much of an African-American section.

Actually, the guy has a point. It's not about magazines, it's about books. He gives several examples of books in the same genre, except the genre is trumped by "black" if it's by or about a black person. Like "Audacity of Hope".

The ''black section'' contains everything written by and about blacks: romance novels, self-help books, religion, sports, even an autobiography by the current president of the United States.

Sounds like it's a 'black interest section.' Call me when they segregate books by black authors completely unrelated to black culture (science, fiction, general politics, ect). Like it or not, race is considered a form of similar culture, especially for minorities. Ignoring the fact only causes problems.

I saw Native Son near the freaking end of the shelves at the library, what kind of bullshiat is this? Although they were alphabetized, but still...

don't get me started on the segregation of hair salons.

So... 30 Oprah books and a copy of Black Like Me?

/I keed

royone: Actually, the guy has a point. It's not about magazines, it's about books. He gives several examples of books in the same genre, except the genre is trumped by "black" if it's by or about a black person. Like "Audacity of Hope".

The easiest comparison is why wouldn't you put all the football books together.

/not that i'm reading brees or dungy's schmaltzy self-actualization

UNC_Samurai [TotalFark] Quote 2010-09-02 10:52:21 AM
Does someone want to let this hack author know that black interest magazines have been grouped together on the rack for years?

This...also my local grocery store has a section called ethnic foods where they put all the Mexican, Asian and Jewish foods. Guess they didn't want to put them near the cracker section.

I am so outraged I'll never shop at Wallmart again. I want to be on the right side of history.

Easier to steal when they are all grouped together like that.

royone: Actually, the guy has a point. It's not about magazines, it's about books. He gives several examples of books in the same genre, except the genre is trumped by "black" if it's by or about a black person. Like "Audacity of Hope".

Yeah and he also assumes that the reader of the article knows what that book even is.

/Books are in categories.
//I don't want to read about black people or books written about black people if I don't want to.

As a subscriber to Big Black Butts I'm deeply offended by this. Very deeply.

Shouldn't half the copies of Obama's autobiography be located in the White section?

MaxxLarge: ...the Hallmark aisle has that "Mahogany" sub-section...
One year my grandfather bought my grandmother a "Mahogany" birthday card. They were an old Jewish couple.

I guess he was a little confused. Still it was a nice card...

FTA: If I'm correctly reading between the lines, the one and only issue here is effective marketing, and Wal-Mart thinks that drawing distinct lines between white and black will add up to more green.

I doubt it. I think it's insulting and financially counterproductive.

Well, I'm sure the gut reaction of a white newspaper columnist in Ohio is a more reliable business metric than all that market research that Wal-Mart spent six or seven figures on.

"Now, whether or not you're a fan of Barack Obama, can't we at least agree that the thing that defines him is not his skin color but his job title? "

Ha, ha!

Isn't this the land of Miss Black America, BET, the Congressional Black Caucus and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? Why NOT a black literature section? Someone might be offended otherwise.

In college we had a students union, a black students union, a women's student union, a hispanic student union and a asian student union. We had black fraternitys, several hispanic fraternitys, MeCHA, Black Youth Organization, etc, etc. Always seemed to me that this was self imposed segregation, sort of like when you create media content for a particular race only. The argument I always heard when I posed the question "What would you say if there was a white students only club/fraternity" was....wait for it..."all the other organizations on Campus are white organizations".

FTA: "At Walmart, apparently, skin color trumps all."

LMAO

Fark is a never ending troll.

cherryl taggart
It's not like anyone in WalMart is reading anyway.

Put a fork in it boys - this one is done!

What a stupid article. Every library and bookstore I've been in has an African-American interests section where they put books by and for African-Americans. Should I be working up some good poutrage every time I walk past bookstores and libraries too?

And WTF is so wrong with that? I have little doubt there is a demographic which appreciates all those books being in the same location, making it easier to browse them. Just be glad people are reading, for fark's sake. In this day and age that isn't a given no matter WHAT the skin color of the person is.

lol....who are the people who sit around and nitpick about shiat like this???

is it supposed to offend me or white people...or asians? i cant keep up.

plus, the few people who do read seem to order online and read on a kindle any-friggin-way.

i dont think walmart shoppers can be offended. have you seen peopleofwalmart.com??

Went into a SuperDuperWalMartMegaCenter near West Point, NY over the summer. We were somewhat puzzled that the clock on the wall at the front of the store was an hour behind the local time. The greeter at the door claimed it was because "all WalMarts are on Central Time" I suppose so that reporting back to the MotherShip in Bentonville would be easier for the suits to understand. Don't know if this is true or not, I haven't been inside a SuperDependousWalMartMegaWorld since then.

And Barnes & Noble has a black-interest section, a women's-interest section, a gay-interest section... is B&N racist, sexist, and homophobic as well?

Can't you understand that some people need special help to have esteem, success...!

Did any of the "Ebony and Jet" posters RTFA?

The ''black section'' contains everything written by and about blacks: romance novels, self-help books, religion, sports, even an autobiography by the current president of the United States.

Now, whether or not you're a fan of Barack Obama, can't we at least agree that the thing that defines him is not his skin color but his job title? We have lots and lots of African-Americans in this country - about 38 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau - but during this country's entire 234-year history we have had only 44 presidents.

Yet there he is, right in the middle of six monochromatic shelves, peering out at us from the cover of The Audacity of Hope.

At the Walmart on Arlington Road in Springfield Township, you'll find two fancy, hardcover books by people who are household names in professional football. Drew Brees, quarterback of the 2009 Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, smiles on the cover of Coming Back Stronger: Unleashing the Hidden Power of Adversity. Tony Dungy, coach of the 2006 Super Bowl champion Indianapolis Colts, smiles on the cover of The Mentor Leader.

But you won't find those books side by side. Why? Because Brees is white and Dungy is black.

The black guy goes in the black section. After all, who other than a black person would want to read a book by an insightful, ethical, inspirational football coach?

At the Walmart in Montrose, Storm Warning, by hugely popular white pastor Billy Graham, can be found in the religion section. But Life Overflowing, by hugely popular black pastor T.D. Jakes, is in the black section, along with Dungy and Obama and Sister Souljah and Adrienne Byrd and all those other people whom Walmart believes are pretty much the same.

Next thing you know racists will start having black studies programs at colleges!

AbbeySomeone: Are they half price like the black Barbies?

What a bullshiat article. Books and magazines are generally grouped by interest.

Yes, they are. And there are many different interests lumped together in the "black" book section: romance, self-help, politics, religion, etc.

I think the author of the article was reading a little too much into Wal-mart's actions, but I can also see where many people might have a problem with it.