Walmart Segregates Books Based On Race

In the Walmart book section, there is a special area for books by blacks. Not a black studies section, which would be understandable, but an area where anybody who is an author who is also black has the book displayed, separate from where white authors have their books displayed.  Black authors of books on sports, religion, romance novels, and even books by our black president are kept separate (h/t The Political Carnival).

At the Walmart on Arlington Road in Springfield Township [Ohio], 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.

Walmart has an explanation:

‘The book sections in our stores are designed to meet customer demand and feedback at the local level,” read an e-mail from Phillip Keene, a media-relations official at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

”Like many national bookstores, and book sections at retailers across the country, some of our stores have a section for African-American-focused books, while a store in a different area of the country might have a large science-fiction section or Western section. . . .

Except, Tony Dungy’s book on mentoring isn’t an “African-American-focused book” any more than an inspirational book by a white author is “white-focused.”  What decade is this?

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.