Korean Grocers Suing Andrew Young

A couple of weeks ago I reported on the comments by Andrew Young that caused him to resign from a board role with Wal-Mart. Now, Korean grocers in California are suing Young for the damage his remarks have caused their stores (from Special Report):

Andrew Young, former U.N. ambassador under president Carter, recently charged that Jewish, Korean and Arab grocers "rip off" black Americans by overcharging for "stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables."

Those comments forced him to resign as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group called Working Families for Wal-Mart, and now he is being sued as well.

The California Korean American Grocery Retailer Association is suing Young — and Wal-Mart itself — saying Young's false attack hurt their sales.

The Los Angeles Times reports the group is asking for $7.5 million in damages, as well as an unspecified punitive award.

Most of the small grocery and liquor stores in the black communities in Los Angeles are run by Koreans. I well remember the scenes during the 1992 riots in which Korean storeowners were patrolling their properties with rifles and shotguns to keep the looters out (they were pretty effective, too).

I'm not sure they'll be able to make a direct connection between their sales and Young's remarks. There just aren't a lot of other places to shop in South Central, so if the Korean stores are losing sales, where are they going?