Marion Barry: 'Dirty' Asian-Owned Businesses 'Ought To Go'

Former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, after winning his primary on Tuesday for city council in Ward 8, ranted against Asian small business owners in the District and said, “they ought to go.” 

“We got to do something about these Asians coming in and opening up businesses and dirty shops,” Barry said in remarks that were captured by a local television station. “They ought to go … and we need African-Americans to take their place.” 

This rhetoric is not only anti-capitalistic, it’s dangerous, especially in light of the charged racial situation that the media has created this month surrounding Trayvon Martin. Barry, as a community leader, should know that his words can have consequences. 

Barry isn’t the only prominent politician to make such statements. When black rioters looted largely Asian-owned businesses in Los Angeles after the Rodney King trial, Waters, as a freshman member of Congress that year, seemed to be encouraging, or at least excusing, the rioting. She called the riots a “rebellion” and railed against the evils of Korean-owned businesses on the House floor. 

This type of rhetoric is not new to the infamous Barry, who is more infamously associated with crack cocaine and prostitutes than with his governing record. In 2010, he accused a white D.C. administrator of racist hiring practices despite not having any evidence to back up his assertion.Of course, the mainstream media will not put heat on the liberal Barry because it directly undercuts the storyline (“Minorities Can’t Be Prejudiced!”) that the mainstream media wants to forcibly feed the public.