On Green Day, Censorship and My Personal History with Wal-Mart

The last time I can remember stepping foot inside a Wal-Mart, I was in Boise. I’d gone there for work and, if my memory serves correctly, I’d forgotten to pack underwear. I drove around looking for a Target, but by the time I found one it was closed. I drove around a little longer before coming across the single most massive Wal-Mart I have ever seen. It rose out of the horizon like some sort of manmade mountain, blocking out the sight of anything beyond it. This place was palatial and it never closed. It was a ridiculous. Why anyone needs that much Wal-Mart at all times of the day and night is truly beyond me.

Before that fateful trip to the Wal-Mart to end all Wal-Marts, it had been years since I’d visited the retail giant. When I was a freshman in high school, I was attacked by two men in a Wal-Mart. The came at me from behind and, for no reason other than the fact that I am white and they are black, pushed me into a clothing rack. My face came into contact with metal and began to bleed. At that point they started to beat me. No one did anything to stop them. People around me simply continued to shop.

When they were finally pulled off me by my mother, Wal-Mart held me at their store for hours after the incident. My mother argued with them to let me go. I needed to see a doctor. They refused. They needed me there to give a statement to Wal-Mart officials. I sat at the front of the store with blood dripping down my face. Shoppers walked in and out, pointing and staring. I was in shock. I was scared. I was in pain. And I was not allowed to leave the store.

After that day, I avoided all Wal-Marts. It wasn’t that I was afraid to shop there. I was merely sickened by the way I had been treated. Any company that refuses to let a customer go to a hospital after being viciously attacked is not a company I want to support.

This morning I came across an article about Wal-Mart. Green Day has refused to pander to Wal-Mart by releasing a censored version of their latest release, 21st Century Breakdown. It is Wal-Mart’s policy not to stock any musical releases that carry a parental advisory sticker. Because of this, artists are forced to censor their material in order for it to be sold at Wal-Mart.

Green Day has refused to comply with Wal-Mart’s backward ways and thus the retail monster will not be selling 21st Century Breakdown. And I, for one, am proud to come from the same hometown as Green Day.

Parental advisory stickers are placed on merchandise so that consumers can make a decision about whether or not to purchase that album. It’s not the retailer’s job to make that decision for the shopper.

This is America, Wal-Mart. Aren’t we supposed to have the right to buy whatever the hell we want?

Then again, you are the company that refused to let a scared boy go to a hospital after being attacked in one of your stores. I’m certainly glad you keep your customers safe from hearing curse words on the albums you choose to sell. I just wish you did a better job of protecting your customers from actual violence. If your behavior wasn’t so ridiculously humorous, I’d cry.

As it is, I’ll just head over to Target after work and pick up 21st Century Breakdown so I can hear it the way the artist intended me to hear it.