Young Folly: Sometimes, I almost feel sorry for Wal-Mart. Earlier this year the company’s attempt to show a softer side was thwarted by the publication of an internal memo suggesting ways of cutting employee benefits. Now, the company’s decision to hire normally reliable shill Andrew Young has backfired after he made some culturally insensitive remarks about Jews, Koreans and Middle Easterners in an interview with a black newspaper in Los Angeles.

The reason companies hire Young—he was serving as head of the Working Families for Wal-Mart front group—is because he can normally be depended on to say exactly what his corporate paymasters tell him to say and because (for reasons that escape me) he still has a few shreds of credibility in the black and Hispanic communities.

The company reacted quickly to denounce Young’s bigoted comments. It couldn’t actually fire him, I guess, because that would mean admitting that Working Families is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the retail giant rather than an independent citizens’ group, but he soon announced that he was stepping down.

The question is whether Wal-Mart has been unlucky in the reputation setbacks it has suffered this year, or whether despite it’s best efforts to repair its image, what’s happening is just the company’s true character showing through.