You know, sometimes it really helps to be a member of the majority — like when you snag your pantyhose.

Being the Caucasian that I am, I can avoid having to dig through my drawers and find a wrinkled, too-short pair of dress slacks to cover up the flaw. I can just hop in the car and zip on over to Wal-Mart, where I can pick from among several different shades, styles, and brands to find the perfect pair.

Of course, if I weren’t of the lighter-skinned variety, I’d be in a world of hurt. You see, your friendly, hometown Wal-Mart isn’t quite so friendly when it comes to minorities.

In fact, they don’t really seem to matter that much at all.

For those of you who aren’t up-to-date on the growing department-store controversy, let me fill you in.

Up until this past Friday, the Ames Wal-Mart didn’t carry any beauty products for African-American patrons. Items such as darker-toned makeup, pantyhose and black hair-care products were missing from the otherwise overflowing shelves. The store claimed that it could only carry the products if at least 5 percent of the area population was African-American, and that only 3 percent of the Ames area fit that demographic.

This got a rise out of students who were sick of having to gas up the car and take a road trip every time they ran out of powder. So, a number of them, led by ISU senior Tanya Duval, went to the store on Friday to protest.

The store has partially fulfilled their request; they have shipped some hair-care products from Des Moines. While that is a start, the students still aren’t satisfied.

I don’t blame them. It’s about time someone stood up and played David to Sam Walton’s mighty Goliath.

Wal-Mart always has portrayed itself as a down-home, friendly store, a place where you could find everything that you needed at the lowest price around. It’s a store that epitomizes the “American Dream,” how one little guy from Arkansas became head of the largest department store chain in the country.

Of course, if Sammy happened to step on a few toes to get to that point, well, so be it.

There’s an ulterior motive to Wal-Mart’s community-mindedness, you’ll find it in your checkbook.

I really don’t think Wal-Mart cares so much for the people; it’s what’s in their wallets that really matters. If the store truly cared about the community, it wouldn’t care if these products didn’t bring in as much money as Caucasian-oriented ones did, they would still be on the shelves simply because members of the community wanted and needed them.

Apparently, when you bear the title of “Nation’s Largest Discount Store,” and have all of the power and weight in the industry that the title carries with it, you can forget about the little guy. But, in this case, the little guy is making some big noise, big enough to ruffle a few feathers.

I did a story on the protesting students last week, and I interviewed a member of management at the Ames store. He said that everyone had a right to speak their opinion, and that the store wouldn’t stand in the way of free speech.

He also said that the store wasn’t allowing its employees to say very much about the issue; he wouldn’t even give me his last name because he’d “probably said too much already.” He got a little bit huffy about it.

I have to wonder why a store that claims to be so community-friendly was so hush-hush about this particular issue. If the issue was simply a matter of numbers and demographics, then what’s the big secret?

But, that’s another column. Back to the issue at hand.

These students might have a right to speak, but they obviously don’t have a right to foundation and eye shadow and other products that most white people take for granted.

A number of students, led by Ms. Duval, want that right. They say that the store isn’t including students in their population count. If this is true (which I’m inclined to believe it is), then the store has some explaining to do. How can they possibly ignore college students when looking at their potential customers?

According to the Minority Student Affairs office, 2.67 percent of Iowa State students are African-Americans. That figures out to be about 670 people. Hey, that’s more people than there are in my hometown! How can the store ignore the potential dollars that would come from that many consumers?

Duval said that if she didn’t get the results that she wanted, she was going to write a letter to Ames Mayor Larry Curtis, asking why the college town wasn’t catering to the needs of college students.

Maybe it won’t come to that. Maybe, if more of us in the 97 percent of the community who can get these necessities spoke up, the Wal-Mart powers-that-be would wake up.

Just imagine yourself in Tanya Duval’s shoes next time you get all prettied up for a date or an interview.

But don’t put yourself in her dress shoes, because you’d need pantyhose for that.

---

Holly Benton is a sophomore in animal science from Early.