Sure, Boston’s progressive policies have made it easy for thieves to rob places like Walgreens blind, but if the drugstore doesn’t continue putting their employees and customers at risk and smile as their merchandise walks out the door, they are racists according to Squad member Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).
As BizPac Review reported, community activists attempted to shame Walgreens into keeping its Roxbury area doors open, claiming the company had an “obligation” to the crime-infested community.
“What is your obligation? What is your expectation as a corporate citizen to do what’s right for those communities beyond what’s right just for your bottom line?” former Boston NAACP president Michael Curry, now an advocate for the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, told WBZ.
In 2022, Walgreens closed three of its other Boston stores.
“The communities where they’re closing these pharmacies are communities where people are desperately impacted by disease,” Curry said. “Two or three times higher rates in cancer, diabetes, heart disease. Where life expectancy can be 15, 20 years less.”
On Tuesday, Pressley accused Walgreens of “racial & economic discrimination.”
“[Walgreens’] closures of pharmacies in Roxbury, Mattapan & Hyde Park are not arbitrary or innocent,” she stated on X. “They are disruptive, life-threatening acts of racial & economic discrimination. As a multi-billion-dollar corporation, they must stop divesting from Black & brown communities.”
.@Walgreens‘ closures of pharmacies in Roxbury, Mattapan & Hyde Park are not arbitrary or innocent.
They are disruptive, life-threatening acts of racial & economic discrimination.
As a multi-billion-dollar corporation, they must stop divesting from Black & brown communities. pic.twitter.com/iSvhFWw8Bl
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) January 31, 2024
Speaking before Congress, Pressley noted that the Roxbury community is “85% black and Latino.”
“This closure is a part of a larger trend of abandoning low-income communities like the previous closures in Mattapan and Hyde park — both in the Massachusetts 7th,” she continued. “When a Walgreens leaves a neighborhood, they disrupt the entire community and they take with them baby formula, diapers, asthma inhalers, life-saving medications, and, of course, jobs.”
“Why was there no community input?” she demanded to know of Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth. “No adequate notice to customers? And no transition resources to prevent gaps in healthcare?”
“Shame on you Walgreens,” Pressley stated. “Having a website with talking points about health equity and underserved communities is not enough.”
Users on X were quick to respond.
The looting and stealing from pharmacies by criminal thugs in those communities are not arbitrary or innocent.
They are disruptive, life-threatening acts of criminal & economic discrimination.
As a multi-billion-dollar corporation, they expect police and the judicial system…
— Morgana Le Faye *Patriot *America 1st* (@Keltic_Witch) February 1, 2024
Companies are sick of the violence and theft.
Support your police, put criminals in jail, and those pharmacies may return.— Unedited (@UneditedView) January 31, 2024
Congress doesn’t get to tell companies that they cannot close.
— Anthony Amore (@anthonymamore) January 31, 2024
Yeah, let’s have businesses run at a loss to cover for the fact that you’ve all but legalized petty crime. The racist schtick is getting old btw. Change it up because ppl don’t care anymore
— Billy the Kid (@Billythekid108) January 31, 2024
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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