J-State Tiger
Senate Candidate #7
]Jesse Jackson Blasts Nissan
DAVID ENDERS
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Thursday decried what he termed 'economic profiling' by Nissan North America and other automakers.
Jackson's Rainbow Push coalition has claimed that while acquiring land for a new Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., the State of Mississippi paid white landowners up to $60,000 per acre, while only offering black landowners one-third of that amount for land in the same tracts.
The group, citing a recent study conducted by professors Mark Cohen and Ian Ayers of Vanderbilt and Yale universities, also claimed black Nissan buyers across the country paid on average twice the discretionary finance charges of white buyers with comparable credit when purchasing a car.
``It's a policy of one-way trade, and it's unacceptable,'' Jackson said Thursday before he was scheduled to speak to a group of ministers in Detroit. ``We want from these companies reciprocal trade - we want to even the playing field.''
Nissan offered a press release in response, refuting the claims and calling the methodology of the study ``grossly flawed.''
``Two additional experts' reports are due to be filed next week, which further explain why the ... claims are factually untrue,'' the company said.
Nissan also absolved itself of responsibility in the land purchasing matter, saying it ``is solely the responsibility of the State of Mississippi,'' and that the company ``has not been involved in the negotiations, pricing or purchase of any portion of the project site.''
Jackson said he has sent a letter to the president of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn.
``We seek to meet to get some understanding,'' Jackson said. ``Right now they are boycotting us and exploiting us and discriminating - we will end the relationship unless there is a plan for fair trade.''
Jackson also attacked Toyota North America, claiming that though blacks patronize the company, few of the dealerships are minority owned.
``Blacks are 25 percent of the market for Toyota, (but) only 74 (of 1,390 American dealerships) are black and brown,'' he said. Jackson also complained that Toyota does not use any minority-owned advertising agencies, despite a recent ad campaign targeting minorities.
Messages left with Toyota on Thursday were not immediately returned.
DAVID ENDERS
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Thursday decried what he termed 'economic profiling' by Nissan North America and other automakers.
Jackson's Rainbow Push coalition has claimed that while acquiring land for a new Nissan plant in Canton, Miss., the State of Mississippi paid white landowners up to $60,000 per acre, while only offering black landowners one-third of that amount for land in the same tracts.
The group, citing a recent study conducted by professors Mark Cohen and Ian Ayers of Vanderbilt and Yale universities, also claimed black Nissan buyers across the country paid on average twice the discretionary finance charges of white buyers with comparable credit when purchasing a car.
``It's a policy of one-way trade, and it's unacceptable,'' Jackson said Thursday before he was scheduled to speak to a group of ministers in Detroit. ``We want from these companies reciprocal trade - we want to even the playing field.''
Nissan offered a press release in response, refuting the claims and calling the methodology of the study ``grossly flawed.''
``Two additional experts' reports are due to be filed next week, which further explain why the ... claims are factually untrue,'' the company said.
Nissan also absolved itself of responsibility in the land purchasing matter, saying it ``is solely the responsibility of the State of Mississippi,'' and that the company ``has not been involved in the negotiations, pricing or purchase of any portion of the project site.''
Jackson said he has sent a letter to the president of Nissan, Carlos Ghosn.
``We seek to meet to get some understanding,'' Jackson said. ``Right now they are boycotting us and exploiting us and discriminating - we will end the relationship unless there is a plan for fair trade.''
Jackson also attacked Toyota North America, claiming that though blacks patronize the company, few of the dealerships are minority owned.
``Blacks are 25 percent of the market for Toyota, (but) only 74 (of 1,390 American dealerships) are black and brown,'' he said. Jackson also complained that Toyota does not use any minority-owned advertising agencies, despite a recent ad campaign targeting minorities.
Messages left with Toyota on Thursday were not immediately returned.
