Boom Town author Marjorie Rosen addresses criticism of her book at the Fayetteville Public Library | News

You can listen to a raw recording of Marjorie Rosen’s lecture here.

Ozarks Unbound reviewed Rosen’s book here.

By Christopher Spencer
Ozarks Unbound

FAYETTEVILLE — Boom Town: How Wal-Mart Transformed an All-American Town into an International Community isn’t actually a book about Walmart, author Marjorie Rosen said.

It’s a book about how a large corporation altered the cultural makeup of a small town, not an expose of the culture inside the largest retailer in the world, she told an audience Tuesday of about 50 at the Fayetteville Public Library.

The town in question happens to be Bentonville, headquarters to Walmart, and the ripple effect that company created throughout Northwest Arkansas. Those changes serve as a blueprint, both good and bad, for other areas in the country, she said.

Her candid, and what some critics call opinionated, book explores the relatively recent introduction of new cultures – Hispanic, Marshallese, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim - to the mostly white and Protestant people of the region.

She  is scheduled to appear at 3:30 p.m. today in the Multicultural Center of the Arkansas Union at the University of Arkansas.

There was a dust up recently when Rosen said two tentative invitations to appear at public libraries in Rogers and Bentonville were rescinded. Rosen said this was because of perceived controversy surrounding the book’s content, according to the Arkansas Times.

An audience member asked Rosen why she was not making an appearance in Bentonville.

“This is what I think. It’s very hard to read about yourself and not to expect it to be public relations. Everybody wants a white-washed PR job and nobody hired me to write PR. I’m a journalist. I’m writing what I see, I’m holding a mirror up, warts and all. There’s a lot of things where I just tell one side and then I tell the other side. I try not to comment on it. And some people may have been offended by that approach. I don’t know,” she said.

Rosen said she’s found the people of Northwest Arkansas to be very welcoming and was impressed with the degree of philanthropy by successful business people in the area, resulting in community assets like The Jones Center.

She responded to the book’s depiction of Rogers Mayor Steve Womack and his support of the 287(g) program which gives local law enforcement some federal authority to detain undocumented residents.

He’s a man with a swagger who is clear in his belief that the program helps Rogers combat crime, she said. Womack was generous with his time during interviews. He helped her to make contacts for the book.

“I feel the book portrays him exactly as he portrayed himself,” she said. “I don’t understand what surprises would await him in the book.”

Rosen took issue with one blogger’s review of the book where the writer said Rosen’s portrayal of diversity in the area is wrong. He said in his review that he only sees white people in his daily life, she said.

That blogger has insulated himself from the larger community and does not encounter the area’s racial diversity, she said.

“You know I could say the same thing in New York if I didn’t take the subway,” Rosen said. “Go to Springdale schools. Go to Rogers schools. Look at the census. A third of Springdale, a third of Rogers is Hispanic. Forget the Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Laotians, Asians, you know. It’s changing.”

“Maybe you can’t tell in a crowd yet, but it’s changing.”

Walmart, and other large corporations like Tyson, are responsible for that change, she said.

Christopher Spencer

Christopher Spencer, 36, is the publisher and owner of Ozarks Unbound and the food news site, The Fayetteville Food File. He is the chair of the Fayetteville Creative Economy Action Group and the social media chair of the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He's also the founder of WordCamp Fayetteville. You can always contact him at cspencer@ozarksunbound.com

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