‘Boom Town’ Tells Of Area’s Diversity

By Dave Perozek

Posted: November 23, 2009 at 3:42 a.m.

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BENTONVILLE — It didn’t take long for Marjorie Rosen to see the diversity that Northwest Arkansas has to offer.

The native New Yorker visited this area for the first time in December 2006. On her first day here, she met with a friend of a friend, who took her on a tour of Bentonville and Rogers.

Later, while they ate at a local Chinese restaurant, her dining companion pointed out some folks sitting nearby.

“He said, ‘See those people over there? Those are Marshallese people, and we have the biggest population of Marshallese in America,’” Rosen said.

Later that day, she was introduced to the president of the Hindu Association of Northwest Arkansas.

“My head was kind of spinning with multiculturalism,” she said.

From there, the direction of the book she intended to write soon became clear. That book, released a few weeks ago, is titled “Boom Town: How Wal-Mart Transformed An All-American Town Into An International Community.”

As she notes in the book, Rosen was drawn to Northwest Arkansas after reading a 2006 New York Times article with the headline, “In Wal-Mart’s Home, Synagogue Signals Growth.” As a journalist, she was intrigued, and during her multiple visits to the area between 2006 and this year, she discovered that Northwest Arkansas was not quite as white and Christian as the South is typically thought to be.

I reached Rosen last week at her New York City home. She said that writing the book was a great experience.

“The truth is I really loved coming down to Arkansas,” she said. “I made a lot of friends. … It was a great adventure for me.”

While a significant amount of ink is spent discussing Wal-Mart, Rosen’s book focuses more on the people who live here, particularly immigrants who have been drawn here because of jobs at the Wal-Mart Home Office or Tyson Foods in Springdale. She interviewed more than 150 residents, and some of their personal stories are presented in detail.

Overall, I found the book to be fair, not only to Wal-Mart, but to the individuals she interviewed. There are some fascinating stories here.

Racial issues are by their very nature controversial, but Rosen isn’t afraid to meet these issues head on.

Of particular interest to me was chapter 10, “Incident at Bentonville High,” in which Rosen discusses a Hispanic student whom school officials accused of engaging in a “jump-in,” or gang initiation, at the school one day in January 2007. The student and his family denied the allegation, but he and the other students involved were suspended and required to attend an alternative school for a semester.

Another chapter delves into Rogers Mayor Steve Womack’s campaign to rid the city of undocumented workers and his initiation of the 287(g) program, which permits local police officers to enforce immigration laws. Rosen quotes Womack as saying, “To me, it has been proven that many people who sneak into the country do other illegal things and contribute to the degradation of society.”

When I asked Rosen what she considered to be Northwest Arkansas’ biggest challenge, she cited the assimilation of the Hispanic population.

Rosen had never even been to a Wal-Mart before visiting the one in Bentonville, where she bought a CD and “the cheapest six-pack of Diet Coke I’ve seen in my life.” And she said that after her experience writing this book, her opinion of Wal-Mart improved.

One thing bothers her, however. In the run-up to her book being released, both the Rogers and Bentonville public libraries had planned to allow her space to give readings, but those readings eventually were canceled.

The Rogers Library blamed it on “a logistics issue.” Bentonville Library Director Hadi Dudley said she chose not to host Rosen after reading the book, but said she planned to purchase several copies for the library collection. (As of Friday, the library had two copies, but both were checked out.)

Rosen was stunned by the snubs, which she called “very small-minded.” She doesn’t blame Wal-Mart, but she suspects that library officials and others are fearful of anything that might irritate the retail giant next door.

As she points out, “Boom Town” is not necessarily what the Wal-Mart public-relations staff would have you read, but it’s certainly not a hatchet job, either. Wal-Mart has nothing to fear about “Boom Town.” Ed Clifford, a former Home Office employee who is now president of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce, called the book “fairly factual.”

Rosen didn’t get everything right. For example, Bentonville residents will chuckle at her assertion that Memorial Park is next to Bentonville High School. In fact they are about two miles apart. (Hey, even the best journalists get mixed up once in a while.)

Otherwise, it seems Rosen did her homework well. And even a longtime Northwest Arkansas resident could learn a thing or two from her book.

DAVE PEROZEK IS AN EDITORIAL WRITER FOR THE BENTON COUNTY DAILY RECORD.

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