DC Asians Angered by Marion Barry's “Dirty Shops” Remark
By wchung | 22 Jul, 2025

Former four-term DC mayor and current Ward 8 councilman Marion Barry provoked Asians and allies alike by calling on Asian merchants in the ward to close “dirty shops” in a speech following his Tuesday primary win, reported the Washington Times.

“We’ve got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops,” he said in the course of laying out his vision for the ward. “They ought to go. I’ll just say that right now, you know. But we need African American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.”

The remarks first came to light late Wednesday after a videotape of the speech was replayed on WRC-TV (Channel 4), prompting protests even from his longtime political allies. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, said in a statement said, she had “reminded Barry of how long she had known him and the values they first shared when they were students together in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the South fighting for racial justice.”

Similar statements were issued by current DC Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), DC Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) and several other Democratic council members.

It wasn’t until late Thursday that Barry offered an apology of sorts on his Twitter account. He said he is “very sorry for offending the Asian American community” with an “admittedly bad choice of words.” But he reiterated his criticism of about conditions at restaurants and shops in Ward 8 owned by Asians.

“I admit, I could and should have said it differently,” he tweeted. “But the facts are still very present in our daily lives here. We are tired of sub-standard treatment, tired of being kept [at] arms length distance, tired of the lack of community engagement.”

In a later interview Barry insisted the apology was heartfelt.

“It is as solid as Marion Barry can make it. And believe it, because I have a history of not doing anything to purposely disparage any group of people,” he said.

A new Facebook page demanding an apology to the Asian community received more than 200 “likes” by late Tuesday. Five Asian American suburban Maryland lawmakers also called on Barry to apologize.

“At best, Mr. Barry’s attack on Asian Americans is deeply troubling, and at worst it is race baiting,” said a statement joined by Democratic state Dels. Sam Arora, Kumar P. Barve, Susan C. Lee, Aruna Miller and Kris Valderrama.

Despite his record as a civil rights activist, Barry has managed to offend other minorities in the past. In 2009 he offended gay and lesbian leaders by announcing his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Barry received national attention in 1990 when he was charged with smoking crack cocaine. He was convicted and served a six-month prison term from October 1991 to April 1992. Yet he also managed to win a fourth term as mayor with 56% of the vote in the 1994 general election.