...if you care to dig up, and open-mindedly consider the facts.
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...endless repetition of statements such as this one, also in The Post: "The storm disproportionately impacted those who were left, abandoned by the government, in its path -- most of whom were black and poor." Or this one, in Newsweek: "Hurricane Katrina exposed the harsh disparities between rich and poor in this country." Only it didn't. Rather, Hurricane Katrina exposed the establishment media's obsession with race and poverty, to the point of ignoring reality.
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http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2006/01/katrina_the_fac.html
Also discussed above by NOLA resident and current George Mason U economics prof.
http://www.here-now.org/shows/2006/08/20060830_2.asp
In this NPR interview, the president of Tulane university explains why the equality of destruction and property costs is irrelevant.
Rich folks can rebuild easier. They also had places to go when the storm hit. They had access to cars and didn't all use public transportation.
No one believes the storm itself was racist. The water went where gravity and physics sent it.
What is your point here? Are you upset that the loss of New Orleans is coming across as a race issue? The people who were left behind were largely poor and Black. You can't deny that.
Yes, I am upset that Katrina has become a race and a class issue. No evidence exists to suggest that any of the parties responsible for building and maintaining a proper levee system failed to do so due to inconsideration or disdain for black or poor people. These responsible parties equally failed to protect the property and lives of wealthy and white people. The people who run NOLA and the surrounding area -- big and small business leaders, politicians -- failed to concentrate their efforts over years at protecting their own selfish interests. Had they done so, NOLA (including all residents, regardless of race or class0 would be as safe and dry as Denmark's below-water cities. This failure has caused an enormous devistation for NOLA's rich and poor, white and black.
Also in terms of response to the disaster, white and wealthy people outside of NOLA (and even inside) did not get any faster or better response than did poor or black inside or out of NOLA. To the contrary, once the controversy began, FEMA so heavily focused its efforts on NOLA that areas outside of NOLA -- including white and wealthy areas -- waited even longer than the normal FEMA 7-day arrival.
Although a larger fraction of poor people stayed, lots of wealthy people did as well, including rich folks in those nursing homes. None of them got any faster FEMA treatment than did the poor black folks.
For these reasons, whites and wealthy people in NOLA are very upset with FEMA. There exists no population of white or wealthy people in NOLA who are happy that FEMA helped oppress poor or black people, or who are happy that the shoddy levee system helped in this regard.
Charges of racism and classicism are based only on assumptions, emotions, and selective media coverage, including Spike Lee's film. An example: five or six people in the film gave false definitions of "refugee". Calvin Mackie in my living room with Nadir in attendance declared the real definition of this word and admitted that it applied to in this situation and that the complainers were wrong about this. However, although Spike included Calvin throughout the film, he did not include Calvin dispelling the myth that "refugee" only gets applied to non-white people, and that it indicates people foriegn to the US.
Also, Spike showed many more black bodies than white, creating the impression that there were few white bodies. In fact, about half the deaths were white, according to official figures... in a city that was 70% black.
Nadir: What upsets me is that I, like you, have an unabiding devotion to the elevation of black folks in the US. Additionally, I suffer from an acute obsession with NOLA's history, maintainance, and future. I study these matters academically, and have a life-long personal interest in them both. And I believe that these claims of racism and classism impede progress in these efforts.
It is clear to me that Katrina exposed at least three severe general problems: (1) NOLA has poor levees; (2) the NOLA region and the US govt have a very poor emergency preparation, response, and rescue infrastructure for major disasters; and (3) lots of black folks in NOLA live in dire circumstances.
Many people believe that all three of these problems derive from some combination of racism and classism, which I define as: seeking to suppress the rights, aspirations, or prosperity of people who are "black" or "poor". I am convinced that this is not the case. Addressing these problems from such a premise will lead to actions that I consider to be non-productive, and perhaps even counter-productive.
In my view, addressing "racism and classism" certainly will not lead to proper NOLA levees, appropriate disaster infrastructure, or an amelioration of the circumstances that define the lives of too many black folks in NOLA.
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