AP: Katrina, Aftermath Galvanize Black America

[Hissyspit]

http://start.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20050908/431fb740_3ca6_1552620050908-469022416

Katrina, Aftermath Galvanize Black America
September 08, 2005 9:41 PM EDT

NEW YORK - To African-Americans, Hurricane Katrina has become a generation-defining catastrophe - a disaster with a predominantly black toll, tinged with racism. They've rallied to the cause with an unprecedented outpouring of activism and generosity.

- snip -

If the rescue effort had not been so mishandled, and if those who suffered so needlessly had not been so black and so poor, perhaps Hurricane Katrina would have been just another destructive storm, alongside the likes of Charley and Andrew and Hugo. (There is no Keisha or Kwame.)

- snip -

Some 71 percent of blacks say the disaster shows that racial inequality remains a major problem in America, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept. 6-7 among 1,000 Americans; 56 percent of whites feel this was not a particularly important lesson.

And while 66 percent of blacks think the government's response would have been faster if most of the victims had been white, 77 percent of whites disagreed.

MORE

[Erika]

1. White guilt and denial. n/t

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. Well good for you!

You made it to DU to post your racist drivel. Back to your Klan meeting.

[really annoyed]

8. Enjoy your stay

It won't last long.

[Thaddeus]

10. Are there still people

who think this way??? This kind of fascist ignorance and hatred is terrifying.

[deadparrot]

11. Holy shat.

I've never been so happy not to be on your side.

Enjoy your stay. Don't let your sheet get caught on the way out.

[Blaq Dem]

2. Looking forward to the 'Million More March'

I can see it now. It's gonna be ugly. We would like to have more support from our Jewish brothers and sisters. What we saw in N.O. was akin to Auschwitz.

[Born Free]

20. They need to march

They need to march, they need to lead America and to force the criminal liability of those individuals in the white house that allowed this preventable disaster from happening. No, they can't change the weather but they sure can be prepared and after the storm they can do more than watch as thousands of people die needlessly. 5 days! 5days! Can you imagine being locked in a stadium without lights, food, water or bathroom facilities - this was torture and some did indeed break. The individuals put through this ordeal should have legal recourse to be compensated for the torture. The individuals that have endured this should come away financially rich, never again should they need to be on the bottom of the economic ladder. The money should come from the pockets of the wealthy aristocrats living in the white house that are responsible.


PS: I am white, could pass as a skin head

[jaysunb]

3. Too bad this will also galvanize a large part of white

America in their denial.....

[yellowcanine]

9. I don;t think so. Shame and guilt do not galvanize. Anger does.

A lot of people know deep down that these folks died because they were poor. And they were poor in large part because they were black. That kind of knowledge does not galvanize a person to vote for the status quo.

[jaysunb]

12. maybe not, but

it certainly " stiffens their resolve " so to speak.
Some folks just won't take yes for an answer.

[ninkasi]

14. I'm white, and there is no doubt that race played a part

And there is no doubt in my mind that if the majority of the victims had been white, the whole shameful episode would not have happened. There is no way that Bush, or FEMA, would have tolerated herding them, especially if they were the more well-to-do, into an enclosed area without food, water, toilet facilities, and medicine, and then not only delayed acting, but prevented others from going in and beginning rescue operations.

This is criminal. I know we all talk about impeachment, but this is nothing short of murder. People died who did not have to die. People were treated with no dignity, with disregard for common human decency, and this is something that America will feel shame for for many years to come.

I alternated last week between crying at the plight of the hurricane victims, and crying with rage as time dragged on, the situation grew more critical, and still no help came. I still can't completely wrap my mind around the horror of the abandonment of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children, by the government whose only reason for existing is to protect them.

It's disappointing that so many of my fellow citizens choose to ignore reality. America can never be the country we have grown up believing it to be, until these hard truths are acknowledged. We can come together and heal as a country, but not when some of us live in denial. This has gotten worse under Republican rule, and will continue to worsen until every last criminal in the Bush administration is out of office, and serving prison sentences.

[Erika]

15. My good Japanese/American friend said the same.

[Piperay]

17. I'm white too and

I agree with you completely. I can't understand how ANYONE can deny that race was the deciding factor in this, anyone who does has got to be living totally in denial and is brainless. :silly:

EDIT: Spelling

[SemperEadem]

25. perhaps * and his ilk felt

that the ancestors of those herded into the Superdome survived being stuffed into and locked down in the belly of slave ships against their will without food, water, fresh air, sanitary facilities for months long voyages into the Diaspora, so why are these folks whining?

[soda]

27. by what?

¨by the government whose only reason for existing is to protect them.¨
this goverment´s reason for existing is to give no bid contracts to Halliberton and carlyl companys and get enough of there money offshore before america implodes

[me b zola]

4. Shameful that America still cannot be honest about itself

Of course race and class had everything to do with the response.

We have a racist history & a racist present.

DEMAND JUSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!

[all.of.me]

5. more popcorn, please!

:popcorn: i have been eating a LOT of popcorn over the last 10 days or so!

[fortyfeetunder]

13. An ethnic/economic cleansing

It pains me to witness what has gone on. And I am having trouble explaining this to my children -- how can they find hope in this country when they learn children that look like them were treated so horribly?
:cry:

[Erika]

16. At some point, you will have to explain that not all whites think

of them as equal. Our war in Iraq would not be this long if the Iraqis weren't brown skinned. Its the GOP way. They depend on racial prejudice to keep their programs going.

[Judi Lynn]

18. It shows that Bush administration members, aren't the Christians

they pretend to be, or they would fear a "Day of Reckoning," a "Day of Atonement" so much they wouldn't dream of not doing their very best, staying honest, and trying to help wherever possible.

Acts like this, and their dishonest and brutal Iraq war are proof they haven't a trace of conscience left among them.

They don't believe they will ever have to answer for their sins.

[Tomee450]

24. Exactly

I concluded long ago that there were people in this administration only pretending to be Christian. I don't see any of Jesus Christ in them. Jesus asked us to love one another. He cared deeply for the poor. He was neither intolerant nor judgmental. I don't see any of the above qualities in members of this administration. I don't think they believe in God at all. They certain don't act as if they expect to be judged one day. A nation in the hands of people with no consciences is in deep trouble.

[ngGale]

19. Well, I'm white and I totally agree...

America is in denial, but the rest of the world knows. Yay!
Getting angry is a good thing, another march which I would be more than glad to participate in.

[Mel]

21. Hughes speaks for what I've always seen

and anyone with a brain and eyes too see saw it laid bare by Katrina.

Langston Hughes - Let America Be America Again

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

[NNN0LHI]

22. I predict black turnout for the next election will be very high

Maybe record breaking? Put that in your pipe and smoke it Rethugs. Dem's had better watch their step here too.

Don

[demo dutch]

26. Really hope so, because it has been falling short for too long!

[Blaq Dem]

30. It could go either way...

I'm concerned about faith blacks will have for goverment. I have a feeling the Republicans are going to push for voter's apathy. They're going to tell blacks how much the democratic gov. and mayor left them behind to die. They may give poor blacks a few thousand dollars for now but we know they'll be forgetten in the future until election rolls around.

We need to show continuous support of hurricane victims in all areas of LA, MS, and AL.

[drduffy]

23. here is a white

who is ashamed of his government, ashamed of the disgusting patrician family that heads it, ashamed of the white racist bastards that are so psychopathic that they put political/idealogical goals and greed before saving lives. There is only one just end for such an administration. I pray for it.

[Barkley]

28. There's a clear pattern here

Bush cut short his vacation to fly back to D.C. to pass legislation for Terry Schaivo - one solitary white woman.

During that same week, 11 plus Native American kids had been gunned down in school.

Bush ignored the them too, until the criticism became to loud.


I wear an "Impeach Bush" button on the train (Pasadena-to-Long Beach) and people no longer ask me why I'm wearing it.

The 10th Anniversary of the Million Man March is Oct. 15th
The Official Site for the Millions More Movement
10th Anniversary Commemoration of the Million Man March - Saturday, October 15, 2005

http://www.millionsmoremovement.com/

Condi agreed with the 71% whites... interesting

[Triana]

29. Well I'm white and in the minority because....

...I believe that this WAS a particularly important lesson, that it DOES indicate that racial inequality is a still major problem in America and that the response definitely would have been much quicker if the majority of victims were white-mid/upper class.

[struggle4progress]

31. kick

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

32. "...so black and so poor..."

Channeling Blitzer.

This is pissing me off.

[JPZenger]

33. Politicians Only Care About People Who Vote

If a group of people has a low rate of voting, they don't exist, in the eyes of politicians.