Blakely: New Orleanians Are Racist, Unsophisticated

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: WDSU

Former storm recovery czar Ed Blakely told a California television station that New Orleanians are racist, unsophisticated and lazy.

His comments came in an interview with the University of California's online TV station, which was posted on YouTube.

Blakely said white New Orleanians saw the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity.

"Now, the white community, there's blood in the water, and they can recapture the political apparatus and kind of put their foot back on black people's throats," Blakely said.

Blakely also said New Orleans is likely to be completely wiped out by another storm within in the next 100 years.

Read more: http://www.wdsu.com/news/21501508/detail.html

[Behind the Aegis]

1. What an ignorant asshole.

[Saynt]

17. You, uh, didn't really read the article did you?

[Behind the Aegis]

18. Uh, yeah I did. I also saw it on the local news.

He is a POS and we are better for his hateful, bigoted ass being gone.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. WOW! What a racist, republican thing to say...Guess that is redundant on my part.

[ThatPoetGuy]

5. I think you might want to watch the video before reaching that conclusion.

The interviewer asks him if there's anything he would change about New Orleans, and without missing a beat, he says, "Racism."

That quote -- "Now, the white community, there's blood in the water, and they can recapture the political apparatus and kind of put their foot back on black people's throats" -- how would you interpret it if Blakely was Black?

And, um, he is.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. Aha...He was stating a complaint rather than bragging....

The real gist of what he was saying is quite the opposite of what that quote implies.

He was condemning the racism..not extolling it..which is what that quotation seems to imply.


This is an incomplete transcript of what Mr. Blakely said....at the end he said..."and that would be very dangerous."
"Now, the white community, there's blood in the water, and they can recapture the political apparatus and kind of put their foot back on black people's throats,"

It would seem that this article was intentionally trying to mislead the readers.

[Skittles]

3. disgusting

[Psephos]

12. It's the opposite of disgusting if you actually watch the video. n/t

[WriteDown]

16. It's gusting? nt

[Psephos]

19. Now THAT is disgusting. ;) nt

[bamacrat]

4. Cant believe its a black guy saying that.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. He also says that he expects race riots

in the city after the next mayor is elected. I certainly hope not.:-(

[OhioBlue]

7. the article is a poor recap of the video - watch part 2

to me, Blakely comes off as a bit uncaring when he talks about leaving the post and how he should have earlier... I can understand his health issues.. but to say that there were other things he wanted to do and he didn't have to be the one to do the recovery seemed a bit cold...

BUT.... the snippet does not convey his comments accurately. He is saying there is a lot of racism from everyone, that white people see blood in the water and the next mayor will have to be very smart or else race riots will start. He says a lot more - watch the video before making a decision on this.

[BrklynLiberal]

9. Absolutely...snippet is totally inaccurate.

[KamaAina]

10. So long, Kaiser Ed

Don't let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you!

Actually, many New Orleanians, white and black, present and former, did indeed see the aftermath of the Federal Flood as an opportunity -- to get rid of the entrenched power structure, both white and black, and replace it with a more community-based paradigm. One remnant of those heady days is the Neighborhood Partnership Network:

http://www.npnnola.org

Alas, we were ultimately unsuccessful in effecting any real, lasting change. Otherwise, I'd likely be posting as "WhoDat" or some such.

edit: I will gladly serve as the city's next recovery czar for half, nay, even a third of Kaiser Ed's six-figure salary. Any Nagin administration lurkers out there, please PM me. :-)

[cigsandcoffee]

11. I think he gives a very frank account, and shows some bitterness.

I would wager that he had a pretty thankless job, to say the least. I found the interview extremely interesting, and very insightful.

[Downwinder]

13. I've got news for him, NO will be six feet under water

in less than 100 years.

[nolabear]

15. Unless something is done.

[AtheistCrusader]

21. Nothing can be done.

That figure is completely ignoring the potential and projected sea level rise.

You see, New Orleans is sinking an inch, to few inches every year, depending on the area of the city. Even if the oceans remain static, the city is already below sea level, and still sinking.

For example: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13065975/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060601-new-orleans.html

[No Elephants]

22. Sounds as though New Orleans is really in Dutch.

Speaking of which, shouldn't someone be hiring some Dutch engineers as consultants? They keep an entire nation waterproofed.

There's also Venice, which is REALLY low (no offense to Venetians). Has anyone consulted with them, or would that be only the blind leading the blind? (When NOLA had canals, it had no problem.)

I don't know if everything has really been explored, but the USA would miss New Orleans--and you know what that means.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/l/louis+armstrong/do+you+know+what+it+means+to+miss+new+orleans_20085364.html

[AtheistCrusader]

23. If it were on the Pacific Northwest coast I would be more interested in

moving heaven and earth to save it, but in it's current location... They get seasonal hurricanes of varying intensity, from 'hey, that was windy' to 'hey where did the elementary school go'.

We have earthquakes up here, but so does that region, from the New madrid seismic zone, on down to the coast. What happens to the levees that normally hold back the sea, in a major earthquake? You don't get a 3 day storm warning for that...

Just seems like a lost cause, unless we can pump something into the ground to halt and reverse the sinking.

[Louisiana1976]

26. Don't you have volcanoes there, that could go off at any time?

[bertman]

14. Based on the observations and comments of my wife's family who hail from New Orleans

I'd say that Mr. Blakely was giving a very accurate account of the state of things in the city.

Cronyism and patronage have longed played a major role in who got what jobs in New Orleans' government, so it's no surprise that he found a segment of the city staff to be professionally incompetent.

As far as the whites smelling blood in the water, I think he got that right too. I just hope that whoever is leading the city will be able to keep things from "going off". Judging from what we saw when we were there over the last three years, the city is a shell of its old self and may never recover.

But, the food was style excellent and an adventure in itself.

[SlingBlade]

20. I didnt see racisum, I saw the truth

Blakely said that ALL sides were racist, Black and White, Why is that so hard
to believe ?
It's been no secret for quite sometime and don't forget the post Katrina video which
actually caught people with guns making racist statements and going out "Hunting" .

And I wonder who had the clout in the big easy to get Posse Comitatus set aside so that
among many other things Black Water Security could prance around with automatic weapons.

Anyhow, That's how I took it, No offense to others who may see it differently.

PS: I don't have my glasses on so I'm probably not seeing correctly, But is that a
Marijuana Plant growing behind Blakely's head in the video ? :)

[alfredo]

24. Did bush try the shock doctrine on New Orleans to remake it into his vision

of America?

[Louisiana1976]

25. Bush did worse than try the shock doctrine--he committed

ethnic cleansing if not genocide in New Orleans by cutting money that would have been used to maintain the levees so he could afford tac cuts for the rich. And then after the federal flood happened, seeing the people of color dispersed around the nation, then neglecting New Orleans so that they wouldn't be able to find affordable housing if they wanted to return.

[alfredo]

27. Ethnic cleansing is a perfect term for what happened in NOLA.