Race was a factor in the death toll from Hurricane Katrina, Howard Dean told members of the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday at the group's annual meeting.
Race was a factor because the hurricane was racist. In fact, I think Katrina was a hate crime. Please.
Dean, chairman of the Democratic party, made the comments to the Baptists' Political and Social Justice Commission. The Baptist Convention, with an estimated 3.5 million members, is one of the largest black religious groups in the country.
Can you say cheap PR stunt? Keep telling those black folks how much the Democrats love them and how much the Republicans hate them. Also, Dean made some pretty harsh anti-Christian remarks earlier. Apparently you are free to worship Christ if you are black and vote for the Democratic party. Must have missed that chapter of the Bible.
The Democrats love to talk about how the Republicans would want to "turn back the clock". Note: this is not a statement regarding daylight savings time, at least, near as I can figure. While in some respects this is true--conservatives do love those founding fathers--the expression is usually meant with respect to two things. First, abortion. I haven't the time or the energy to address that one now. The other issue to which the phrase applies, is race.
It is obvious that if we white conservative Christian folk could, we'd put every African American in shackles. Of course the propostion is absurd. Can you imagine the NBA with only white people? The ratings would be so low MSNBC would blush. Since we all know all people care about is money--especially those confounded conservatives--I think it's safe to assume that slavery will remain a historical phenomenon, in this country at least.
What irks me most about the race card is that it's played even when it doesn't help the hand. Are there racist people in America? Unfortunately, yes. We can only hope the backwards cretins in-breed until they all win darwin awards. But until the world becomes a perfect place--or we're all one big happy race--racism is going to be an issue. To say that "race was a factor" in a natural disator like this betrays all the sacrifices the great civil rights leaders of the past made. We've got a ways to go on the race issue, but can't we recognize racism from unfortunate events? I guess not.
The fact of the matter is, race wasn't an issue as much as income was. The mayor told people to leave. The people without money could not do so. As far as I know, and I could be wrong, the police were not preventing blacks from leaving the city. If that was the case, I'll join the protest.
There were a lot of people in New Orleans who didn't have a significant enough rainy day fund to provide for a journey to safety. While some were clearly living in dire poverty, I wonder how many of the "poor" owned, say, cable televisions. Being up to one's ears in debt is the American way, but when it leads to being in water up to one's neck we may want to rethink our priorities. I'll wager we're not going to see this slant in the mainstream news outlets. Someone has to buy the products sold during commercial breaks you know.
There is a connection between being African-American and living in poverty. While Dean and company would love to blame whitey, no one wishes to point the blame back at the community itself. Seven out of ten children of black mothers are born out of wedlock. Until this statistic changes, it doesn't matter who's in charge or what color folks are.
It's easy for me to say all of this. I am a white kid raised in suburbia, and as such I may not have the necessary credentials to comment on the matter. That being said, we are never going to make further inroads on the race issue until people are willing to take responsibilty for their actions. If saying so means I come off sounding Limbaugh-esque, so be it. A spade is a spade is spade.
Dean is contributing to the problem by allowing people to abdicate responsibility. I am not saying that this tragedy should be blamed on the poor people in New Orleans. What I am saying, is that there are several lessons to be learned here if we stop and take the time to look at the issues.
I guess it's easier to point fingers at the man with power. Maybe we can even come up with a federal program or two while we're at it.
It appears that it is division and finger pointing, and not learning from mistakes and taking responsibility for one's actions that is the national past-time.
2 comments:
You have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to the role of history and the structures of institutional racism. I realize the chapter on slavery is skimmed over these days but the year I was born (1953) over seven hundred blacks were lynched for being uppity. It is easy for us priveledged ones to demand a sense of "responsibility" out of poor people but try substituting the word oppressed, try imagining the legacy of our treatment of this race (in particular, although many others ie.native Americans, could be included) and how it might manifest itself. No one is asking you to go apoligize to the first black person you see, only to try to understand the meaning of race and class in our society.
Well said. Since I'm middle-class white suburbanite from the Midwest, I'm not an expert on race.
That being said, what angers me most about Dean's comments is that they don't seem to fit here. You can't tell me the sky is falling when it isn't. If race is such a problem, why are there so many white people down there volunteering?
I realize I seem like I don't get it. That's because to a large degree I don't. Racism is inhernently illogical and I can't see why people, much less why whole systems, could succumb to something so senseless.
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