Posted on 12/31/2008 1:28:50 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.
The comparison is inappropriate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla. “Not a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed,” Miller told the survivors.
“They died from abject neglect,” retorted community activist Leah Hodges. “We left body bags behind... The people of New Orleans were stranded in a flood and were allowed to die.”
Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was “one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies.” Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter’s forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police.
“No one is going to tell me it wasn’t a race issue,” said New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. “Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black.”
According to a recent Gallup poll, NBC News’ Kerry Sanders reported on Tuesday, six out of every 10 black New Orleans residents said if most of Katrina’s victims were white, relief would have arrived sooner.
Discussions about race began almost immediately after Katrina hit on Aug. 29. On Sept. 9, according to NBC News, President George W. Bush told the public, “The storm didn’t discriminate and neither will we in the recovery effort.”
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I wonder how many are getting bored, bored, bored to death with “racism”?
Start with their mayor and governor at the time.
I blame STUPIDITY for slow aid. Blame Nagin, Blanco and most of all the IDIOTS who didnt leave ON THEIR OWN.
I’ve been bored by “racism” for years. What I’m getting bored with now is Katrina.
Pure nonsense. The democrat governor was caught saying she deliberately delayed authorizing the feds to come in. And the people there failed to help themselves. It’s all a very sad commentary.
Today’s “logic”: My skin is dark therefore anything bad that happens in my life is racism, anything good in my life, no explanation.
“I wonder how many are getting bored, bored, bored to death with “racism”?”
####
I’m such a knuckle-dragging neanderthal I was already bored with it around 1972.
Though “thoroughly pissed-off” at the gross injustice of it all, would be a more apropos characterization.
It rained today. Blacks got wet. Must be RACISM !!!!!
NAGIN,NAGIN,NAGIN,NAGIN,BLANCO,BLANCO,BLANCO was the problem
and don’t forget it.
I blame stupidity for them staying there in the first place.............
Yes,it had nothing to do with a buffoon of a Mayor and a
incompetent drunk of a governor and a 100 yrs of govt relief
checks that some NO residents to dumb to get out of the way.
Now, now, I too, recall how hard Mississippi was hammered and how well it dealt with the situation. But you must understand that your Governor was the hated former RNC chief Haley Barbour and it would not do to point that out.
Such news would have embarrassed the media effort to blame Bush for the suffering black people of NOLA and defuse that all-out, roughly two-week effort the MSM made to try and start another Race War.
Not to worry though sir, I’m glad you rolled with the punches and got back on your feet. Non-democrat, non-black folk are not allowed to be bitter at life’s blows and in any case this problem—like homelessness—will suddenly cease to exist once The Messiah takes the Oath of Office on the twentieth.
“Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter’s forehead. “
Yeah I’m sure that’s exactly what the relief troops were busy doing, targeting this woman’s grandaughter and because of her race. These people live in their own version of reality.
..."Louisiana got a ton of money. The problem is that it went to politicians who doled it out to bureaucrats so they could create committees to hire experts to write studies to submit to a panel who created guidelines, requirements, rules, and procedures for people who lost everything to abide by in order to protect the state from being cheated out of money by people by people pretending to have lost everything when in fact they did not. (breath) Then, they hired a bunch of appraisers who low-balled the value of a home so the homeowners would appeal the amount to another panel and the state then had to hire more appraisers, accountants, actuaries, and attorneys to testify that the state's amount was correct only to have said panel agree with the homeowner's appraisal. (breath) THEN, the state created another bureaucracy for the homeowners to submit their paperwork to, only to refuse to give the homeowner a check because the owner had lost some piece of paper along the way and didn't have sufficient information for the bureaucrat to determine the accuracy of the homeowner's file (sadly, the bureaucrat did not have ANY of the homeowner's paperwork in his files because that information is stored in a different department). When the homeowner returns after finding the paper, a new "public servant" has been assigned to his file and is unaware of conversations with the previous bureaucrat because no notes were taken and again denies the homeowner because of a different piece of missing paper. When the homeowner finally gets everything he needs together, the billions of dollars given to the state has amazingly disappeared. Whoda thunk?" Meanwhile, the state was cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by people pretending to have lost everything, but did not.
Do they blame William Jefferson for taking up valuable resources to rescue his freezer?
Best to take a deep breath sit back and relax. It will be coming at you in capital letters after Jan 20. The new national slogan wil be "Reparations." Why else do you think this kind of racial diarrhea is being smeared on the country now?
I thought it said 12/6/08! Wow, need to see an eye doctor!
Good point.
I’m so sick of this! They blame racism for their pimples.
LOL!!
“NAGIN,NAGIN,NAGIN,NAGIN,BLANCO,BLANCO,BLANCO was the problem and don’t forget it.”
####
They are problems 2 and 3 respectively with the federal goverment a VERY distant 4th.
Far and away the biggest source of problems with Katrina was an abysmal and wholly abject lack of personal responsibility among its “victims”.
Nagin is a pure racist. ("This city will remain a 'chocolate' city".) Perhaps Nagin felt his constituents would be able to carjack their way out and not need those school buses that ended up swamped and flooded.
Glad to see the crying and whining hands out crowd of NO realizes Nagin's racism.
So, the people who complain that racism caused deaths are correct. It was black racism, however, which caused those deaths.
Congressman Billybob
Latest article, "The Non-Constitutional Crisis from Illinois"
The Declaration, the Constitution, parts of the Federalist, and America's Owner's Manual, here.
I guess they don’t
His case has never even gone to trial.
So... There’s hope for Blago yet.
If they were white, they would have left when they were told to! (I guess there weren’t enough sedan chairs to go around.)
My mother lives in a government subsidized apartment building for 62+ people. You have to qualify by having minimal income, money etc. There is a black woman (a Katrina “survivor”) that drives a new caddy and lives there, rent free since Katrina. She has no job, doesn’t look for a job and brags to residents that she’s living “large” off the gummit. This BS about racism is absolute BS! If anything, as usual, the gummit bent over backwards to be sure that the black “victims” of Katrina got what they asked for...almost anything. You, you, you and me are paying for this.
Fixed.
Public can address lawmakers about Hurricane Ike
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2155433/posts
Here it is 4 Months later and little has been done in Tx
however many lost all, some lost some all were effected.
No Whining here.
But then this is Texas and Texans!
And how many YEARS ago was this “disaster”? The Great Fire of Chicago was what - 1871? Wait ‘till 2009 to see it again. Popcorn - anyone?
You mean the chocolate mayor was a racist?
I lived in New Orleans for many years. It was then and is now akin to a third-world country, with a large number of its residents being shiftless parasites, wholly devoid of ambition or initiative, expecting others (i.e., the government) to take care of them. I was reminded of the Maynrad G. Krebs character in the TV series “dobie Gillis.” Maynard was a beatnik, a no-account shirker of any personal responsibility, who, when confronted with anything even closely resmbling effort, would shriek “Work? Work?”
I’m just as much a “Katrina victim” as she is, yet I pay my own rent and I’m driving a 1984 Mercedes I bought for $100. Maybe I should claim I’m black, huh?
I'll step up and tell you that it wasn't a race issue.
People who are racist see racism in everything.
Sorry about your losses in Biloxi -and congratulations to you for getting back on your feet.
Since we now have Obammmo... When the next ‘Katrina’ hits Ms. Hodges FEMA trailer (or whatever subsidized housing she lives in) and her ife isn’t magically put back in order for her by Unlce Sam, who will she point the racist finger at?
“What I’m getting bored with now is Katrina.”
Are you kidding? The ne’er-do-wells of New Orleans will trot out Katrina for the next three hundred years as their rationale for being bums. They’ll hang on to that mantra like a drowning man grasps for a wine cork.
I’m not getting bored with it. I’m getting angry. I’m sick of their endless accusations and demands, while I watch their “culture” destroy itself.
They died and suffered because they were too stupid to get out.
If they had wanted too badly enough, they would have found a way. If they put as much effort in to their own safety before the storm as they have with their whining now, maybe the LOCAL government would have used some of those flooded buses to get them to safety before the levees broke.
Yawn
“six out of every 10 black New Orleans residents said if most of Katrina’s victims were white, relief would have arrived sooner.”
Most of Katrina’s victims were white.
the people that were left there mostly was stupid.
The article says THE BLACK VICTIMS blamed racism on the ‘slow response’...what did the white victims blame it on??
“Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter’s forehead. “
It was probably the enemies of her sons focusing the laser.
They were too used to depending on the Feds for everything in their life. Unable to process an individual thought to take action on their own. Sad.
When you take a look at what happened in New Orleans you have to conclude that our National "leaders," including George Bush, know zip about leadership; and the "drive by" media didn't even bother to drive by on this one.
After Katrina made land fall, I believe it was Sunday, all the "drive by" folk reported that New Orleans just dodged another bullet. Somewhere between twelve and twenty four hours later the levies failed. At that point the clock started ticking.
You had Navy and Coast Guard helicopters zooming about within hours to look for people in need.
You had other national military, civil government and national civilian aid starting to rush in but a few hours later. That gained momentum by the hour. Within ninety six hours, let me repeat that...NINETY SIX HOURS...you had all the aid necessary pouring into New Orleans in a way unprecedented in the history of the world, let me repeat that...UNPRECEDENTED IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
This was all done despite legal and incompetence obstacles. You had the Governor of Louisiana who delayed requesting aid, which made even the Navy helicopter help technically illegal.
If we are talking about racism, we had (and have) a black mayor of New Orleans who's idea of crisis management is to get in some prominent area and scream, "Help, G-d d---n it!"
So I guess the true racists are those who say black people are incapable of caring for themselves even with aid thrown their way with efforts AND results beyond the wildest imagination of any person who could chart out a disaster and the work to overcome it.
There are indeed racists in all this, but they aren't among ANY of the care providers. The racists are, quite simply, Ray Nagin and anyone who speaks of racism as a cause for this event.
Good comment except the aid wasn't slow. You can look it up.
I’m writing from California, where earthquakes and fires give us little to no warning. San Diego was hit particularly hard by the wildfires in 2003, and there are families who are still battling it out with insurance companies and struggling to make ends meet after losing everything. But I don’t recall anyone blaming any of it on Bush. In fact, I don’t recall hearing any kind of whining from anyone. Things happen. We would love to know 2 days in advance when we’re going to rumble or burn next but we don’t have that luxury.
I too am sick of hearing about this. People like this woman are the reason I volunteered for hurricane recovery in Biloxi rather than in NO.
The city is 70% Black. (and, 47% illerate)
Most White people weren't stupid enough to stay when told to evacuate.
It's getting to the point that Blacks are expecting Whites to save them from themselves.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.