I asked her why she thought that. She actually said, "Because poor black people don't always report the death of their family members to agencies."
I said, "You really think that there are black people who watched their grandmother or their child get washed away in the flood, and then just sat there sad and did nothing about it? They didn't call the police? They didn't look for the body? They didn't collect on any insurance or benefits?"
"They need people to come down and help them with the paperwork or it doesn't get reported."
Seriously, in her mind, caring white liberals from Boston would have to fly down and help those poor people process the information or they would just sit there on their washed out porch missing grandma and doing nothing about it. She viewed them as a culture of friendly but dimwitted children, and she could not comprehend that her thinking was clearly racist, because she cared.
That mentality may not be far from the current truth. I had to go to Louisiana to assist with Hurricane Gustav & Hurricane Ike. After travelling around down there for about 2 weeks, watching people watch you drive by, while their yards had trash & other debris lying around, waiting for someone from the government to "help"
Yeah, I can see it.