Here is what Farrakhan said about the Red Cross...
Posted on 09/27/2005 7:10:07 AM PDT by shortstop
The Red Cross is too white.
That’s what some of the activists and evacuees are saying.
The people who’ve come to help the hurricane victims – the Red Cross, the volunteer firemen, the electrical linemen – they’re too white.
And that’s insensitive.
It’s disrespectful to black people.
“When you’re in crisis,” a Nashville activist told local TV, “you like to have some familiarity there.”
That complaint was part of some difficulties in Tennessee that grew out of the fact that that state’s two emergency shelters were set up and staffed by white people while the vast majority of the evacuees cared for were black.
And that made the evacuees uncomfortable.
And their complaints, apparently, were echoed across the relief effort, black hurricane victims were not comfortable with white aid workers.
As incomprehensible as that seems, it does seem to be the case.
At least the American Red Cross apparently thinks so, as evidenced by a big meeting in Washington in which the agency brainstormed ways to get more black volunteers and downplay its Caucasian composition.
“Their complaint is they don’t feel like they’re being understood,” a Red Cross official told another TV station. “They come from a different background, different culture.”
Which is a crock.
In fact, it’s another face of racism.
If you’re hungry and somebody feeds you and his skin color matters to you, you’ve got a problem. A personal problem.
Yet that problem is apparently rearing its head across this disaster. A culture of racial separatism and belligerence that doesn’t even take a break during a national catastrophe.
Evacuees came from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, but the greatest numbers – and the greatest numbers to be still dislocated – are from New Orleans. According to the census, New Orleans is about 67 percent black. Whites are about 28 percent. The significant majority of New Orleans evacuees assisted by aid agencies were – as population numbers would indicate – African-American.
And undoubtedly the lion’s share of those people have nothing but gratitude in their hearts for the assistance they received. Undoubtedly they see the people who came to their aid and assistance as angels. The work of volunteers and the benefit to evacuees is a precious thing which both groups will treasure as long as they live.
At least most of them.
Unfortunately, some have used the tragedy to pursue their twin lusts of racism and greed. The racism manifesting itself as criticism of the race of the aid workers and greed manifesting itself as a desire to get a piece of the pie.
And some of the complaints against the Red Cross seem to have been motivated by that. Some of the activist complainers apparently wanted to contract themselves out to provide emergency services to evacuees. It seems that they sought to define the Red Cross as culturally inappropriate, because its volunteers were largely white, and themselves as culturally respectful, because they were black.
And, in modern America, no good deed goes uncompensated, so they wanted to cash in.
At least that’s the best explanation.
Unfortunately, the Red Cross is too polite to call this bluff.
When aid recipients started complaining about all the white people who had come to help them, the Red Cross and other organizations should have showed them the door. This is the aid that’s available, delivered by the people who have come to help – if that’s not good enough for you, you’re free to leave.
Because it is an act of incomprehensible ingratitude to criticize people who are donating their time and means to help you. It is deeply and offensively immoral.
It takes the selfless volunteer efforts of countless people – primarily in the Red Cross – and turns it into a racially insensitive offense. These volunteers are being condemned for wanting to help.
When the fact is that the racial composition of hurricane volunteers was determined by the volunteering propensities of the various races. The fact the overwhelming majority of those who volunteered to help were white cannot logically be twisted into a criticism of white people.
The Red Cross has so few black volunteers because so few black people volunteer. And that can’t be logically twisted into a criticism of white people either.
The fact is this hurricane and the events that followed it had nothing to do with race. A bad thing happened, and good deeds followed. It wasn’t black and white, it was people. People in need and people who wanted to help. Children of God living the Golden Rule.
And those who pervert that simple and pure fact with bigotry and scheming aren’t worth paying attention to.
Except to condemn them.
AMEN!
yeah, but I doubt they were afraid of being robbed or raped.
Let's reverse this issue: Why don't more black people volunteer to help themselves?
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The MSM will not point this out. These people complain about racisim. Where do they the the majority of the manpower and funds are coming from? White people. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. I am sickened by this.
And to be more clear I am talking about volunteers. So no one need bring the military into this.
I'll bet they're still willing to accept white money, though.
Ridiculous.
Well, the Blacks aren't going to show up to help, are they?
After all, you can't even get them to show up to drive a school bus on a sunny day according to Governor Blanco.
Where do they the = Where do they think
So exactly HOW is a volunteer agency supposed to get more volunteers of a certain ethnicity? FORCE THEM TO JOIN AGAINST THEIR WILL?
Un-friggin-believable.
I'm very saddened and discouraged how this has become a race issue. It's Americans in distress who need help.
The opportunists can't resist turning this into something it isn't, or at least, shouldn't be.
I notice that the rap/mtv crowd has taken the Katrina relief effort under their wing. I can't help thinking that if Katrina had hit South Carolina, and most of the victims were white, the rap crowd would barely notice. I don't want to be racist, but that is how I see it.
If the Red Cross is too white, whose fault is that? Then minorities need to volunteer THEIR time to organizations like the Red Cross. See how easy that is? LOL
Really? The people who would not heed the orders to evacuate, who shot at the helicopters, who looted and raped, they were all black. The volunteers that came to help were all white. I think race is a factor here, although not one that most people would like to acknowledge.
"Why don't more black people volunteer to help themselves?
Where in the world does this happen?
Jeeze, this is really weird.
We are all Americans who speak the same language. That should be familiarity enough.
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