[kipita]

A simple analysis based on the lives of many who are living through the “tragedy”.

[Shalom Israel]

I don't know how scared Nagin is of the migrant workers in NO right now, but I think you might be on to something. Your reference to "elite blacks... sure of their constituency" makes me wonder to what degree elite blacks are in fact unable to connect with their constituencies?

During the OJ trial, the prosecution dragged the jury to OJ's house, because they wanted the jury to see that OJ had more in common with whites than blacks--for example, his wall was full of pictures of the rich and famous, with hardly a black face among them. Surprise! Cochran and company had thought of that, and they filled the walls with pictures of black people, and as an added touch put a Bible on his night-stand.

Perhaps Nagin finds it as hard to relate to real black people in the same way that Howard Dean couldn't relate to southerners, when he claimed that his party would be the party of southerners with confederate flags on their pickups. Similarly, Nagin is essentially promising his constituents "fried chicken on every plate," not realizing that they aren't as motivated as he'd imagined by a love of fried chicken.

Not that well articulated, maybe, but an interesting thought. Maybe he's out of touch with people who can't buy a fancy house in Houston the day after the disaster.

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you for your analysis, which is based on personal knowledge of the quite different communities which are involved. It's a shame that some of the "reporters" who are "covering" the rebuilding of New Orleans don't talk to some people who actually know what is going on, on the ground.

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "On Judge Alito, the San Francisco Chronicle is Unfit to be a Newspaper"

[Albion Wilde]

It is hard to imagine New Orleans without large creole and black communities. Mardi Gras with Mariachi bands - it could work, I guess.

The tastelessness of Nagin's bringing race into the "y'all come back" discussion in this particular way was disappointing to hear, but in general I think people make too big a fuss over careless remarks.

Also, from my perspective as an older person who has lived in several cities, large demographic/ethnic shifts happen with regularity. I once lived in an Italian Catholic enclave where people who weren't Italian were regarded with suspicion and outright discrimination; yet the local Catholic church had the names of dozens of Irish priests, bishops and former parishioners engraved in marble plaques inside the church and certainly in the cemetery.

My birthplace, Washington DC, has been going through this difficulty since the late 50s, when the civil rights legislation was passed and government jobs were suddenly available to blacks, who flooded into white working-class neighborhoods, with the added impetus of realtors who "red-lined" the areas that would be "sold to black" and which would not. "White flight" to the suburbs ensued, mostly by lower-middle-income whites. Now real estate costs so much anywhere in DC that white yuppies are trying to "gentrify" those all-black enclaves, which are fighting back with signs in the front yard and angry civic meetings. Some of the people wanting to get back in are people whose parents and grandparents felt pushed out of their homes, churches and family gravesites in the 50s. An African-American woman was quoted in the Washington Post as saying that blacks preferred to live with their own. *Sigh.* This is progress?

The question I have is this: if many of the displaced from N'Orleans will not be back, shouldn't the city clear the slate and reconsider whether or not to rebuild in the low-lying areas? Are there higher-ground areas adjacent that could be redeveloped in greater safety? Perhaps new communities could be more successfully integrated, so that you wouldn't have the reinstituting of racial enclaves.

[F16Fighter]

"The statement is not only racist, it’s also stupid and while Nagin is not a genius, he is not that stupid. Therefore, the statement has to have some meaning behind it."

His IS that stupid. But he doesn't care what anybody thinks (basically what he said in his tirade.)

The "meaning" behind his statement is "Whitey owes us," and "it's us (blacks) vs. them."

He's a Marxist at war with "white" America, and believes just as his brethren believes -- Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Charles Rangel, Sharpton, Conyers, and the rest of the Black Caucus.

[DoNotDivide]

Mexicans are only doing the jobs that even black Americans won't do.

I know so because Mexican President Vincente Fox said so.

[caryatid]

A simple analysis based on the lives of many who are living through the “tragedy”.

---

This thread should have been *pinged* to the Louisiana List sooner. I have been mostly away from my computer over the weekend ... no excuses, kipita ... only apologies. We welcome kipita as a new subscriber to our List ... with his keen insight into New Orleans he will have much to contribute. This is a topical thread, rather than a dated news item; so, please keep the discussion going.

---

  ** Louisiana PING **

---

[ If you would like on/off the LA Ping List please FReepmail
me and your name will be added to or taken off of the list. ]

Note to caryatid: Your Louisiana flag has disappeared. Try to find it!

[Gordongekko909]

I don't have much of a choice in terms of whether or not I want to leave Louisiana after I graduate from law school, since I'm a civil law student. I'll be in either New Orleans, Lafayette, or Baton Rouge.

But if I stay in New Orleans, I know one thing: I'll be studying espanol as hard as possible so I can expand my client base.

[CobaltBlue]

Finally went back "home" (my old home) in New Orleans and Biloxi/Gulfport for a visit last week. Wow. Words can't describe it and the pictures don't come close.

Now that Nagin mentions it, I didn't see many black people -- plenty of well-to-do whites, lots and lots of obviously illegal Hispanics working hard and grinning from ear to ear, and a lot of happy rednecks with brand new pick'em-up trucks.

I know that black people are moving back, but only the ones with jobs and a place to live. Do they want to live five to a room like the Hispanics, working from sunup to sundown doing reconstruction? Doesn't look like it to me. Are they skilled laborers like the rednecks? I didn't see them.

Nevertheless, I just can't imagine New Orleans without blacks. I am white but lived in the Deep South all my life so feel like it's not racist to say that the best cooks, the best jazz musicians and the best blues singers have been black. Maybe those times are gone now. I sure hate to think so.

[TexasCajun]

And of course, the criminal class of folks who are small in number but get the most attention

New Orleans has always had the highest crime rate, murder rate and crime figures in the nation, you can't sugar-coat the facts.