Posted on 09/09/2005 8:19:32 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NEW YORK - To African-Americans, Hurricane Katrina has become a generation-defining catastrophe - a disaster with a predominantly black toll, tinged with racism. They've rallied to the cause with an unprecedented outpouring of activism and generosity. An unlikely alliance touched by the disaster is not only donating money but gathering supplies, taking in friends and relatives, even heading south to help shoulder the burden of their people.
"You'd have to go back to slavery, or the burning of black towns, to find a comparable event that has affected black people this way," said Darnell M. Hunt, a sociologist and head of the African American studies department at UCLA.
If the rescue effort had not been so mishandled, and if those who suffered so needlessly had not been so black and so poor, perhaps Hurricane Katrina would have been just another destructive storm, alongside the likes of Charley and Andrew and Hugo. But Katrina's searing images - linking nature's wrath and the nation's wrongs - have fanned the smoldering resentments of the civil rights, Reaganomic and hip-hop eras all at once.
"Something about this is making people remember their own personal injustices," said author damali ayo, whose book "How to Rent a Negro" takes a satirical look at race relations.
"You don't look at Rodney King and say, "I remember when I got beat up.' But people remember being neglected, unimportant, overlooked, thought of as "less than.' That's a very common experience for black people."
Some 71 percent of blacks say the disaster shows that racial inequality remains a major problem in America, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Sept. 6-7 among 1,000 Americans; 56 percent of whites feel this was not a particularly important lesson.
And while 66 percent of blacks think the government's response would have been faster if most of the victims had been white, 77 percent of whites disagreed.
Many events have transfixed African Americans: the Rodney King and O.J. Simpson cases, the killings of icons from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Tupac Shakur, the crack cocaine epidemic, the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
But Katrina is different. It has opened people's eyes - "The face, the cover has been pulled off the invisible poor," said the Rev. Ronald E. Braxton of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. - and it has created a rare opportunity for people of all backgrounds to make a tangible, immediate difference.
Braxton spoke as his congregation loaded a 50-foot tractor-trailer with antacid, diapers, food, water and other supplies destined for AME churches in Jackson, Miss., and Baton Rouge, La.
In addition, he said, his church raised $20,000 last Sunday alone to send to the national AME relief effort.
Individuals have also stepped up. Kimberly Lowe of Philadelphia signed up on that city's Web site to host an evacuee in a spare bedroom.
"They just probably want to talk to regular folks and be in a real home," Lowe said. "There's nothing like being home."
Katrina has spurred other blacks to take crucial roles in relief efforts - and they're in a better position to help than they were even a decade ago, when rap still scared people and being paid $30 million per year to play basketball was beyond imagination.
Now billionaire Mississippi native Oprah Winfrey is bringing her top-rated show to the Katrina zone, famed defense attorney Willie Gary is planning to transport victims in his 737 jet, and rapper Kanye West can excoriate President Bush's response to the hurricane in front of a nationwide audience.
Hip-hop hitmaker Timbaland said that he is renting trucks, buying clothes and toys, and heading "to the trenches" - first stop, the Houston Astrodome. He challenged peers who splurge on jewelry and cars to do the same, because "these people in the dome listen to our music."
"Don't give to no Red Cross, that's the easy way. Not to say anything bad about the Red Cross, but who knows where that money's going," the producer said. "Take your money and do your own thing."
Timbaland estimated he was spending several hundred thousand dollars, up there with Diddy and Jay-Z's half-million each. The donation of time, money and free performances by hip-hoppers is a watershed for what had become a largely apolitical genre.
"This is the most devastating thing to their community they've seen in their lifetime," said hip-hop mogul, Russell Simmons. "I've never seen a bigger outpouring of love and giving. I've never seen anything like it."
He's saying black people shouldn't be angry about America's response to the New Orleans disaster, they should just accept that white people don't care about black people.
What is the percentage of blacks within the city limits of New Orleans... 80%, 85%??? or more?
Reminds me of several black people I've heard refer to 9-11 as "they weren't after us, they weren't trying to kill black people".
Just another example of the racial disconnect fostered by the left in hopes to continually have the race card in the deck to exploit for political purposes.
The good news is that although I would think this sentament is common among black people in America, that number IS shrinking, espically in the past decade or two.
Dang. Where's the link?
No matter what yo think about the neo-con song the Rolling Stones have donated 1 million to the Red Cross for Katrina aid .
http://us.f531.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=7875_9866292_174493_1708_2432_0_10771_8353_540787394&Idx=1&YY=39023&inc=25&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=&head=&box=Inbox
Yeah, that's why the order went out that all white people should evacuate the city.
That's why the $50 billion dollars comes with a "Whites Only" tag on it.
That's why the Astrodome was opened up to only white people.
That's why the news media refused to show all those white looters.
Pictures do not lie...What was the the color of most of the people risking their lives to rescue and provide for the residents of NO?
66 per cent? I'm surprised. That's a relatively low number.
That Bush intentionally had the levees collapsed will be the latest entry in black lore.
WHITES RALLY TO AID THEIR OWN.......oh yeah....there is no shame anymore.
Don't mention race right?
The msm/LIBERALS/race-baiters/Congressional Black Caucus can't tolerate Americans helping Americans. The lie about America being a racist country is being exposed and they can't let that idea take hold.
This whole article is one racist statement after another. I have trouble getting past the first sentence. Calling it a generation defining catastrophe. I don't think so.
"You'd have to go back to slavery, or the burning of black towns, to find a comparable event that has affected black people this way,"
Once again, I don't think so.
If the headline read "Whites rally to aid their own after Katrina" would that be racist...?
>> - a disaster with a predominantly black toll, tinged with racism.
"You'd have to go back to slavery, or the burning of black towns, to find a comparable event that has affected black people this way," said Darnell M. Hunt, a sociologist and head of the African American studies department at UCLA. <<
I can't think of a more demented and twisted distortion of reality. And they are doing it on purpose, to divide America along racial lines, for political reasons.
You'd have to go back to Nazi Germany to find a comparable attempt to pit race against race.
It is truly demonic.
Funny we never see the divisive liberal racists (who notice "color" before anything else) writing headlines like this:
"Whites rally to aid their own after Katrina"
What IS being exposed is where the true racism lies in this country.
"where were these people when Clinton watched nearly 1 million blacks be slaughtered without lifting a finger?"
very astute. didn't and don't hear much about that 'hurricane' of blood from the left.
See #15. You beat me to it. LOL
An AP reporter.
Yeah...that racist Mayor, Ray Nagin; he just doesn't care about poor black folks.
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