Posted on 09/09/2005 10:30:46 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Kanye West was right: George Bush doesn't care about black people.
Unfortunately, West was so focused on reading the teleprompter, he forgot to read one of the words.
George Bush doesn't care specifically about black people.
How did this become a race issue, instead of a tragedy that affects all Americans?
As happens so often these days, it became a race issue because members of that race - and sympathetic media representatives and activists - made it a race issue.
Contrary to West's opinion newspapers aren't referring to black scavengers as "looting" and white scavengers as "looking for food."
One Associated Press photo caption referred to one black man as a looter, because the photographer - according to Jack Stokes, the AP's director of media relations - saw him loot from a store.
One AFP/Getty photo caption referred to white people as having found goods, because photographer Chris Graythen - as he said in a public statement - believed they had picked up those goods as they floated by.
But even if there wasn't an easy explanation for the wording choices, two photos aren't a trend.
To assume automatically that they constitute racism because the harsher caption features a black man and the lesser depicts white people is ridiculous.
Worse, every time the media picks up this sort of reaction, impressionable people hold it up as gospel truth.
I say "impressionable" because any words that truly would apply are not suitable for a public forum.
Only a few days after West's meltdown, I sat in class and listened to an impressionable student tell the professor she had no idea if what West said was true. But she thought it sounded pretty bad, and West obviously knew what he was talking about because the events made him so emotional.
West himself is guilty of the same crime as the student, as each successive complainer builds upon the original overreaction until the public believes it to be true because it's heard it so often.
For him these two photos constitute "the way they portray us in the media," as if there were a long history of similar occurrences for which this only is a recent example.
I'd like to see some evidence of these occurrences.
True, there is a lot of black crime in the media. There also is a lot of black crime.
If you think that statement is racist in any way, then you probably aren't the sort of reasonably thinking American who I'm trying to reach with these words.
White people aren't racist just because they're white.
Black people in trouble aren't facing racism just because they're in trouble.
New Orleans wouldn't be in any better shape right now if the percentage of black residents and white residents were flipped - unless it were because the white residents had more money and thus had easier access to relief.
That's not a problem of racism; that's a problem of inequality.
That inequality isn't caused by racists. It's a relic of a dying social order that has a long way to go before it's rectified.
But it will be rectified, and its path will be much easier if both sides are willing to treat each other as equals.
Yes, both sides.
A disaster occurred, and its aftermath was and is a tragedy because of a deadly combination of poor preparation and questionable relief efforts.
To try to make it anything more only directs energy away from the issues causing legitimate human suffering.
Matt Sanchez is a journalism senior. His column appears on Friday.
Hi!
I'm tired of the nonsense too.
Bill Clinton went to Africa recently and it was all hugs and love.
Yes, and Jesse Jackson, Danny Glover, Oliver Stone, the Hollywood brain-dead and members of the Congressional Black Caucus take trips to Havana to sit at the feet of Fidel Castro. It isn't about color, it's all about politics!!
The Democrats need at least 90% of blacks to vote for them and they are starting to look elsewhere for answers. Thus the mainstream media comes to their rescue by encouraging blacks to believe that Bush and the Republicans are racist.
Did you mean desegregation?
I just came home after volunteering a whole week in Lousiana. A few physician colleagues and I travelled to Baton Rouge and volunteered at the PMAC (Pete Maravich Athletic Center) and at the Maddox Field House where patients were airlifted by helicopters from New Orleans to. The first 4 days alone, over 50,000 patients were treated at these makeshift hospital in the campus of Louisiana State University. We saw patients of every race, blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, arabs. The sheer number of voluteers were astounding! There were medical personel (EMT's/paramedics, doctors, nurses, PA's, respiratory therapists, lab techs, social workers, etc...) literally from every state in the country were there. As far as Washington State, Idaho, Iowa, Utah, Michigan, New York City, New Jersey...the spirit of helping our fellow Americans was very uplifting. We came together far and wide and took care of our own. For the first time in my career ever, the thought of litigation/medical malpractice never crossed my mind, nor did it cross anyone else's mind as we took care of our fellow Americans. This racial slant is a crock of bull. There were thousands and thousands of volunteers present. The donated materials from food to water, to clothing, blankets, linens, diapers, etc...piled up like little mountains.
Thank you for your post.
That's how I've heard things are going (your report is inspiring!). The Left is trying to kill that wonderful spirit.
Well, they won't.
Racism is an issue because there's money in it. It's made Jesse Jackson millions.
Right.
Power and money - for those who push it.
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