Posted on 12/12/2005 9:00:53 AM PST by Carl/NewsMax
The popular perception that African-Americans living in New Orleans were disproportionately victimized by the government's botched Hurricane Katrina rescue effort turns out not to be true - at least according to preliminary death statistics released by the state of Louisiana.
On Wednesday, Congress heard dramatic testimony from black Katrina survivors, who complained that racism drove the federal rescue efforts and resulted in an unnecessarily high number of African-American deaths.
"People were allowed to die," storm survivor Leah Hodges testified, telling a House panel that black residents of New Orleans had been victims of "genocide and ethnic cleansing."
But preliminary figures compiled by the morgue in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, which is the primary facility handling the bodies of Katrina deceased, show that a majority of the dead in New Orleans and surrounding parishes were actually not black.
Of the 883 bodies processed so far by medical examiners at St. Gabriel, 562 have been identified by race. Slightly less than half that number - 48 percent - are African-American.
Forty-one percent are white, 8 percent unknown and 2 percent Hispanic.
The remarkable numbers, which undermine claims that Katrina rescue efforts were somehow infused by racism, have been completely ignored by the national media, with only the Lousiana-based news web site, The Bayou Buzz, devoting any coverage at all to the story.
The surprisingly low death rate for black Katrina victims comes despite the fact that New Orleans itself was more than two-thirds black [67 percent] when the storm hit. White residents made up less than a third [28 percent] of the city's population, according to U.S. Census bureau numbers.
The two hardest hit areas were Orleans parish, which is the city itself - with 720 people killed by Katrina - and St. Bernard parish, with 123 dead.
St. Bernard parish is 88 percent white, but the total population before the storm was just 65,554 people. The city of New Orleans, on the other hand, had 484,674 people before the storm, 67 percent of whom were black.
The two populations combined were still over 60 percent black - twelve points higher than the percentage of black residents killed by Katrina.
To view the statistics on Katrina dead released by the state of Louisiana, go to: http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/offices/publications/pubs-145/DECEASED%20Victims%20released_11-14-2005_publication.pdf
George Bush hates white people too? Who knew?
/sarcasm
They're not, but that IS a separate race... known scientifically as Yellow Spined Pacifists. Some have settled in this country too, mostly on the east and wests coasts.
Thank you.
I certainly don't believe racism was a motivating factor, but don't expect these numbers to convince anyone. The actual deaths are largely nursing home residents. The reason many of them are white is because while New Orleans is mostly black, there are many whites in the suburbs who tend to go into the city, as they do for most things except affordable housing in safe neighborhoods, for nursing homes.
The complaint about racial discrimination is not focussed on who died, or allegations that they were lifting out white people but not black people. Rather, the notion is that the federal governments' response would have been better if the people at risk were wealthier or whiter. And yes, many poor black people do conflate race and economic class, believing that rich/white people would do more for poor people if they were more like themselves. And Republicans hurt themselves if they treat this association as illogical; there's a lot of poor white people, but what inner-city blacks see of the world is poor black people and the rich, white people who drive past them.
Further, New Orleans is, itself, a city known for poor, black people. Its residents will compare itself to the wealthy "white" people of lower Manhattan. The presence of non-white immigrants in lower Manhattan doesn't help Manhattan to be seen as a less white city. And Harlem in the North of Manhattan simply isn't the same city.
Republicans aren't going to make any headway against this argument that they are uncaring rich, white people this way. Nor will they by attacking Nagin. (His failures are self-evident to anyone who might be swayed.) Rather, they simply need to emphasize what they did do, but that people don't know that they did... like the air left of so many people to safety (what was it, 80,000?), the plans to fortify the levees which the city rejected, and the successful efforts of the non-governmental actions. Let's not forget that we are the party of concerned, God-fearing people voluntarily doing what we can, against the party of "leave it all up to the government."
"The nine scariest words in the English langauge [are] 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'... Government is not the solution to our problems, government IS the problem."
-- Ronald Reagan.
Limbacher's kinda late.
We Freepers knew this back in October:
.........Forty-two percent of the identified victims were black, 37 percent white and 3 percent Hispanic, the report said. The remaining 18 percent weren't identified by race or ethnicity......
BREAKING NEWS - ((Wonder why it wasn't in the headline??)
In a city 68% black, 42% of the victims were black!
Jesse, turn your bus around, no more race baiting in NOLA!
4 posted on 10/24/2005 1:48:42 PM EDT by aShepard
"the notion is that the federal governments' response would have been better if the people at risk were wealthier or whiter. And yes, many poor black people do conflate race and economic class, believing that rich/white people would do more for poor people if they were more like themselves."
Sometimes there's not much incentive for elected officials in poor black municipalities to work constructively with an administration. They get called sell-outs by political rivals. How do you get re-elected when you're Hitler's house negro?
If those municipalities would be friendlier to the federal government, then yeah, the government's response might be better than if there was an adversarial relationship.
I hate when this happens. Imagine, the MSM ignoring facts and figures.
And don't forget: While blacks may be a minority of the entire US population-they are a substancial majority (or were) in the city of New Orleans.
Unfortunately the bodies all washed out into the gulf and sharks ate the evidence.
Oh
LOL!
But... but... Kanye West SAID Bush doesn't care about blacks, so that must be true!
/sarcasm
Thanks for the thread!
Of the 883 bodies processed so far by medical examiners at St. Gabriel, 562 have been identified by race. Slightly less than half that number - 48 percent - are African-American.
Forty-one percent are white, 8 percent unknown and 2 percent Hispanic.
-----So much for just letting the blacks die. Now what excuse are they going to use.
*****Give them a few minutes, they are running out of them.
This stat will never see the light of day in the media because it mitigates their argument (which mitigates their power) and will end up reducing the amount of money they can extort out of the Fed.
Isn't that the truth. There's been so many lies, distortions and agenda driven madness that the truth has been severely mangled.
Too many people died and it doesn't matter what their race or gender was either. In this day and age the fact that over 1000 people perished in the US from a hurricane is sad.
Sorry, it just shows that they who were in charge, they who were responsible and those who were SUPPOSSED to be accountable didn't care for the underpriveleged any more than they cared for them on the streets, when they were being preyed on by their peers.
If you would like on or off the Louisiana Ping list please FReepmail me and your name will be added or taken off of the list.
Indeed. And that goes for both the Left and Right.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
![](http://scd.mm-c1.yimg.com/image/1171951933"/img)