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Katrina victims testify on racism's role
AP/mlive.com ^ | 12/6/2005, 5:58 p.m. ET | LARA JAKES JORDAN

Posted on 12/06/2005 3:25:07 PM PST by quantim

WASHINGTON (AP) — Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.

The comparison is inappropriate, according to Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla.

"Not a single person was marched into a gas chamber and killed," Miller told the survivors.

"They died from abject neglect," retorted community activist Leah Hodges. "We left body bags behind."

Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was "one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies." Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter's forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police.

"No one is going to tell me it wasn't a race issue," said New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black."

Not all lawmakers seemed persuaded.

"I don't want to be offensive when you've gone though such incredible challenges," said Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn. But referring to some of the victims' charges, like the gun pointed at the girl, Shays said: "I just don't frankly believe it."

"You believe what you want," Thompson said.

The hearing was held by a special House committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., investigating the government's preparations and response to Katrina. It was requested by Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

"Racism is something we don't like to talk about, but we have to acknowledge it," McKinney said. "And the world saw the effects of American-style racism in the drama as it was outplayed by the Katrina survivors."

The five white and two black lawmakers who attended the hearing mostly sat quietly during two and a half hours of testimony. But tempers flared when evacuees were asked by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., to not compare shelter conditions to a concentration camp.

"I'm going to call it what it is," said Hodges. "That is the only thing I could compare what we went through to."

Of five black evacuees who testified, only one said he believed the sluggish response was the product of bad government planning for poor residents — not racism.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: 109th; katrina; katrinaprobe
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To: billhilly
It is really hard to be honest when it comes to race issues.

I do not find it at all difficult to be honest about race issues. The problem arises from not being able to speak the truth for fear of severe retribution from the PC brigade, at worst, or mere unfounded [but damaging] accusations of racism, at best.

61 posted on 12/06/2005 7:36:30 PM PST by caryatid (Jolie Blonde, 'gardez donc, quoi t'as fait ...)
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To: quantim
----Friggin amazing how all these people had no transportation to evacuate and yet ALL THESE CARS IN ALL THE PHOTOS.....Like I said in another thread, better run the Vehicle Identification Numbers and find out who these cars really belong to because either there must have been one hell of an Auto theft ring running out of there or they could have/should have evacuated when TOLD to.

***And this post is not directed to the folks who are from there trying to rebuild their lives. I am referring to the ones now trying to use a race card as an excuse for their own incompetence
62 posted on 12/06/2005 7:41:07 PM PST by WasDougsLamb (I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man)
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To: quantim

I googled "Leah Hodges" -- apparently she's a former Black Panther who was charged with attempted murder of five police officers (or "pigs" as she quaintly refers to them) in 1970 or so. If this is the same person, I wouldn't trust a word she says.


63 posted on 12/06/2005 7:42:05 PM PST by IrishRainy
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To: billhilly

That's funny, because I recall evacuating three days before Katrina hit.


64 posted on 12/06/2005 7:42:29 PM PST by Gordongekko909 (I know. Let's cut his WHOLE BODY off.)
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To: quantim

Here's my stock answer that always shuts up the libs:

NOLA had 450,000 residents, three quarters of which, or 337,000 were black. If ten thousand were left behind, that means that more than 327,000 smart black people climbed into their cars, hopped trains and planes and got the hell out! So what's racist about that?

Of the approximately ten thousand problem cases, how many were white? How many --black or white --have been absorbed into other communities? Who exactly is still sitting there whining?

Meanwhile, on the largely white Mississippi coast, which took the full force of the hurricane and suffered hideous loss of lives and property, neighbors are helping neighbors clean up and rebuild. Few cries of racism emanate from MS because people are busy putting their lives together.


65 posted on 12/06/2005 7:57:43 PM PST by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: Popman
McKinney talks about racism like crack heads talk about crack

Excellent analogy! LOL

66 posted on 12/06/2005 8:02:31 PM PST by Veto! (Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
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To: billhilly

These hearings are good. They illustrate the futility of trying to restore and rehabilitate a hopeless situation.


67 posted on 12/06/2005 8:07:53 PM PST by ladyjane
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To: ladyjane

Please understand, the people you saw in that hearing today do not in ANY WAY represent the vast majority of people in New Orleans or Louisiana. I am embarrassed and insulted by them. No decent, thinking person claims them as their spokesperson.


68 posted on 12/06/2005 8:16:12 PM PST by WatchOutForSnakes
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To: WatchOutForSnakes

You have a valid point. They don't represent the vast majority of people from New Orleans. Unfortunately the media is playing up the plight of these NO refugees.


69 posted on 12/06/2005 8:21:31 PM PST by ladyjane
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To: Gordongekko909

This is my last try. I hate these pissing matches all the time. Neither you or I have seen all of the messages, although the media has, presumably. The following was from a WAFB TV report yesterday. That station is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, home of Louisiana government.


"The mayor and the governor called for the mandatory evacuation for Katrina less than 24 hours before the storm hit, and one haunting sentence in the plan seemed to be all but forgotten:

"Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation."

You can read the full story by doing a search of posts. I believe it was posted by LA Woman.


70 posted on 12/06/2005 8:28:04 PM PST by billhilly (John Murtha, ex Marine. Leading the charge of the Demoquits.)
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To: ladyjane
You are right, that is who they are showing and emphasizing but that helps make the point I've been trying to make on a lot of these threads. That being that a lot of people who aren't close to the area and only have second hand news or reports from the MSM are making judgements and pronouncements based on only part of the story, the part the mainstream media wants them to see. Therefore it isn't fair to judge all of N.O. or Louisiana by the partial reports.
71 posted on 12/06/2005 8:29:11 PM PST by WatchOutForSnakes
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To: quantim

Wrong, McKinny! Racism is something that you talk about all the time.

The black Mayor of New Orleans had the buses to evacuate all those stranded people. If racism played any part in his decision to not use the busses, it must have been because he insisted the buses be re-painted black, before using them.

Despite all the name calling and racial card playing horse sh*t the left keeps trying to spin into the equasion, the truth shines as bright as the sun-The screw ups were caused by the dumb ass, incompentent, democrat politicians of Louiseana, from the US Senate to the Governor, to the Mayor.


72 posted on 12/06/2005 8:29:18 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell (Okay, bring our troops home. But don't feign suprise when the terrorists tag along.)
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To: drc43
I am beginning to regret the contribution i made for their relief.

Me too, all of them.  Seems like these days a Katrina hurricane donation is somehow giving a pass for pathetic governing.

Just so it can happen again. It pains me to say that but I believe much will be learned but nothing will be done.

Liberals in the same bed with RINOs will accomplish nothing.

73 posted on 12/06/2005 8:41:24 PM PST by quantim (Detroit is the New Orleans of the north, settled by the French and ruined by liberals.)
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To: quantim

C-Span 2 starting another replay right now...


74 posted on 12/06/2005 9:04:10 PM PST by Libloather (If Hillary becomes president, what would her so-called *husband's private life include?)
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To: Libloather
YIKES!

Don't think they can glean enough collective IQ here to make a campaign commercial though.
75 posted on 12/06/2005 9:19:50 PM PST by quantim (Detroit is the New Orleans of the north, settled by the French and ruined by liberals.)
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To: IrishRainy

It is a well funded industry ... they just seem to keep on recycling the same people in different garb.


76 posted on 12/06/2005 10:51:43 PM PST by caryatid (Jolie Blonde, 'gardez donc, quoi t'as fait ...)
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To: Libloather

Because you pinged me to this, I turned this "hearing" on.

It was disgraceful. And that grown men and women sat there and let those horrible people lie and lie and lie, I am convinved this country has gone completely insane.


77 posted on 12/06/2005 11:03:57 PM PST by Howlin ("Victory is not a strategy. " ``Jack Murtha 11/18/05)
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To: WV Mountain Mama

I dont think a lot of N.O. is going to be rebuilt. Bush promised to rebuild the levees to the state they were in....but subsequent investigation has proven they were in very bad shape, with many failures.

The Federal Goverment will not built a levee system to counter another Category 4 hurricane.


78 posted on 12/06/2005 11:11:52 PM PST by BurbankKarl (NRA EPL)
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To: quantim
Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black."

The people that were left there were too stupid to contemplate the meaning of SELF-RELIANCE.

79 posted on 12/06/2005 11:19:08 PM PST by Windsong (FighterPilot)
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To: quantim

Top ten ploys for squeezing money out of America for fountains, casinos, ghost cops, payoffs and outright graft:

10. The Corps of Engineers built bad levees, so the Federal Government must give us money.

9. FEMA was slow rescuing us, so the government should give us money.

8. If you don't give us money, you're a racist.

7. If you don't give us money, you're heartless.

6. Give us money or the Mississippi River will have to close.

5. If you don't give us money, you won't be able to buy gasoline for less than five dollars per gallon anymore.

4. The National Weather Service told black people not to evacuate, so we deserve some money.

3. If you don't give us money, shrimp cocktail will cost $10,000.

2. Our kids can't go to school because the buses are all flooded. Send us money.

1. If we don't get some money, we'll start eating each other again.


80 posted on 12/07/2005 2:26:45 AM PST by jeffers
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