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.
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.
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.
That's funny, because I recall evacuating three days before Katrina hit.
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.
Excellent analogy! LOL
These hearings are good. They illustrate the futility of trying to restore and rehabilitate a hopeless situation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
C-Span 2 starting another replay right now...
It is a well funded industry ... they just seem to keep on recycling the same people in different garb.
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.
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.
The people that were left there were too stupid to contemplate the meaning of SELF-RELIANCE.
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.
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