The Lynching of New Orleans

[katusha]

I'm sorry if I seem over the top, but this is what it feels like to me. The worst part of how I feel is that it is NOT the totality of failure and disdain from the administration that makes me feel this way, it is the response and attitudes from some of the citizens of this country towards their hurting brothers and sisters.

"They should have left when they were told, they deserve this if they didn't."

"They didn't leave because they were waiting for their welfare checks."

"They are just animals in the Superdome, why should we help them."

"We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans."

These are just some of the despicable things I've heard and read of late and frankly, it reminds me of the mindset of folks who used to turn out to watch a lynching in the bad old days, and when I say a lynching I am not referring to the mechanics of rope and tree, I am referring to what Ida B. Wells referred to as a form of social caste oppression used to remind blacks of their place in a racially stratified society.

These are not BLACK americans that have been devastated, they are simply AMERICANS who need our help, just as we would need their's if we had been devastated.

If someone tries to push that racist crap on you, please spit in their face. I say fuck being civil to the uncivilized BARBARIANS who think being black is justification for suffering and privation.

That includes you too Babs Bush!

[Skidmore]

1. Strange fruit still hangs from the trees...

[katusha]

2. horrifying!!

i had not thought of the dead still in trees in the wake of the hurricane. excuse me while i go cry some more. :cry:

[Blue_In_AK]

3. What they don't seem to get about people waiting

until the 1st to get their checks is that's when a lot of people get their PAYCHECKS, not just their welfare checks (and I mean no disrespect at all to welfare recipients). I lived a great part of my own life holding on until the 1st or 15th, and being very thankful for the beans and rice on the 31st and 14th. People at the top have no grasp at all of how the majority of Americans live.

[Justyce]

5. They don't care how we

live as long as they're raking in the dough. I truly don't think it's so much a black/white thing as it is a rich vs. poor & working people thing. I think all poor & working people need to come together more rather than further dividing us into poor white or poor black, etc.

[Skidmore]

6. Amen.

the poor and working class of this nation need to unite. What would happen if the rich were marginalized and we all stuck together and helped one another? What if no one wanted to wash some rich snoots toilet? What if you couldn't be paid enough?

[katusha]

7. double amen!

they should really take care when pissing off the poor and downtrodden, because when the poor get pissed enough to organize guillotines start to appear in the public squares.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Delete - dupe

[Tomee450]

8. I agree with you.

Some of the callers to C-span today were simply awful. The right wingers and the news media have done a lot to fan the flames of racism. Many people in this country seem to believe that black people are mostly on welfare, that they have never made decisions for themselves, that they have never held a job. I wonder how people could be so blind. Millions of blacks own their own homes. Thousands of black students attend college. African Americans hold many kinds of jobs and are not looking for handouts. There are thousands of black attorneys, thousands of teachers, nurses etc. yet for some people, blacks are mostly on the dole. I guess racism is blinding.

[theboss]

9. Then explain the unprecedented amount of money being raised?

I really don't think America is a racist country. I think we have racists in the country (and maybe in the administration, though I think they are mainly classists). But I wouldn't let a few threads on Free Republic cloud your vision.

[katusha]

10. I'm sorry, let me clarrify

as i said this was the view from some in this country, not all. i know there are still some racists in this country and they don't speak for all, but what surprised me was the number of folks i have heard this from. in this day and age i thought the number would be far less than what i have experienced this past two weeks. it has literally floored me to see that the core of those who hate(blacks, jews, gays, take your pick) is still sooo large in this country.