This is racist, I change my mind

[Sgent]

I've lived in NOLA, and although I didn't express it too openly here, I felt most of the disaster of Katrina was related to the persons income and not their race. I didn't (subconsiously I guess) want to take it one step further and want to see how the institutionalized poverty was developed in the first place.

I know it was dumb, but this post on another message board finally woke me up. My dad and grandparents lived in a predominantly white area of the town. I took a look on one of the HOA websites which is located near their residence, to get more info about the probable damamge. I saw this post, and I saw not a single person calling them out. I'm sickened, but it opened my eyes.


September 15th 2005
09:27:29 PM
What is your name?

Gary Waters

What street do you live on in Lake Vista?

Robert E Lee Blvd

Please post your comments here!

I liked most of what George Bush said tonight. He is a great leader especially compared to Governor "Boo Hoo" Blanco.

However, he said something that struck fear into my ex-LVPOA President’s heart. And I quote:


“To help lower-income citizens in the hurricane region build new and better lives, I also propose that Congress pass an Urban Homesteading Act. Under this approach, we will identify property in the region owned by the federal government, and provide building sites to low-income citizens free of charge, through a lottery. In return, they would pledge to build on the lot, with either a mortgage or help from a charitable organization like Habitat for Humanity. Homeownership is one of the great strengths of any community, and it must be a central part of our vision for the revival of this region. “

That “property in the region owned by the federal government” includes the USDA Southern Research Institute” located on the southern perimeter of Lake Vista. Please let our representatives know that this site is off-limits.

I do not have a problem with the premise of The Presidents vision but I do have a problem with the execution of this goal.

[demnan]

1. These folks got nothing to worry about

Bush was just giving empty promises. When it comes time to fund these initiatives, there won't be any money.

[ladylibertee]

2. BUT I SEE HER POINT..CAN YOU SAY.... SLAVERY ?

I'LL KICK SOMEBODY'S ASS.DON'T MAKE ME GET UP NOW :kick: :kick: :kick: LOL JUST KIDDING...ABOUT KICKING ASS THAT IS.:grouphug:

[liberal N proud]

3. 40 Acres and a Mule

[izzie]

4. I see this as class also. With some poor. Look who lost what in Miss.

From rich to poor it is people who live on the ocean and low lands in NO. I am sure just as many whites lost homes as blacks. It is the problem that the feds did not get into NO and take those people who do not have a way to leave in cars, out. If you live in a city I believe you are smart to depend on public trans. That the income is less in the South is a known fact but it seems people want it that way. They push for no unions,Plus education is just bad.

[raccoon]

8. Yes, I've lived in the South all my life and so many people

who could really be helped by unions are AGAINST them.

Must be the same people who are voting for Bush these days. :-)

[in_cog_ni_to]

5. Racism in America has been exposed TO THE WORLD. They can't hide it

any longer. It's ALWAYS existed, but ALWAYS hidden unless you're AA who's lived it. If Katrina had hit The Hamptons, Kennebunkeport or Cape Cod, FEMA would have responded in minutes, not days.

I won't tell you what my cousin, who lives in Baton Rouge and works for HALLIBURTON in NOLA, said about African Americans a few months ago. It was disgusting and his dad, my uncle, said the same thing. VILE, vile people. :grr: and they're WHITE. Racism is alive and well in the good old USA.

[Sgent]

6. I think that's the fallacy

I don't think that FEMA's response would have been any better if hit say SF than NOLA. Even though as a whole SF is much better off.

The difference is that if a hurricane were to hit SF, the average person would have a much better chance of evacuating.

I agree that the immediate cause is poverty. The question is, why is the AA poverty level so much higher?

[Karenina]

7. I think you're still in denial

Resources were DELIBERATELY STYMIED. Whites were assisted in escaping. Blacks and "collateral damage" whites were PREVENTED from escaping.

[tx_dem41]

14. So you blame Mayor Nagin? n/t

[crispini]

16. No, it wasn't the mayor

it was the Gretna sherriffs who stood on the bridge and blocked the New Orleans people from walking out of their desolate city because they "didn't want another Superdome in Gretna."

[tx_dem41]

17. Having lived next door to Gretna for about 17 yrs, I have to admit..

that I wasn't surprised by their behavior. Gretna police have that sorry reputation.

[EST]

10. FEMA's response to the hurricane rotating just off the east coast

was certainly by the book and they had personnel in there ahead of, during and after the track of the hurricane passed through each area. One could conclude that they've learned or that the area was of greater value or the people were. Obviously they are capable--but just when and where?

[Bluerthanblue]

15. the answer to your question is so simple

and so obvious, I'm almost convinced you ask it in jest.
PREJUDICE.
Plain and simple. A 'white' persons 'class' is not something that is always immediately obvious. An African American's IS. Same reason that women make less money than men in the very same job. Same reason that any ethnic minority has a higher rate of poverty than any white male.

And if the hurricane had hit ANYWHERE in the US with a population that was predominately white, regardless of the class, I do NOT for one single second believe that the suffering would have ever been allowed to continue for as long as it has, nor would the survivors have been treated with such abysmally inept coordination of relief services, herded like cattle into sports arenas and left waiting all day in lines for aid that doesn't come-

Racism is very much still alive and well in this nation, and we just had our panties pulled down for all the world to see.-

Now, we'll get a Chief Justice on the Supreme Court who sees no need for any Affirmative Action.- that'll help alot- NOT.

[me b zola]

21. Here is a thread with new info coming to light

The NG was there in the Convention Center, AND THEY WITHDREW!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4793840


This is a must read.

[SoCalDem]

9. Racism is a festering boil..The bandages were just ripped off

in the hurricane..:(

[SmokingJacket]

13. Racism has been rising to the surface for a few years now.

It's always been around, of course, but there used to be a sense of shame about it (well, in some places it's always been out in the open). Lately, I've noticed my white, middle-class family members spouting the most HATEFUL trash -- stuff they might have thought before but never said.

The Bush administration and its lackeys and water carriers (Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage, Malkin) have made racism socially acceptable again!

[DFWdem]

11. Typical NIMBY

Not In My Back Yard

[confludemocrat]

12. The USDA Southern Regional Research Institute is destroyed, move it

to another location, easily done now that there is nothing salvageable there now. This person may not want to see this land, in the middle of white segregated upper income neighborhoods, encroached on by those who lived in poorer parts of the area, meaning blacks.

[justjones]

18. I'm sorry, but I've had it with people in denial....

about race being an issue in THIS case and in THIS society and even the world today.

Even when it is blatantly obvious, as in the case of Hurricaine Katrina and the poor relief efforts that followed, when there are other white people testifying, even in this thread, that their white counterparts are openly espousing racist views in the wake of NOLA, at this point I don't know what needs to happen to wake people up the reality of race in this world.

I'm quite frustrated and quite angry....especially given that people have died, but my anger precedes NOLA with the fact that black people, since the inception of the United States, have for the most part been relegated to the lower eschelons of society and therefore vulnerable to the neglect we all witnessed in NO. Everyone wants to talk about the "class" issue, but who is to say that race and class are mutually exclusive, but work hand in hand.

I don't know what the solution to this is. Perhaps mandatory melanin injections for white folks so they can experience the world in a, er, different light.....

[Sgent]

19. Lets see

in dollar terms of homes, the most destroyed area of Katrina will be the white areas of NOLA and Jefferson Parish. This is because the 17th St. Canal wasn't filled quickly.

There are still white places of Mississippi and Louisiana where NO ONE had been as of three days ago.

I will believe that this was criminal conduct by our administration.

I was trying to point out above (but apparently did not) that I believe the deaths in NOLA were due to racism -- the racism that has been endemic and caused blacks to have twice or more the poverty rates of whites.

I believe there are racists in towns -- including ones in position of authority (see Gretna).

I am open to the idea that the slow response in NOLA, esp. no food and water, might be caused by racism. But I don't see it as neccissarily the case. Thousands of white people in NOLA and elsewhere suffered much the same issues and same slow response.

[Karenina]

20. Check it out Sgent...

Poor whites were "collateral damage." *Elite Classism. The Katrina "Exercise" as your Vice-president called it, is about creating untenable situations and testing tolerance. The low bar is ALWAYS the racist divide.