First lady says that racism slowed aid “disgusting,” but let’s look at the record
By Noble Johns
MOBILE, Alabama (BNW) – Some people in this country are taking great offense at the notion that race played apart in the slow response to the plight of Blacks trapped in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (AKA, Rice Pudding) last week toured areas of her home state hit by the storm, and disputed claims her government had been slow to respond because most of the victims were Black.
First lady Laura Bush last week denounced critics who say race played a role in the federal government's slow response to victims of Hurricane Katrina, calling the accusations "disgusting."
While there are cries of foul coming from most whites in this country about racism, let’s set the record straight by checking out the record of the people involved. In other words, let’s do a background check on America to see if it gives us any indication of guilt or innocence.
After all, this is taking a page from their playbook because whites in America are always doing background checks on Niggers in this country they don’t trust! So, let’s look at their record, damn, they got a rap sheet that goes back for four hundred years.
First of all, they (whites in this country) were kicked out of Europe during the 17th century as the scum of the old world. King George of England and the other kings considered the American colonies the trash, scum of Europe and kicked them out. They were the murders of Europe; they were the rapists of Europe, the sick minded, the crazies — all the scum of Europe that the kings kicked out ended up in America!
As a result, when they got to the new world, it was not a problem for whites in this country to commit genocide against the Native Americans, make slaves out of kidnapped Africans, interned the Japanese, and in general, commit any crime against humanity to preserve this country.
So, when you look at their past and background, it not a big leap to suggest that the American government would let a bunch of swamp Niggers drown in Lake Ponchartrain.
Rice Pudding is the most senior Black member of Stupid Bush's Cabinet, and she said she did not believe race had anything to do with how quickly the government reacted to Katrina, which killed thousands and displaced millions along the Gulf coast.
"I don't believe for a minute anybody allowed people to suffer because they are African-Americans. I just don't believe it for a minute," said Rice, while visiting a hurricane relief center outside of Mobile, Alabama.
"I see people across the spectrum -- Asians and blacks and whites and Latinos -- helping each other. What you are seeing is Americans are helping Americans," said Rice, who was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and often speaks about experiencing segregation firsthand while growing up in America's South.
Black leaders in the United States have accused the Bush administration of reacting too slowly to help people in New Orleans and in other Gulf areas where most of the victims were poor and black rather than rich and white.
Congressional black leaders pleaded with Bush and federal disaster relief officials to speed aid and said they were stunned by the failure to feed and shelter displaced people after the storm ripped through the region a week ago.
While defensive about race allegations after Katrina, Rice conceded the response could have been better.
"People couldn't evacuate who were poor, people couldn't evacuate who were elderly, people couldn't evacuate who were sick. We have to understand better so this doesn't happen again," she said.
En route to her home state, Rice personally defended the president. "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race."
Rice has spoken to members of the Congressional Black Caucus in recent days to reassure them the government was doing everything it could to help hurricane victims.
On Sunday, she attended a church service in Whistler, Alabama, and prayed alongside the congregation for victims of the hurricane.
Asked to say a few words from the pulpit, Rice, a preacher's daughter, said: "The Lord Jesus Christ is going to come on time." She added: "If we just wait."
Rice visited relief centers where she packed boxes and loaded cars with food and water. She also toured a gymnasium where survivors were camped out with everything they owned.
Afterward, she drove through the bayou where shrimp boats were piled on each other and homes and stores were gutted.
However, she noted that poor people were most vulnerable to the devastation and said that the disaster's aftermath is a "wake-up call" for the nation to address the issue.
Black people comprise about two-thirds of the population of New Orleans, and many lived below the poverty line.
On Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said Americans have to face the "ugly truth" that race and class played a significant role in who lived and who died when Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast.
Dean also said that "lots of people perished" because the Bush administration lacked "vision" in handling the disaster.
Several Black leaders and groups have expressed outrage over rescue efforts. Among them was the Rev. Al Sharpton, who said last weekend that race played a role, and called Bush's response to the crisis "inexcusable."
Last week, rapper Kanye West condemned the Bush administration on a live telethon to benefit Katrina victims, contending: "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
"I think all of those remarks were disgusting, to be perfectly frank because, of course, President Bush cares about everyone in our country, and I know that," Laura Bush told a journalist with American Urban Radio Networks on one of her flights to survey damage in Mississippi.
"I mean I am the person who lives with him. I know what he is like, and I know what he thinks, and I know how he cares about people."
The first lady also said: "I do think -- and we all saw this -- was that poor people were more vulnerable. They live in poor neighborhoods; their neighborhoods were the ones that were more likely to flood, as we saw in New Orleans.
"Their housing was more vulnerable, and that's what we saw and that's what we want to address in our country."
Rapper controversial for anti-Bush comment
In his first public appearance since verbally lashing President Bush, rapper Kanye West said he would stick to entertainment at this week's NFL opening kickoff concert.
"I don't want to detract from the show at all, because it's entertainment, and a lot of times, in a time of need, we need entertainment to lift people's spirits," West said Tuesday at a news conference to promote Thursday's free concert at the Los Angeles Coliseum.
On Friday, during an NBC telethon for Hurricane Katrina survivors, West said that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."
Departing from his script, he added that America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible." His statement about Bush was cut from NBC's West Coast airing.
On Tuesday, the Grammy-winning rapper did not elaborate on his comments at the "Concert for Hurricane Relief." Looking glum, West sidestepped questions about the remarks, noting that the week's events have been "a lot of pressure for one human being."
The Rev. Al Sharpton, however, defended West's comments on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," saying NBC shouldn't have edited out his statement about Bush.
"If he got on there calling women names, they wouldn't have censored him. If he got on there saying something derogatory, they wouldn't have censored him," Sharpton said.
"For him to stand up for his own people, they censor. I think they should let Kanye say what needs to be said and let the president defend it if he wants to."
Maroon 5’s Adam Levine, Good Charlotte’s Benji and Joel Madden, and NFL alumni players Willie Davis, Eric Dickerson and Jack Youngblood joined West at Tuesday’s brief news conference. Good Charlotte, Maroon 5 and singer Rihanna will also perform with West at Thursday's concert.
West left quickly afterward, eluding reporters. But Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden said he supported West's right to express himself.
"The great thing about our country is we all get to say what we feel and believe. Whether you agree with him, or whether I agree with him or not, he has the right to say what he thinks," Madden said.
"I think Kanye is very passionate about the tragedy down there. ... He's just trying to get other people as fired up as he is."
One of the nation's largest black organizations yesterday criticized the government's handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Leaders of the National Baptist Convention U.S.-A also urged its members to prepare to make the black community's needs heard before next year's Congressional election.
The convention was founded in 1896 and has a membership of about seven-point-five (m) million.
The hurricane became the focus of a rally yesterday by the Reverend Wendell Griffen -- the convention's parliamentarian -- and other convention officials.
They urged members on the last day of the organization's annual conference to remember the government's handling of the hurricane disaster during next year's Congressional elections.