Tell me it's not about race

Seriously?

At one point Friday, the evacuation was interrupted briefly when school buses pulled up so some 700 guests and employees from the Hyatt Hotel could move to the head of the evacuation line — much to the amazement of those who had been crammed in the Superdome since last Sunday.

"How does this work? They (are) clean, they are dry, they get out ahead of us?" exclaimed Howard Blue, 22, who tried to get in their line. The National Guard blocked him as other guardsmen helped the well-dressed guests with their luggage.

The white people who weren't too poor to get a hotel room get to move to the head of the evacuation line.

Comments

[sam]

The Bush Administration is doing wonders for my borderline high blood pressure. If some dumbass can sue McDonalds for hot coffee, what do you think I can get from BushCo after my heart attack?

[Ty]

To be perfectly honest, I don't think it's about race. I think it's about socioeconomic level.

It was also their socioeconomic level that got many of those people stuck in New Orleans. Living as the working poor, they had no resources to extract themselves, and they were stuck waiting for government help to do it...as they have for much of their lives--because we have allowed them to.

[Dylan]

I agree with you that the social and economic factors played a part in this too, but I have a feeling that the black people around the country who have watched television for the last week and predominantly faces that look like theres won't agree with you that race didn't have anything to do with it.

[Ty]

I am sure you are right, they won't, but I can't believe that the reason they were left was actually because of race. I just can't. The mayor is black and we have been blaming him for not getting those people out a lot lately. I can't imagine it was racial. I can imagine that people just didn't try hard enough to get the poor people out. Why weren't the school buses mobilized? I think it was a money thing. They didn't think it would be that bad, and they figured the poor people could get to the Superdome and ride it out, like they always have. Why spend the money to get them out? I really hope this doesn't turn into a race thing. It should turn into, a "why the hell is 30% of New Orleans under the poverty line without any resources in the first place" thing.

[Dylan]

We actually agree, Ty, I'm just emphasizing one part of it. I'm not saying that there is intentional racism... that a conspiracy existed to "let the niggers die" before we actually went in and helped.

And I agree, the question, "Why is 30% of New Orleans under the poverty line?" is an important question. The next question is, "Why are almost all of them black?" Racism exists, and the racial, social, and economic injustices in our country, we found out this week, have real consequences. And entire block of people - all poor and almost all black - just suffered a fate worse than virtually any other Americans ever have. It is important to point out that this happened, almost exclusively, to black people.