Blunderov
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"We think in generalities, we live in details"
  
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RE: virus: Katrina and racism.
« on: 2005-09-10 07:52:08 » |
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[Blunderov]Apparently not much has changed since 1960 when Lightnin' Hopkins
performed 'Lightnin's Stroke' with Sonny Terry on the album 'Last Night
Blues'. Maybe Condi knows the song?
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1035539/a/Last+Night+Blues.htm
'Lightnin's Stroke
Me and my wife went all over town
Everywhere we went people would turn us down.
Lord, in a bourgeois town,
It's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues,
Gonna spread the news all around.
Me and my wife was standing uptown
I heard a white man jive 'don't want no niggers uptown'.
Lord, he's a bourgeois man,
Ooh it's a bourgeois town,
It's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues,
Gonna spread the news all around.
Home of the brave, land of the free
Don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
in a bourgeois town.
It's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues,
Gonna spread the news all around.
Me and my wife went all over town
Everywhere we'd go colored people would turn us down.
Lord, in a bourgeois town,
It's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues,
Gonna spread the news all around.
The white folks in Washington they'd know how
To call a coloured man a nigger just to see him bow.
Lord, in a bourgeois town,
It's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues,
Gonna spread the news all around.
Tell all the coloured folks to listen to me
Don't try to find a home in Washington DC
'cause it's a bourgeois town.
It's a bourgeois town,
I've got the bourgeois blues,
Gonna spread the news all around.
[Bl.] 45 years later.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2125812/?nav=ais
<snip>
An Imperfect Storm
How race shaped Bush's response to Katrina.
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005, at 12:59 PM PT
With the exception of Secretary of State Condi Rice, nearly every black
person I've seen quoted in the press or on television-and most every white
liberal-believes that African-Americans suffered disproportionately from
government neglect in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Those being pulled
from waist-deep corpse water sometimes put the case much more bluntly.
But what is the evidence that race itself-as opposed to such determinants as
poverty, bad luck, geography, bureaucratic incompetence, and daunting
logistics-deepened the misery of African-Americans in New Orleans? In that
city, as in many others, blacks as a group were more prey to harm of many
sorts because of the historic legacy of slavery, segregation, and
discrimination. But those who, like me, think race was a factor in other
ways as well ought to be able to give some account of how racial bias made
the catastrophe worse.
At the heart of the matter is the racial pattern of American constituency
politics. I don't think Kanye West can support his view that George W. Bush
just doesn't care about black people. But it's a demonstrable matter of fact
that Bush doesn't care much about black votes. And that, in the end, may
amount to the same thing.
Blacks as a group have voted Democratic since the 1930s. The GOP has not
courted them in any real way since the 1960s, focusing instead on attracting
white constituencies hostile to civil rights and African-Americans in
general. Even many conservatives now accept blame for this ugly, recent
history. In July, Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National
Committee, apologized to the NAACP for those in his party he said had been
"looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial
polarization."
Yet the underlying racial dynamic of party politics hasn't changed at all
under Mehlman's boss. Though he appointed the first and the second
African-American secretaries of state, Bush seldom appears before black
audiences. Beyond his interest in education, he has little to say about
issues of social and urban policy. Bush has never articulated an approach,
other than faith-based platitudes and tax cuts, to bettering the lives of
African-Americans. And indeed, has not bettered them. The percentage of
blacks living in poverty, which diminished from 33 percent to less than 23
percent during the Clinton years, has been rising again under Bush. In 2000,
Bush got 8 percent of the black vote. In 2004, he got 11 percent. Because
African-Americans constitute only 12 percent of the population, it's
possible for Republicans to neglect them and still win elections. Indeed, as
Mehlman indicated, neglecting them has often helped Republicans win.
Because they don't see blacks as a current or potential constituency, Bush
and his fellow Republicans do not respond out of the instinct of
self-interest when dealing with their concerns. Helping low-income blacks is
a matter of charity to them, not necessity. The condescension in their
attitude intensifies when it comes to New Orleans, which is 67 percent black
and largely irrelevant to GOP political ambitions. Cities with large
African-American population that happen to be in important swing states may
command some of Karl Rove's respect as election time approaches. But
Louisiana is small (9 electoral votes) and not much of a swinger these days.
In 2004, Bush carried it by a 57-42 margin. If Bush and Rove didn't
experience the spontaneous political reflex to help New Orleans, it may be
because they don't think of New Orleans as a place that helps them.
Considered in this light, the actions and inactions now being picked apart
are readily explicable. The president drastically reduced budget requests
from the Army Corps of Engineers to strengthen the levees around New Orleans
because there was no effective pressure on him to agree. When the levees
broke on Tuesday, Aug. 30, no urge from the political gut overrode his
natural instinct to spend another day vacationing at his ranch. When Bush
finally got himself to the Gulf Coast three days later, he did his hugging
in Biloxi, Miss., which is 71 percent white, with a mayor, governor, and two
senators who are all Republicans. Bush's memorable comments were about
rebuilding Sen. Trent Lott's porch and about how he used to enjoy getting
hammered in New Orleans. Only when a firestorm of criticism and political
damage broke out over the federal government's callousness did Bush open his
eyes to black suffering.
Had the residents of New Orleans been white Republicans in a state that
mattered politically, instead of poor blacks in city that didn't, Bush's
response surely would have been different. Compare what happened when
hurricanes Charley and Frances hit Florida in 2004. Though the damage from
those storms was negligible in relation to Katrina's, the reaction from the
White House was instinctive, rapid, and generous to the point of profligacy.
Bush visited hurricane victims four times in six weeks and delivered relief
checks personally. Michael Brown of FEMA, now widely regarded as an
incompetent political hack, was so responsive that local officials praised
the agency's performance.
The kind of constituency politics that results in a big life-preserver for
whites in Florida and a tiny one for blacks in Louisiana may not be racist
by design or intent. But the inevitable result is clear racial
discrimination. It won't change when Republicans care more about blacks. It
will change when they have more reason to care. </snip>
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