Katrina Response Mismanagement

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Thought this was a good piece -

Strawman. I don't think anyone here claimed anything about racism, or that the reponse was slow because of the racial makeup of New Orleans. So 3/4 of that article is kinda irrelevant to this discussion. Of course, if I were to respond to it, I'd point out that the criticism isn't that Bush is racist, it's that the response ended up racist by default, and that's a broader systemic issue that needs some serious examination by anyone.

As a side note, I heard an interview on NPR yesterday with an evacuee. This was a young black woman who had made it to Austin with her family. 22 people in all, they all made it out before the hurricane. In the interview, she mentioned that they were from the 9th Ward. She pointed out that the 9th Ward was an area with a large number of black homeowners (I think she said something like the largest percentage in the country or something like that). In otherwords, mainly educated, middle class African Americans. And then she said, "So the media portraying nothing but poor blacks being affected is just not true." Umm, try again. You got out. Your 21 relatives got out. All of you are healthy. You had a self described caravan of vehicles to get out and even had to leave some of your cars behind. You know where all your family is, and they are all healthy. You will be receiving insurance money for your homes and contents. You can afford the hotel you're staying at in Austin. You did not spend days in a squalid stadium. You did not spend days outside the convention center with people dying before your eyes.

How many of those people were from the 9th Ward?

It was poor black people that were left in the worst conditions. It was not a conscious result, but it was the result.