Is it racism in New Orleans?
— Bruce Kesler
Ddemocracy Project
Saturday’s editorial in the Washington Post is saner than the hysteric extremism of Friday’s editorial in the New York Times. The Washington Post is not off base (pun intended, if one masochistically reads the New York Times’ editorial). The Washington Post goes in the correct direction, although not far enough. It faults inadequate attention to those least likely to evacuate, and recommends much more future focus on this problem. But, the Washington Post stops before critiquing the sheer incompetence of New Orleans’ Mayor and Louisiana’s Governor.
The New York Times editors believe the suffering in New Orleans is due to U.S. National Guard units being in Iraq. In last Friday’s post, I dealt with that left-extremist infection of the New York Times’ editorial board (linked below).
By contrast, the Washington Post’s editors conclude,
“But if blame is to be laid and lessons are to be drawn,
one point stands out as irrefutable: Emergency planners
must focus much more on the fate of that part of the
population that – for reasons of poverty, infirmity,
distrust of officialdom, lack of transportation or lack
of information – cannot be counted on to leave their
homes after an evacuation order.”
Some on the left or among Blacks charge that the lack of attention and speed in helping the mostly Black victims we’ve seen on TV is due to racism. I won’t link to them, as I refuse to give their racism further currency. I, also, disagree with some on the right who charge that the fault resides mostly in a welfare or entitlement mentality of those in the Black community or its Black and liberal leadership not making New Orleans a richer city. Again, I won’t link to them, as I refuse to give their ideologically extreme filter further currency.
Both camps miss the simpler explanation.
The fault, more simply, lays in both the limitations of any government to foresee and adequately prepare for all contingencies, compounded by the stubborn failure of the city and state leadership to more energetically prepare and their resistance to enthusiastically cooperate with federal authorities. Race and political affiliation has far less to do with either than sheer inadequacy and self-defensive CYA.
It was not a Rudy Guiliani moment.
As the Washington Post editorial points out,
“Tragically, authorities in New Orleans were aware of
this problem. Certainly the numbers were known.”
A University of New Orleans survey conducted last year of city residents’ evacuation plans found that 20% would stay at home, even during a major storm. (Neither I nor newspapers have been able to yet find the text of the study online.) There were plans made to educate these people and ease their evacuation. However, as the Washington Post editorial continues,
“Unfortunately, none of these plans was advanced enough
to have had much impact this week.” The editorial
continues that, “Instead the city decided to use the
Superdome as a ‘shelter of last resort.’ Following that
decision a major mistake was made: Not enough food, water
or portable toilets were made available…”
The Washington Post editorial does not point out that the city, also, failed to use its large fleet of school buses to evacuate residents in need, instead leaving the buses in their storage yard to be flooded.
The Washington Post editorial does not point out that last Sunday President Bush had to personally phone Governor Blanco to urge her to declare a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. It, also, does not point out that Governor Blanco refused to allow a federal takeover of the evacuation to consolidate command, or that Louisiana waited until last Wednesday to follow-up on a multi-state assistance compact, or that as of Saturday Governor Blanco had still not declared a state of emergency. Instead, on Saturday, Governor Blanco hired the former Clinton administration FEMA director to advise her and, aside from any common-sense James Lee Witt may bring her, she may find some insulation from her obstinacy to work jointly for the good of her state.
In Sunday’s Washington Post, editorial page deputy editor Colbert King’s column tells us the most important thing that Katrina “taught us...our ranks are filled with humanitarians.” King makes the common-sense observation that, regarding looters,
“It all goes to show what happens when some people get it
into their heads that they can take things that don’t
belong to them without getting caught.”
King does not reflect on the abdication of policing by New Orleans’ authorities.
King goes on to “state the obvious: The people caught
stealing on camera in that majority-black city weren’t
doing it because they were black… The looter on Canal
Street in New Orleans and the corporate looter on Wall
Street have a similar motive: greed. That is their
taproot. And greed is no respecter of pigmentation,
income, status or social class.”
I worked in a retail store in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant during two riots in the 1960’s. The shopkeepers were mostly aging Caucasians, from the time when the neighborhood had not become mostly Black and Puerto Rican. The local church members escorted us in and out of the area, and tried to guard the stores at night, knowing that local services were essential to an ongoing community and its residents. The slugs of society inevitably sink into any poor neighborhood, victimizing its 90% hard-working, honest people. It is not fair, it is ignorant racism, to blame the looting in Bedford Stuyvesant, Harlem, L.A., or New Orleans on being Black. Poor White areas have similar problems and behaviors. Indeed, so do richer White areas. I served in senior management in large and smaller corporations. I can attest there are some that take advantage to commit corruption, and they aren’t racial minorities. I’ve seen the teens of affluent parents shoplift, for never having enough and the thrill. And some of their parents changing price tags on merchandise in stores, to save a few dollars, as they drive off in their Beemers. They are all greedy, amoral crooks.
If we want to focus on teaching better morality to more, we should, and better policing to our politicians, we should. But, it is entirely wrong to focus on race, either to excuse behavior, to exploit for political charges against adversaries, or to blame for immoral or criminal behavior.
UPDATE: As usual, I doff my hat to the "Captain", Ed Morrissey, whose blog is one of the first I read each morning. We must have been posting at about the same time on this same subject of "race" as a factor in the New Orleans catastrophe being more a matter of exploiting the "race card".
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