In Black and White


Oyster really hits the nail on the head with this post. Take a look.

As a sort of corollary, I was watching the History Channel show about Freedom Summer, which wasn't really all that long ago--42 years. Someone like James Chaney might just be reaching the age where he could possibly contemplate a comfortable retirement...if he hadn't been murdered. And Chaney wasn't alone in being murdered for daring to demand his political rights.

I sometimes wonder if the genuinely vicious efforts to destroy government by wingnuts like Grover Norquist isn't, at its core, a last ditch effort to ensure the political marginalization of, well, blacks. No longer able to exercise the under-the-white-sheet option for the most part, they've taken to rhetorical assault, although these same wingnuts have yet to meet a military program they won't throw money at by the container-ship load.

Given such circumstances, it's not at all surprising that the initial Team Bush response to Hurricane Katrina was to blame the victims. And the long term attitude towards especially New Orleans is to hope everyone just forgets about it--especially since they probably have the same attitude towards the New Orleans electorate as James Baker famously had towards Jewish voters back during "41's" rise to the top of the slag heap.

Well, if that's their attitude, I for one wish they'd at least be honest enough to admit it up front. Then we'll know what we're up against. And I wish like hell someone would call them on it, and hound them to no end until they gave us a straight answer.