"Those People"



The irony gods ensured we'd have our plates full--the same week that saw plenty of good ol GOP boys (and a few GOP girls) try to take a firehose to the Voting Rights Act (hmmm...did I just stoop so low as to use--gasp--tactless rhetoric to make a political point? You're damned right I did, and they're lucky I chose "firehose" as my metaphor. I could just as easily used "vicious, snarling police dogs").

But, once again I've digressed--anyway, during this very same week Scout took note of the usual, sadly tried and true politics of hate the victim, blame the victim in regards to the flooding of New Orleans.

You know, this is pathetic on so many levels: first, you've got Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, an African-American, who's evidently decided his calling in life is to play the token for professional race-baiters. Perhaps he considers his compensation adequate for such churlishness, and I won't speculate on how comfortably he sleeps at night.

Second, the flood, and the slow-or-no pace of the recovery certainly affected--and is affecting--blacks/African-Americans, or whatever is your preferred term. Duh: New Orleans was (and might still be) a majority African-American city. But it's NOT solely African-American, and the flood did not solely affect African-Americans.

Aside: You know, similarly, in the general political equation, people tend to dismiss "Red States" as being entirely populated by tobacco-spitting, NASCAR-loving crackers. They aren't, and liberals/leftists/progressives might want to think twice before ceding so much territory to the wingnuts...

But, back to the point: third, anyone blaming [insert your favorite code word] for the slow-or-no pace of recovery has obviously NOT taken the time to observe the almost impossible-to-fathom extent of the destruction...destruction that affected people of all races who call the city home...destruction for which blame rests squarely on the shoulders of...the federal government, whether you like it or not. They built the levees, they were responsible for the levees, they had an implied, if not explicit, duty to maintain the levees.

And, since everyone seems to forget this, let's further point out that the levees, and the associated structures built by the federal government were not merely a "gift" to the city of New Orleans and its citizens: the structures were built to facilitate NATIONAL commerce, including trade in commodities like petroleum, which has been extracted at a prodigious pace to serve the needs of the NATION'S citizens (including Detroit cabdrivers, Tweety).

However, I'll cede one point: the PERCEIVED belief that New Orleans is "black" has almost certainly affected the quite a bit more than casual approach taken by Team Bush in developing some sort of genuine plan for recovery--which is what is needed (Scout used the term "Marshall Plan," and she's spot-on in doing so). And if you don't think this administration is cynical enough to write off an entire city because it's perceived as "minority/Democratic," well, then you haven't been paying attention to things like Iraq, where they STARTED A FREAKING WAR because they thought it'd make for a "winning political strategery."

Which is why I'm depressed, but not all that surprised, to see the wingnuts justify abandoning a major city by blaming (some of) the victims. It's a hell of a lot easier than actually doing something--and it frees up tanker-loads of money for dumping into Mesopotamia/Dick Cheney's portfolio.