"Racism" is the cause of the sluggish response to help New Orleans
IXSI Network Special report from New Orleans Sep 02 2005 by North American reporter
Katrina has exposed the ugly underbelly of the USA for the world to see. The unimaginable suffering of the Black population in New Orleans and elsewhere in the "Apartheid South" due to the hurricane is primarily due to the deeply ingrained racism that exists throughout America but especially in the "Old South" against the former "slaves". New Orleans is 70% Black and most earn less than one half what Whites do. The foot dragging to send in food, water and medicine to help the dying, mostly Blacks, trapped at the Astrodome is due to the deep animosity, now hidden, of Whites towards Blacks.
The examples of racism against New Orleans during their hour of need are many. The first is the fact that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other White run federal agencies knew of the impending catastrophe but chose to ignore it. There were already numerous reports that New Orleans was in imminent danger of a major catastrophe because the levy system that holds back the sea needed upgrading. Instead, federal funds designated to fix the dikes were cut. "Who cares about those poor african americans and drag queens in the Big Easy, let it sink into the sea!" is what the Black mayors of New Orleans heard consistently over the years. Another example is what is being heard on radio in the Los Angeles area. Bill Handel, and extremely hateful and obnoxious Jewish talk jock, said of the Blacks breaking into food stores, "The cops should just shoot those animals in the head". The same was heard from the anti-Mexican bigot Doug McIntyre on another LA based radio station.
There is no doubt that there could have been a more rapid and efficient response if there would have been the "will" to do so. No one cared, not Bush nor most other responsible government agents until the embarrbutting photographs of the horrific situation were being transmitted across the world. After much, of what only amounted to, "lip service" by government officials, George Bush put on a show today for the press giving the impression that he would fly to New Orleans to "save the day". "The cavalry is here to save New Orleans" he said. What a sham!
What happened to all the USA Chinook helicopters? What happened to the Louisiana National Guard? What happened to the US Army's ability to deploy emergency hospitals in a matter of hours? Perhaps they are busy reconstructing Iraq. What a shame! We wonder what Black soldiers in Iraq from Louisiana and Mississippi think when viewing the pictures of old Black women and Black children dead on the concrete inside and in the parking lot of the Astrodome. They died of hunger and thirst and because of the lack of essential medications. Supplies that were denied to the Black refugees simply because no one cared.
The same thing may happen to the large Mexican-American population in the southwest if a similar catastrophe should occur here. If a major earthquake or person attack should befall Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego or San Francisco, would the White run government emergency agencies do to us what they did to the Blacks in New Orleans? Would they choose to apply resources to save the predominate White areas and leave us to die? The time to plan and prepare is now!
