On CNN's gimmick-ridden "The Situation Room" (1 September 2005) the "Cafferty File" raised the role of Race & Class that most of the MSM is afraid to touch and which most white Americans are in denial about.
Jack Cafferty, CNN's "in-house cumudgeon" (according to Wikipedia) posed the question "What Role does Race & Class play in the Gulf Coast crisis?" As is his wont, he read out a stream of emails from woolly-minded liberals. The predictable line was that if New Orleans had been predominantly "rich whites" then more would have been done for the victims of Katrina. Other emails claimed that the media coverage showed the rest of the world how badly America treats blacks. The one token dissenting email, which somehow slipped through, asked the question "What role did race play in the looting?"
Time for a Reality Check:
(1) According to the US Census 2000, New Orleans is 28.5 % White and 67.25% Black. The Mayor, many members of the City Council, and the leadership of the N.O. City Police Department are black. If the black leadership of New Orleans did not take a key role in preparing the city for this disaster, no one can blame "whitey" for this.
(2) Again, the Census points to the widespread poverty in New Orleans, with 40% of those under the age of 19 living under the Poverty Line. It is much harder to get a breakdown on stats for those under the poverty line by race/ethnicity. But we can see from a WaPo article in 2004, that national increases of white poverty are driven by the South:
As expected, the number of people without health insurance grew last year, to 45 million -- an increase to 15.6 percent from 15.2 percent. White adults, primarily in the South, accounted for most of the increase.
It is quite concerning to consider the plight of the white underclass in New Orleans which is now an unprotected minority in the midst of a zone of anarchy. In keeping with our Progressive-Conservative editorial line, we are disturbed by the indifference of white liberals to the growing white underclass.
(3) The shocking stories coming out of the Gulf Coast of black mobs looting, grabbing firearms from Walmart, fighting amongst themselves, attempting to hijack the vehicles of white evacuees, and even firing shots on ambulance and hospital personnel all point to the much higher level of criminality in American blacks. The pictures and footage shown in media are indeed worth a thousand words: they are saying what the MSM dare not say. Namely, that many of these crimes committed by blacks have the elements of hate crimes. We can see how "diversity" would descend into "tribal warfare" when the rule of law is removed.
To answer Jack Cafferty's question with another question: What role is Race playing in the outbreak of lawlessness in New Orleans?
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