Hurricane Katrina

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by Lindz928
I'm sorry to all of you who think so, but I just do not think that race has as much to do with this as you all think. Black or white, Americans are Americans and I do not think that the government is going to be less concerned about these people than if they were white.

I don't think race is intentionally part of it, but I think it has played and in playing a role in the disaster we've seen.

This is from today's New York Times, in a discussion of how all the planning and scenarios over the years failed to take into account dealing with much of New Orleans' population:

Brian Wolshon, an engineering professor at Louisiana State University who served as a consultant on the state's evacuation plan, said little attention was paid to moving out New Orleans's "low-mobility" population - the elderly, the infirm and the poor without cars or other means of fleeing the city, about 100,000 people.

At disaster planning meetings, he said, "the answer was often silence."

The plain reality is that these 100,000 people they're talking about are overwhelmingly black. I think that's a reflection on the socio-economic differences that still exist.

And while I agree that Americans are Americans, I can't discount the question -- might things be different if most of these people were white.

Originally posted by Lindz928
I don't think this is true at all. People and the government are TRYING. Yes, it is taking much longer than it should. But, the government has not done anything to tell them that they just don't care.

This may be more a matter of perception. Those of us with access to TV, radio, the internet know what the government has been saying -- including Bush's statement that the government's response so far has not been acceptable.

But the folks at the NOLA Convention Center have had no means of communication at all. (Even the police have had no means of communication.) All they know is that it's been days and no help has come. If I were in their pretty desperate shoes, I would take that to mean the government didn't care.