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August 31, 2005

What's Broke Stays Broke

Here's the scoop. Since we've all been watching the MSM for video images and photos and breaking news, we've all been subject to a deluge of cliches. And in America, what could be more cliche'd than age old racial stereotypes? In case you haven't felt the tug at the primative heartstrings, looters have made the video clips. The looters are black. Survivors have made the video clips. Surviors are white.

But here's a particularly poignant observation straight from the blogosphere:

Our biggest adventure today was raiding the Walgreens on Canal under police escort. The pharmacy was dark and full of water. We basically scooped the entire drug sets into garbage bags and removed them. All under police excort. The looters had to be held back at gunpoint. After a dose of prophylactic Cipro I hope to be fine.

In all we are faring well. We have set up a hospital in the the French Qarter bar in the hotel, and will start admitting patients today. Many will be from the hotel, but many will not. We are anticipating dealing with multiple medical problems, medications and and acute injuries. Infection and perhaps even cholera are anticipated major problems. Food and water shortages are imminent.

The biggest question to all of us is where is the National Guard. We hear jet fignters and helicopters, but no real armed presence, and hence the rampant looting. There is no Red Cross and no Salvation Army.

If somebody steals a crate of DVDs from WalMart in the wake of a hurricane, not only are they stupid but they are unambitious. If somebody steals a baker's rack of groceries, that's not stealing, that's forethought. If somebody steals a syringe of insulin, that's not stealing, that's self-reliance.

So the question arises, forgetting race for a moment, as to how one goes about getting a police escort for your particular needs during an emergency. Obviously, if you are a doctor, as the author appears to be, you might get lucky and convince a cop to help you fetch some drugs from the local Walgreens under armed guard. Everybody doesn't have it goin' on like that, and clearly the expectations of what heroics might be acceptable from the lower classes hasn't changed in this emergency. At least, that's what the pictures on Channel 4 suggest.

But let's not mince words. New Orleans is a black vs white town. I was there this spring and all over the news was how clubs in the Quarter were getting sued for racial profiling. In addition to that, there is the kind of black poverty in New Orleans that defies cvility. It's very easy to take a wrong turn off the avenue and wind up in the third world, and everybody knows it. I'm talking dirt streets and standing water in the middle of the summer. There is a not-insignificant portion of New Orleans that a lot of people are glad to see washed into oblivion. But the people who lived there are now souls to be saved. Not everybody is willing to be charitable. Considering that disaster tends to bring out the best in people, what we haven't seen is the daily ugliness of racial New Orleans.

I'm not one to whine or complain about the daily abuses of Class Three Racism that dogs blackfolks and others across our nation, but I am particularly attuned to what goes on when there are soldiers with automatic weapons in the streets. For shame!

People are talking:

  • Superdome of Shame
  • Looting or Survival
  • White Liberation
  • Racism & Looting
  • Only A Matter of Time

    Posted by mbowen at August 31, 2005 11:54 AM

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    Comments

    Check out Yahoo's discreet? racism on the latest post on NR.

    Posted by: negrorage at August 31, 2005 01:41 PM

    I just looked on the Corner and found nothing about Yahoo. Perhaps you refer to the faux racism of carrying two stories written by two different news agencies with similar abbreviations (AP vs. AFP)?

    Posted by: Xrlq at August 31, 2005 04:34 PM

    Dude, like white folks are going to drive into downtown NOLA just to steal things. We have trouble enough in the 'burbs. Seriously, in a situation like that you steal what you can get where you are. Besides around Tulane, the Garden District, and the Quarter, how many really white neighborhoods are there in the actual city limits of New Orleans? You get on the other side of Elysian Fields and you might as well be in the Sudan.

    Posted by: SGT Dan at August 31, 2005 06:38 PM

    I'm talking about the judgement of political decision to defend grocery stores with machine guns. I wouldn't put up with it in my neighborhood and neither would you. I know that New Orleans is racial like that and there's a reason you're not hearing similar stories elsewhere. But what is particularly galliing is that this aspect of the story is at or near the top of the news.

    Posted by: Cobb at August 31, 2005 09:45 PM