Cobb

He won't join Bill Bennett because he apologized. Bill Bennett just got more indignant. Ray put his foot in his mouth but I think we know that he was just assuring displaced black folks that they wouldn't be forever barred from the city and replaced by rich white folks (though he may have been providing false hope). Class/money will definitely play a big role in who gets to return and I think everyone knows that.

It irks me when politicians say "It's the way God wants it to be."

I think he is a classic racist. He may be able to have great relationships with all types of people, etc etc; but when it gets down to it, he is making decisions based on skin color.

He thinks NO belongs to people of one skin color more than other people. He is advocating that. He does not view all people as the same. What else could he be called? By this logic should black people be prohibited from moving to traditionally white cities, because God also wants that?

Now this "delicious drink" excuse. When was this thought up? Its worse than a man trying to explain away getting caught with another woman. A complete zero on the believability factor.

I can't know if Nagin is a racist unless he takes my test (over at the left column). I don't think he's a bigot.

Cobb, suppose that you lived in a majority-white city that underwent some kind of devastation.

Everybody had to move out. Then it happened that it was disproportionately the black population that moved back in first, braving the inconveniences and starting to rebuild.

Then suppose that the white mayor spoke to the white residents who had moved back and promised them that your city would be vanilla again.

Would you not find that somewhat off-putting?

Simple reversals don't work. Nagin is marketing. When it comes to politics, blacks have as much of a right to expect a different approach as men and women do.

The strongest case to be made for Nagin being a racist is his affinity for Louis Farrakhan.

1. Nagin, City Councilman Oliver Thomas, and Police Chief Eddie Compass met with Farrakhan in 2002 to discuss black-on-black crime. The meeting was Farrakhan's idea, but to agree to meet with the leader of the NOI who considers white people "devils" is beyond the pale. (pun intended)

2. This past summer, Compass wanted to bring Dennis Muhammed, Farrakhan's security chief in to give sensitivity training to the NOPD. It boggles the mind that this idea was even considered, and was only shot down after a huge public outcry. Can you imagine them bringing in David Duke's security guy? To not fire the police chief for this sends the wrong signal in my book.

3. Withing two weeks of Katrina hitting, Nagin spent four days in Dallas setting his family up in their new home and having meetings. One of those meetings was a private one with Farrakhan. To meet with Farrakhan under any conditions is reprehensible, but to do so after the huge summer controversy and so soon after the storm when there was a tremendous amount of work to do in restoring the destroyed city he was mayor of, is insane. Supposedly, Nagin told Farrakhan at the meeting that there was a 25 foot crater at one of the levee breaches which Farrakhan then extrapolated to mean that this was intentional and started to push the whole "levees blown up" bs which was seized upon Ninth Warders who then started all sorts of rabble rousing.

So, you add his "chocolate city" commments to other comments in front of the Dome a few weeks ago about "our" city where he meant "black" by "our" (it wasn't as blatant as the "choc city" speech"), and his comments about not letting the city get overrun by Mexicans to his affinity for Farrakhan, leader of a vile hate group which despises whites, Jews, Christians, gays, and practically damn near everyone, and you're left with the inescapable conclusion that a white politician would have been lynched by now for any one of FIVE OR SIX things RayRay has said or done.
And, I haven't heard any national or local stories on this reference that DA Eddie Jordan, upon getting hired, fired almost all of the white people at the DA's office, an action which resulted in a lawsuit he lost.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050331-010649-6205r.htm

Black America has some serious problems with racism (Farrakhan just got BET's Person of the Year)that, left unchecked, are going to result in some serious race riots in the not too-distant future.

If Nagin offends, there's a simple solution to that, him being an elected official. But none of this, obviously other than the lawsuit, rises to anything more than offensive speech. Call it racism if you like, but it's Third Class racism. Even folks in California know that the NOPD is weak and Eddie Compass was fired months ago.

You show me a videotape of Nagin's black police officers beating a white person senseless and we'll talk. Where's the crime here? It's just talk.

"Nagin is marketing. When it comes to politics, blacks have as much of a right to expect a different approach as men and women do."

White people have the right to certain expectations too, though. Especially from not just Joe Blow on the street, but from their mayor. We've got a shoot-off-at-the-mouth black mayor in Memphis, too, so I know what I'm talking about. What's truly irritating is all this rhetoric that we white folks are expected to ignore, and then we have to listen to complaints about how the city is racially polarized. No kidding.

"If Nagin offends, there's a simple solution to that, him being an elected official."
Soon as they get around to scheduling the election, that'll be taken care of. Remember, Nagin was elected because 90% of the whites voted for him. I used to use the word "godsend" to describe him.

"But none of this, obviously other than the lawsuit, rises to anything more than offensive speech."
Meeting with Louis Farrakhan is merely "offensive"?? The man who heads the group which believes whites are "devils" created by a mad black scientist is merely an "offensive" person. Not an embodiment of hatred in the mold of David Duke, Stalin, Hitler??

"Call it racism if you like, but it's Third Class racism. Even folks in California know that the NOPD is weak and Eddie Compass was fired months ago."
Compass wasn't fired for trying to have the NOPD get sensitivity training from the friggin' Nation of Islam. If a politician consulted with David Duke, I doubt you'd consider it "third class racism."

"You show me a videotape of Nagin's black police officers beating a white person senseless and we'll talk. Where's the crime here? It's just talk."
You want to talk crime? Are you implying that in New Orleans it's mostly blacks being preyed upon by racist whites? It wasn't whites who put a gun to my head last year, or fired shots half a block away from me at Mardi Gras the year before, have assaulted me twice, broken into my car and home numerous times, spit on friends, etc. Things are different in Cali, obviously.
As for the black guy who got beaten up on Bourbon Street. It was obviously wrong, but you have to remember what the NOPD had been through the previous weeks dealing with rampant lawlessness. I don't know what happened with the old guy, but I would suspect that he mouthed off when told not to do something and the cops went off on him. Unacceptable? Of course. Predictable after the previous few weeks if they get 'tude? Yup. I would have just moved on and cursed the cops to myself. Like I said, I don't know what happened, but that's what I see as the most likely scenario.

David Duke hasn't done anything to get him in trouble with the law. He's not half as dangerous as Matt Hale and the Church of the Creator. Matt Hale is serving a 40 year prison sentence. End of story. He was a criminal. Whatever you say about Farrakhan or Nagin or David Duke, they're not criminals. Well, Duke was convicted of tax evasion and mail fraud. But you can't put them in the same paragraph as Hitler or Stalin. Jeez man, show some perspective. Hitler and Stalin murdered millions.

It might be somewhat a somewhat hyperbolic comparison by me, but Hitlers and Stalins only get to the level of murdering millions because their potential and propensity to do so was not recognized, challenged, and stopped early enough. That means calling out the would-be murderers of millions before they ever get anywhere near that stage. That's why it's important to not dismiss Farrakhan, or a politician who would meet with him, as only "offensive."

I had heard the name Matt Hale, but had to google him to find out more. I'm not nearly as concerned about him, with his thousands of supporters and no government support, as Farrakhan who has millions of supporters and is hosted by mayors, senators, and representatives. Perspective, indeed.

Well I think you should relax. Even I know people in the FBI who watch Farrakhan. We went through all this panic and paranoia when Public Enemy made it big and again when Spike Lee filmed 'X'. There are fewer than 3 million muslims in the US and the overwhelming majority of them are Sunni. We have other things to worry about. At least I do.

All of this use of the word "criminal" as if it's worse to have beaten up someone than to have poisoned MILLIONS of minds with the most base hatred possible, opening up unknowable thousands of minds and hands to violence that might not have embraced them if not for the ugly song of the devil singer (who wasn't a convicted "criminal" per se).

"Well I think you should relax. Even I know people in the FBI who watch Farrakhan."
I'm sure that the FBI is watching Farrakhan, but that doesn't mean that he isn't poisoning countless minds to despise whites, Jews, Christians, and homosexuals. And, frankly it's patronizing of you to tell someone to "relax" just because they recognize the potential for trouble when you combine A)his preaching of hate with B)his huge following. Not for nuthin' was he elected Person of the Year by BET.

"There are fewer than 3 million muslims in the US and the overwhelming majority of them are Sunni. We have other things to worry about. At least I do."
I don't know the exact number of Muslims in the US, but the fact that the majority (I've seen the number 75% before) of mosques are funded by the Wahabbi Saudis and the fact that the Nation of Islam proseletizes amongst prisoners (remember Beltway Sniper) are things to "worry about" as I see it. If you're not worried about this, you should be.

I worry less about the NOI than I worry about dogs.