"Black Culture" blamed for Katrina woes
See if you can get your head around this. I can't.
In my view, this is an unbelievable insult to the thousands upon thousands of displaced residents who have gotten jobs, found apartments, and are taking care of their families the best way they can on their own while worrying about their homes and whether they will ever be able to return. Not to mention the thousands of needy residents of the Gulf Coast, black and white, who are still waiting on promised relief nearly a year later.
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, the African American founder and president of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND) is not willing to blame the Bush administration. Instead, he faults what he calls the "black culture."White parishes and Mississippi residents are rebuilding on their own? Do tell.
"It's not President Bush's responsibility to make us get up and take care of ourselves. That was a political ploy in order to make blacks believe the Republican Party was against them and that they really don't care," Peterson said.
Peterson will moderate the July 26 conference at the Heritage Foundation.
Rev. Grant Storm, who is the Caucasian minister and president of Conservative Christians for Reform, echoed Peterson's view. "The mentality of 'government's going to bail me out. Where's the government?'" is "in the black culture," Storm said. "The mentality is instilled within their churches and in their homes -- of 'the government owes you, the government is your solution, and the government will come and help you.'
"When the government doesn't come and help them, frankly all they do is yap and complain," said Storm, instead of "saying 'Hey, I better go get a job, I better go on my own, I better go find an apartment, I better go take care of myself and my family.
"They are waiting for more FEMA money, they are waiting for more relief money and it ain't coming, or it's coming slow; meanwhile, the surrounding parishes -- the predominantly white parishes -- they are rebuilding on their own, and the same way in the Gulf of Mississippi," said Storm. "Orleans -- they still don't have their flooded cars off the streets."
In my view, this is an unbelievable insult to the thousands upon thousands of displaced residents who have gotten jobs, found apartments, and are taking care of their families the best way they can on their own while worrying about their homes and whether they will ever be able to return. Not to mention the thousands of needy residents of the Gulf Coast, black and white, who are still waiting on promised relief nearly a year later.
3 Comments:
I just sent this to CNSNews responding to the coments by Rev. Peterson:
'Black Culture' Blamed for Hurricane Katrina Woes
By Alison Espach
CNSNews.com Correspondent
July 13, 2006
Dear Alison,
Thanks for your reporting of the situation in New Orleans regarding the racial component of the Katrina in New Orleans story.
I have a few notes that might be on interest in future stories about Katrina :
The "white" parishes are not ALL doing well. St. Bernard and Plaquemines were washed away. Jefferson didn't flood like Orleans, so it is still somewhat functional. St. Tammany is booming because it is on higher ground and was relatively undamaged, except for Slidell, which was obliterated. Jefferson could easily have flooded like Orleans, but didn't. The levee on the Orleans side broke first. Luck.
"Black culture IS important to America. It is entangled in the roots of our beginnings as Americans and should be respected. But Black Culture and residents of housing project wanting to return to their failed apartments are not the same. Nor can you mix these things together in an attempt to "simply" or "clarify" positions of all blacks.
Blacks who say that the Bush Administration slow response was racially motivated are possibly correct. The most accurate response, however, would be that the Bush administration is largely incompetent and that our governments at all levels are incompetent. The slow response of the feds and the city of New Orleans was due to their inabilities to perform the jobs they had been elected to do. This has more to do with the poor choices that people have made in recent elections than racial profiling of disasters. And, of course, the poor candidates we have to choose from.
This story boils down to really one issue: the levees. Either we build them correctly or close the place down. Everything else is a smoke screen to sell a particular pet agenda. There are large consequences to be considered before doing both. But these issues should have been decided on long ago. After all, this is America, isn't it? At this time, "I don't know" is not a good answer to this question.
While I am sure you are reporting what was told to you by the people you interviewed, this story has no depth and only serves to radicalize and polarize. Katrina is a story of epic proportions. Unfortunately, our Fourth Estate is wrapped up in the entertainment business and the consumers don't want depth, either. And entertainment and spin serve no one but stockholders. A real prescription for real cultural disaster in America.
"Human spirit" is very important , but doesn't make up for poorly constructed/designed levees or the deeply flawed hydrology policies in SE Louisiana since 1927. Human spirit cannot make up for a lack of solid earth to hold the sea back or for the levees that prevent coastal restoration. For 75 years we have been dumping the top soil of 33 states off the Continental shelf, into oblivion. This could have been diverted into the Louisiana wetlands, the most productive in the US. But then, isn't that what we are doing with the Federal Treasury? Same policy. Bad policy.
Rev. Peterson is correct: Nagin is useless. But the citizens of New Orleans democratically elected him. He was perceived the most '"conservative" of the two. We will never know what might have been otherwise.
This is not a hard problem to solve. It requires money, commitment, leadership, responsible citizenry and government. Also good and valid information. Qualities one might thing civilized.
Where are these qualities?
And if we cannot practice sound engineering and environmental policy in America, how can we sell it to the world?
Follow the money.
Ten will get you twenty that this Peterson is a "rent-a-preacher," in other words, he gets grants from the Bush administration's "faith-based initiatives" program as long as he's willing to get up and say stupid shit like this.
Say what you will, people are suffering...
http://tinyurl.com/zt796
black, white, poor or middleclass...
& they're being ushered out...
http://tinyurl.com/gm92k
its a classic case of gentrification of prime land... as long as its above water...
http://thiscanadian.typepad.com/this_canadian/2006/04/global_warming_.html
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