Race, Katrina, and the Media

Let’s look at the racists in America. Let’s name names. Because, thanks to Katrina, the issue of racism has again become headline news.

We’re going to identify people who created and broadcast racist stereotypes and then we are going to have a conversation about racism. One that is two-way and real, not one in which your anointed “black leader” accuses “whitey” of racism and “whitey” whimpers.

Let’s start with Ray Nagin (B), mayor of New Orleans, who as much as anyone promoted racist stereotypes about the behavior of his fellow citizens in the Superdome. Here’s the LA Times:

Indeed, Mayor C. Ray Nagin told a national television audience on "Oprah" three weeks ago of people "in that frickin' superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people."

Certified Liberal Alan Colmes (W) (in the same LA Times article):

Fox News, a day before the major evacuation of the Superdome began, issued an "alert" as talk show host Alan Colmes reiterated reports of "robberies, rapes, carjackings, riots and murder. Biolent gangs are roaming the streets at night, hidden by the cover of darkness."

Eddie Compass (B), New Orleans Police Chief on the “Oprah” show:

"the little babies getting raped" at the Superdome.

Times-Picayune Editor Jim Amoss (W):

"If the dome and Convention Center had harbored large numbers of middle class white people, it would not have been a fertile ground for this kind of rumor-mongering."

Soledad O’Brien (W):

"It is a sad thing to watch military veterans cry as they tell you the beheadings in Baghdad were less horrific than what they saw as 30,000 people marched from the Superdome through a shopping mall and onto buses to who knows where."

Why was the reporting (“10,000 dead”) so abysmally bad about New Orleans? Race has to be taken into consideration. Racists, white and black alike actually do believe the worst about poor black people. And New Orleans, especially the inner city, has an overwhelming percentage of black people.

From the Times Picayune:

After five days managing near-riots, medical horrors and unspeakable living conditions inside the Superdome, Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron prepared to hand over the dead to representatives of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.Following days of internationally reported killings, rapes and gang violence inside the Dome, the doctor from FEMA - Beron doesn't remember his name - came prepared for a grisly scene: He brought a refrigerated 18-wheeler and three doctors to process bodies."I've got a report of 200 bodies in the Dome," Beron recalls the doctor saying.The real total was six, Beron said.Of those, four died of natural causes, one overdosed and another jumped to his
death in an apparent suicide, said Beron

One “Black Leader” Randall Robinson (B) wrote an essay on the Huffington Post that:

thanks to Bush's inattention, black hurricane victims (not "hurricane victims" - just the black ones) were eating corpses to stay alive after four days without food. (via Townhall.com).

Here is exactly what he wrote:

“It is reported that black hurricane victims in New Orleans have begun eating corpses to survive. Four days after the storm, thousands of blacks in New Orleans are dying like dogs. No-one has come to help them.”

Robinson later retracted the claim of cannibalism, but it is revealing to me that a black “Leader” would readily believe that poor blacks would begin eating one-another after a few days without groceries. If you don’t think this is racist, imagine it being stated by – oh … Pat Robertson.

U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings (D.-Md.) (B) said at a September 2 Congressional Black Caucus news conference.

"We cannot allow it to be said that the difference between those who lived and those who died in this great storm and flood of 2005 was nothing more than poverty, age or skin color." (hat tip Deroy Murdock at Human Events Online.)

Shepard Smith (W) Fox New anchor went to New Orleans and emoted all over the screen which may propel him to the newscasters hall of fame via Digby:

Fox news reporters on the ground are having none of it. Shepard Smith and Steve Harrigan are both insisting that the story is about people dying and starving on the streets of New Orleans. "on the first day was food and water and what they needed on the second day was food and water and what they needed on the third day was food and water."

As of now, none of the deaths in New Orleans have been ascribed to lack of either food or water.

More from Ultra-Liberal Digby (written on September 2, before the truth comes out):

Now Geraldo comes on and he freaks out, begging the authorities to let people still stuck at the convention center walk out of town. Shep comes back and he says they have checkpoints set up turning people back to the city if they try. They are both on the verge of tears. Sean says they need to get some perspective and Shep screams at him "this is the perspective!" This was some amazing TV. Kudos to Shep Smith and Geraldo for not letting O'Reilly and Hannity spin their GOP "resolve" apologia bullshit. I'm fairly shocked.

Of course, Digby, himself shows his racist colors as he revels in the (supposed) degradation and brutishness of the residents of New Orleans.

So there we have the “Right Wing” Fox News anchors in hysterics about the plight of the residents of New Orleans. Why this emoting, why the hysterics? Because deep down in their hearts the Shep Smiths of this world look down on the (black) residents of New Orleans as helpless children. There have been hurricanes and other natural disasters in the past, with far greater death tolls, but I do not recall the TV anchors acting like hysterical schoolgirls as they reported those tragedies. These people were different, they were treated differently by the press and the Left (but I repeat myself) and the reason is racism.

More later…