Do you remember the old socialist/leftist/liberal cliché? Many more Afro-Americans had supposedly been killed by hurricane Katrina in NOLA, and the American racist society had done nothing to help them. The whites, on the other hand, given their money and higher status, had been able to leave the area.

Well it was simply not true. Another lie. Proportionately way more whites lost their lives in NOLA than blacks. I'd be curious to hear what European socialists would say now. Yeah they will presumably keep their mouth shut and feign indifference now. Typical.
And of course the victims were never "thousands", but a little more than 1 thousand.

Source.

Media Still Overplaying Race Card in Katrina Analysis



By John Leo

Did New Orleans blacks die at a higher rate than whites in the wake of Hurricane Katrina? On the evidence so far, the answer is no. Of the 1,100 bodies recovered in Louisiana after Katrina, 836 were found in New Orleans, and the state has released data on 568 of those that were judged to be storm-related. As of last week, blacks, who were 67.2 percent of the pre-storm population of New Orleans, account for 50.9 percent of the city victims so far identified by race. It was New Orleans whites who died way out of proportion to their numbers: 28 percent of the population, 45.6 percent of the city's known Katrina deaths by race.
This is far from the impression that the media have managed to leave, both during the crisis and in the months since. It's possible, though unlikely, that these percentages may change in the final figures. Louisiana is not releasing any information on the rest of the dead until they are identified and their families notified.
In the chaos of Katrina, the press was hardly in a position to know that whites were dying as fast as blacks. But it was responsible for strumming the racial theme so relentlessly in the absence of actual information. A mix of factors was operating: Faces shown on TV were mostly black, quotable black spokesmen kept insisting that racism was at work, and national reporters on the scene may have thought that since this was the South, blacks were probably being victimized in some way. This hardened into a narrative line for New Orleans that stressed race, and to lesser extent, class.
Jack Shafer of Slate.com said, "(We) in the media are ignoring that fact that almost all the victims in New Orleans are black and poor." Wolf Blitzer said the victims were "so poor, so black." The Washington Post, reflecting the resentment of its majority-black city, pumped up the racial theme. A questionable Page One story headlined "To Me, It Just Seems Like Black People Are Marked." An unusually gassy essay in the Style section talked about the sins of mainstream America and it's "tattered racial legacy." A story on the decline of Bush's approval rating kept the racial theme aloft with the subhead "He Says Race Didn't Affect Efforts; Blacks in Poll Disagree." As Bob Somerby of The Daily Howler said in a different context, "When the press corps reaches an overall judgment, they often start looking for easy-to-tell stories to illustrate their global belief."
Racial agitators and entertainers played a big role. Randall Robinson, the former head of TransAfrica, said: "This is what we have come to. This defining watershed moment in America's racial history." Jesse Jackson said, "Today I saw 5,000 African-Americans desperate, perishing, dehydrated, babies dying." (That would be 5,000 blacks dying out of a total of 1,349 known dead of all races in all Gulf States combined.)
The morning-show host of a New York City rap station saw the New Orleans situation as "genocide." Robert Parham of the Baptist Center for Ethics said Katrina "disclosed our racism in multiple ways." Comedian and activist Dick Gregory saw an anti-black conspiracy in New Orleans. And rapper Kanye West offered the opinion that "America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible," adding his soon-to-be-famous accusation, "George Bush doesn't care about black people." The media carried all the race chatter without much in the way or caution or evidence.
Even now, mainstream media have done little to set the record straight. The numbers and percentages of death by race are easy to find among bloggers, very hard to find in mainstream reporting. On Dec. 18, three days after the state of Louisiana delivered a breakdown of deaths by race, The New York Times ran a long analysis of Katrina that omitted the racial breakdown from the state report.
By contrast, the Los Angeles Times ran an excellent article, also on Dec. 18, that began this way: "The bodies of New Orleans residents killed by Hurricane Katrina were almost as likely to be recovered from middle-class neighborhoods as from the city's poorer districts, such as the Lower 9th Ward." The paper reported that its own analysis "contradicts what swiftly became conventional wisdom in the days after the storm hit -- that it was the city's poorest African-American residents who bore the brunt of the hurricane."
Good journalism. Will the rest of the media catch on?

You know IG, I worked and visited in and around NO for years and the largest group is a mixture of Spanish, Acadians, Blacks and Indians. Some people call them Creole, and Cajuns. They mostly call themselves Coonasses (who knows why). My best friend in this World lives in Gonzales just about 30 miles from Baton Rouge. My bud's name is Lawrence Gonzales, his forefathers settled the town, and his Wife is Lois (Guittreax) Gonzales whose family were French Acadian ancestory. Lawrence and I served together in the 47th Arty and we still visit when we can.

Now, what one notices when they travel in most Parishes around New Orleans is that there is no single pervasive color. The mixture of races and Nationalities is such that there are blonde haired Blacks and black haired Whites. There are White, Red, Brown, Yellow, and Black people who are "outsiders" who cause trouble for the Cajuns who have lived in the bayous for hundreds of years. New Orleans has been a source of income through tourist trade and "carpetbaggers" came and stayed. These people don't give to the State or the Parish Churches, they take away. They are the trouble makers with their different ways and money grubbing attitudes.

Interesting, Missileer, but.
I mean the statistics are clear on that. 67.2 % of the city population was/is black. What am I missing?

Originally Posted by Missileer

You know IG, I worked and visited in and around NO for years and the largest group is a mixture of Spanish, Acadians, Blacks and Indians. Some people call them Creole, and Cajuns. They mostly call themselves Coonasses (who knows why). My best friend in this World lives in Gonzales just about 30 miles from Baton Rouge. My bud's name is Lawrence Gonzales, his forefathers settled the town, and his Wife is Lois (Guittreax) Gonzales whose family were French Acadian ancestory. Lawrence and I served together in the 47th Arty and we still visit when we can.

I'm not sure if I understand your post so I'll throw out a "my bad" if I did.

Cajuns and Creoles are different in Louisiana as it was explained to me while working with those guys.

Cajuns are the descendants of the Acadians. They were expelled from Nova Scotia, Canada because they wouldn't align themselves with the British or swear allegiance to the crown. Most Cajuns are white. Coonass is just another derogatory term for Cajun, but I've never ever heard it used in reference to Creoles.

Creoles in Louisiana are mostly black but there are some whites that call themselves Creole, and came from or are descendants from the Caribbean or Africa. But like you said, there are some Spanish and Indians that call themselves Creole too. Never noticed too many whites, but there are a few I've heard say they were Creole.

They do have their French roots in common, though.

Now, what one notices when they travel in most Parishes around New Orleans is that there is no single pervasive color. The mixture of races and Nationalities is such that there are blonde haired Blacks and black haired Whites. There are White, Red, Brown, Yellow, and Black people who are "outsiders" who cause trouble for the Cajuns who have lived in the bayous for hundreds of years. New Orleans has been a source of income through tourist trade and "carpetbaggers" came and stayed. These people don't give to the State or the Parish Churches, they take away. They are the trouble makers with their different ways and money grubbing attitudes.

I have to disagree with this. Any time I've ever visited New Orleans, statistics or not I've always noticed that the city was majority black. Just like down in Terrebonne Parish (where a lot of Cajuns live), I've noticed it is majority white.

Baton Rouge seems to be about even. The more West you go, like Abbeyville etc it's mostly white.

We were sent to Louisiana to assist with SAR after Katrina. Most everyone we rescued was black. As for the dead, there were bodies all over the place but I didn't really notice their color, they were just dead people. Some black, some white we didn't really notice one being more than the other. We'd see a body when we were on the ground and we'd just drag it up on dry land and move on. Not much else we could do at that point.

I think Major Nagin has lost his friggin' mind and the same goes for anyone trying to make the rescue operations into something racial. Everybody worked hard to get EVERYONE out and it didn't matter what color they were. A lot of people sacrificed their time and their health to help those people.

Had more blacks died it wouldn't have surprised me since they make up the majority of the city. But the real crux of the matter is that PEOPLE died, little babies died really horrible deaths. It's sad to see people fighting over trivial stuff and trying to politicise a tragedy as great as this was. There was nothing racial about it.

The media, Mayor Nagin, Jesse Jackson and the rest of the people screaming that it was make me sick.

IG - Are you trying to throw logic and reason into our political discussions again? What's so bad about false rhettoric? The rest of the world seems to be happy with it, why arn't you?

Besides, it takes so long to read all that logic and truth and facts. Why not just make it easier on everyone and just say "george bush doesn't care about black people." See how easy and simple that is?

Originally Posted by Whispering Death

IG - Are you trying to throw logic and reason into our political discussions again? What's so bad about false rhettoric? The rest of the world seems to be happy with it, why arn't you?

Besides, it takes so long to read all that logic and truth and facts. Why not just make it easier on everyone and just say "george bush doesn't care about black people." See how easy and simple that is?

Yes, you're right... Why am I sooo stupid, oh why? My bad, facts are useless , rhetorics is what counts .

Originally Posted by Italian Guy

Interesting, Missileer, but.
I mean the statistics are clear on that. 67.2 % of the city population was/is black. What am I missing?

Nothing except at what point does a person become one or the other. I don't see how any true count can come out of a place so inter racially mixed. What would you call Halle Berry? True, they were all people no matter what color or shade of skin. In the US, Mexicans were declared to be "white" by Congress. This race thing is being pushed by the black leaders from Congress on down to people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Well it was simply not true. Another lie.

What lie? Who told this lie? I'm not a well informed person and KIA's during the hurricane... So who said this and what was the purpose and what do color of your skin have to do with leftist rhetorics?

Originally Posted by Ted

What lie? Who told this lie? I'm not a well informed person and KIA's during the hurricane... So who said this and what was the purpose and what do color of your skin have to do with leftist rhetorics?

Oh come on Ted.

Originally Posted by Italian Guy

Oh come on Ted.