Overheard at the Salon
While I was getting my hair done today I overheard a woman talking about Hurricane Katrina's victims while she was getting a manicure. Her comments went something like this:
"Those people were begged to leave the city. And what did they do? They went to the Super Bowl (sic) like they were having a big party. Now, you hate to call people stupid, but, well... Some people were too poor or too old but most of those people were, maybe not stupid, let's just say inadequate. And now they are mad because people aren't serving them!"
I wanted to bitch slap her. (I never use that kind of language, but it seems really appropriate.)
She must have missed it the day before the hurricane made landfall, when people were told to go to the Superdome if they couldn't leave the city. She must have missed the long, long lines of people waiting in the rain to get in, begging to get in. She must have missed all the interviews with people saying that they wanted out but couldn't get out. She must have missed the fact that people are mad because they are dying while they wait for aid.
She must not have one ounce of Christian compassion or forgiveness. (Not that compassion and forgiveness are limited to Christians, but I would bet $100 that she considers herself a Christian.) I suspect she must have a more than generous share of racism.
posted by OKPartisan @ 11:08 AM
8 Comments:
Thank you for sharing that distressing bit of hate and intolerance from middle america.
It was chilling.
If the victims of the hurricane looked more like Natalie Holloway or the run away bride the reaction of the nation would be so different. We are too used to seeing black women and children starving and wading thru floods and dying and lying on the streets. That they are subjected to violent war lord Somali type conditions, just makes it all the easier to put them in the "other" catagory.
Thank god your sensitivities were still acute and your righteous anger was appropriate. A bitch slap might help her and lots of the bureaucrats in washington.
A note to the above anonymous commenter (NOT to BLUE DOT!)...
Yes, I'm sure such intolerance was never uttered anywhere but middle America. Not in "enlightened" Blue State secessionist zones, to be sure.
Your own bitter stereotyping and smug sense of superiority and sanctimony is chilling indeed.
I am appalled at the New Left's willingness to leap on this horrific tragedy as evidence of justification for their numerous pet causes - racist conspiracy theories, global warming (which even the New York Times disputed), the war in Iraq, the need for more Big Daddy federal government, a "New" New Deal kind of socialism.
You name it. It's sick. And, in a time of tragedy, a truly "distressing bit of hate."
The New Left will seemingly use any event and opportunistically cram it into their embittered, acidic and tilted view of the world -- so they can continue to comfortably lap up Michael Moore/Sidney Blumenthal/Moveon.org propaganda.
While we're on the topic of bitch slaps -- how about one for the inept Mayor Nagin and the governor of Louisiana, or for New Orleans police officers who abandoned their posts? How about THOSE bureaucrats?
Thank God your worldview does not represent that of the vast majority of Americans. Instead, we share common bonds and grieve at the suffering along the Gulf Coast.
At this very moment, tens of thousands of evacuees are on their way to be clothed, fed and housed in various parts of generous middle America, including at least 3,000 here in Oklahoma.
Bottom line, my anonymous friend: you appear to be an A-class intellectual moron with a "creative class" chip on your shoulder.
But, hey, I'm not stereotyping or anything.
Racism may not be the whole story but it is definitely a part of the story. To deny that, to not face this truth about our nation (not just middle America but our whole nation) is wrong.
It is yet another damaging blow to our nation to spin discussions and outrage over real problems as if they are part of a liberal plot that should be dismissed.
What you call "pet causes" are things that Americans feel passionately about. We believe that these are life and death issues and issues that get to the core of what we want America's values to be. I know your comments weren't addressed to me, but it offends me that you appear to dismiss obvious racism as trumped-up false evidence in some "racist conspiracy theory."
It's time to take off our red glasses and our blue glasses and see what is going on through un-spun vision, the good and the bad.
I'm not dismissing obvious racism, but I'll repeat something I've said numerous times in the past. Racism in and of itself does not mean we have systemic racism.
That's a cognitive leap none of us should make, but some of us are doing precisely that (like Michael Moore and Jesse Jackson). America no longer has systemic racism, as we did in the past. Bigots exist, and they always will. That does not mean they control our society. They do not.
The above poster was bigoted against middle America, for example. I do not take that fact and conclude there's a conspiracy afoot to ruin middle America. There are plenty of other indications for that ;-)
Since I believe there's no systemic racism in America, I think it's wrong to suggest that the response to the hurricane was somehow hampered by something that does not exist. Inappropriate photo captions that contrast white flood victims with black flood victims (one characterized white victims as just getting food, while another characterized a black victim as looting a grocery store) are evidence of an individual caption writer with an inappropriate and possibly racist view of the world.
But the captions do not provide evidence of a wholesale conspiracy. I don't even think the captions provide evidence of a widespread societal attitude.
My wife and I have watched the TV coverage endlessly, cried about the tragedy, cried about the stories of poor, young, black heroes (like the young man who stole a school bus and saved dozens), told our 3 1/2-year-old daughter to pray for all of the people without food or water, showed her a little of what was on TV, and then did pray at night for evening prayers. We've also donated a big chunk of savings to the Red Cross.
We're conservatives, and we're not racists. The two aren't linked.
I don't dismiss racism, and never would, but I'm not sure how my unvarnished comments could be interpreted that way. After all, I referred to "such intolerance" in my very first 'graph.
I do, however, dismiss conspiracy theories about racism or Kyoto, for that matter (something even the NY Times knocked down in a well-researched article a few days ago) being somehow responsible for the tragedy of a terrible hurricane hitting an American city -- and the horrific aftermath we are witnessing.
I think the anger we see across the land has more to do with a magical belief that our technology will always save us.
We're not living in Star Trek, we're living in an early 21st century America grafted onto infrastructures that range from late 19th to mid-20th century. And as technology advances, the infrastructures will always lag behind. While you and I can converse through a seemingly high-tech blog, it is all supported through rather low-tech means. The technology is pretty much the same as when Bell first spilled acid on himself and invented it (the story is apocryphal, but I like it). If a large tornado comes along tomorrow, it could easily interrupt our comfortable computer conversation. And that would just be the least of our worries.
And the point of the entire comment was not to dismiss the "pet causes" in and of themselves -- but the attitude that tries to tie every single event in our lives and reality to those causes.
Red Dirt: I like ice cream. It is yummy. OKPartisan: My foot hurts.
Just because racism isn't codified into our laws any more doesn't mean that it doesn't impact on important decisions and policies.
I guess we just see different Americas.
I don't take individual instances of racism to mean I live in a racist society.
Instead, I see an optimistic nation that is just and largely color-blind and no longer systemically racist (and that doesn't mean simply a lack of Jim Crow laws - that's distorting what I wrote).
That doesn't mean I wear special glasses of the rose-colored kind that helps me see this nation. I see it warts and all.
But I still see it.
From Rich Lowry's latest piece for National Review:
"If the federal response has seemed flat-footed, does anyone believe that President Bush got on the phone with the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown, and said, 'Hey, Michael, let’s slow-walk this thing — we’re talking about mostly black victims here'? Apparently some people do believe it."
Lowry hit the nail on the head. You gotta ask yourself - do you really believe the above scenario is plausible? I don't, but do you?
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