Right Voices

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Friday blamed racism and government bureaucracy for hamstringing his city’s ability to weather Hurricane Katrina and recover from the disaster that struck the Gulf Coast nearly a year ago.

In remarks to the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, Nagin said the hurricane “exposed the soft underbelly of America as it relates to dealing with race and class.”

“And I, to this day, believe that if that would have happened in Orange County, California, if that would have happened in South Beach, Miami, it would have been a different response,” Nagin said.

New Orleans was 60 percent black before Katrina struck Aug. 29. Early this year the mayor called on fellow blacks to again make New Orleans a “chocolate” city, but he later apologized.

On Friday, Nagin condemned federal regulations that discourage rebuilding in the largely black and low-lying Ninth Ward.

While tens of billions of dollars in federal aid have flowed to Louisiana and other states devastated by Katrina, much of it has gone to developers and contractors, Nagin said.

Of cource the response would have been different! He is choosing to compare his situation to a what if situation. The cities he chose to compare himself to are situated in states that have evacuation plans in place. Those 2 cities do not have the percentage of government dependent citizens that he was faced with. In playing to his audience, he is exposing his ignorance. There was nothing racist about the response. Had no help come, he could claim it, but help did come, no thanks to him or Blanco. Does he think that we are not able to re-publish his evacuation plan from a month prior to the storm? Surely he remembers that he claimed that the citizens were on their own!