OK, With the little bit of information I have recived during the storm and the aftermath it appears to me that the subject of Racisim has grown into something it is not.

I have ben raised and I live in the greater New Orleans area and I never left my house for the events of the storm. I know the culture and I know the people. Most of all I know the area. I couldn't believe it when I was listening to a raido news cast and they said "This hurricane selected the low income poor black communtiy" and if you don't mid me saying so thats BS. When after 2 weeks of no TV power or communications I managed to pick up CBS news on basic cable I kept seeing pictures of low income poor housing black citizens of the area and high income upscale white people being interviewed. It occured to me that the media was yet again portrayigna false immage of what was going on. Also there were many complaints about hte looting and how it was mostly black ciizens doing so. Lets look at this from a reasonable standpoint.

New Orleans has a major crime problem and always has. New Orleans and its outlying areas are about a good 75% afarican american and the other 35% is a mix of Hispanic Asain and Cacusacain. Of course the predominate ammout of people you will see are the afracain amercans.
Let me tell you what happend to me....

IN my nebighorhood in the week directly following the storm these 3 crime related events occured to my knowldge.
1. I personally eyewittnessed 2 Black men syphoning gasoline from a parked car.
2. I personally wittnessed 2 13 yearold Asain girls break into, steal and live in a nebighors house. Why? we don't know but they stole their guns and ate all of ther food and lived in the house for a week...
3. I also wittnessed an Asain male steal a roofing ladder from a family reparing their roof.

Now you look at that... 2 black guys, and 3 asains... and thats to my knowldge.

On to the slective part. Personally I do not see how this hurricane could have been selective to the low income black community, except for the fact that the cheap housing is cheap peacuse it is in low lyeing areas.... Now most of the Black community in the GNOA (greater new orleans area) live in New orleans east.... As of today there is still an average of 4 feet of water in that area. In 1989 a major mall was opened in this area it was on eof the largest malls int eh country and it was to "revitlize the community and produce economic prospeity" when this mall opened the black community flocked to the region and it infact did what it said it was to do. This area has indeeded flooded but it is in no way selected. THe people have said and I quote " They moved us there because they knew this was to happen."

Now I take you into my personal area.
I live in an upscale nebighorhood and am what mosst of you consparicy theorist wouldl call... a "yuppie" the houses in my nebhorhood range for 400,000 - 1.5 mil. the community in my nebighorhood is about 60% black and then asain then its white then is spanish. There are many many many rich black people in the new orleans area and I can speak for that myself.

The Mississippi delta region was one of the hardest hit. THe mississippi delta region has cheap land for lots. Why? because it is outside the levee protection system. The population density down there is predomiantly white families in the 50,000 - 100,000$ income range. WHy? because they are
1. comerical fissherman
2. work for the refineries.

That was one of that hardest hit areas in the liousiana area. The places.. Buras, Port Sulpher, Venice and a few other communities like mertyle grove are under 12 feet of water because the gulf of mexico was pushed up there. its not flood waters that have got them it is the Gulf. They have no hope to rebuild.

Personal experience...
the house 5 houses donwn from me was completly destroyed. I will bring pictures later but its gone. THe family who lived there was a whit middle class family with 2 children and a dog. In my nebighorhood of about 150 households it was the only one to recieve sever unreparible dammage. While my house lost a grand total of 5 shingles and recived no other dammage.


Now look, this hurricane was not racist and it was just the luck of the draw and if you think that the hurricane was racist then I suppose you look up the definition of a living thinking orgnaisim.

Thanks for your native insight...of course it wasn't a racist hurricane, nor was the gov't response racist as much of the failures occurred at the local level which is run mainly by blacks.

It's just a sad fact that some people make their living by stirring the pot and playing the race card by taking advantage of situations like this...

Oh yeah soemthing I forgot...

The media portrayed the NO culture to be highly centralized around racisim.
Racisim is an issue in NO but its not that big of a deal as they made it out to be. We I woalk down the street I don't get evel looks from black guys and I dont give evil looks back. We do not have race crimes ever day and we do not have a severe out of control problem with racisim.

A hurricane is a naturally occuring force of nature, and cannot choose to destroy a populated area based on race or anything else. I'm sure there are those who think a hurricane can be "caused" and "directed" in some manner, but I have yet to see any scientific theories or evidence that supports this. It was simply a natural disaster that happend and there are victims in all groups of residents, although the largest group is of the poor black residents. They weren't "chosen" by the hurricane.

Thank you for posting this personal account and disproving the theories that the crime and/or looting was only done by black people. The media are experts at getting the story wrong more often than not. Please continue to post anything you see or hear that is going on in New Orleans.

[edit on 20-9-2005 by Mirlin11]

[edit on 20-9-2005 by sardion2000]

What I had heard, was not that the hurricane itself was racist, ( because after all, a weather system can't tell who it's about to plow under!) .....but that the response of the federal government and FEMA was slow and uncaring because the victims were mostly black. That those in charge at the federal level were racist.

This charge, may or may not have as much merit as it has been given in the press. And it might just be my imagination, or it might just have been a matter of timing, but it seemed that after the NAACP and Jesse Jackson began to scream, things began to move much faster.

This charge has begun to evolve into more of a accusation of class elitism, or so it seems to me. It is not quite as much of a purely racism charge, but that the poorer victims of the storm were discriminated against whether black or not.

P.S. Glad to hear you made it without too much damage! Watch out for that next one!!