Saturday, October 01, 2005

Is This The 1950s?

Did I miss something? Or is it just that the people who are running this country feel so safely entrenched in power that they feel they can bring the racist talk out of the backrooms of the country clubs and into the public discourse?

For those will prevaricate and say this isn't a racist statement, just "the truth", no, it is not the truth. The fact that someone who is supposed to be helping poor people (and poor black people) with housing thinks that black people will be pushed out of the new vision of New Orleans says a lot. Will they be consulting with the original inhabitants? Will they help them rebuild their homes? Will they have a say in how their city is rebuilt? Not very likely. And why should they? What have "those people" done to make the multinationals in New Orleans money? Besides, Barbara Bush can tell you, it's all working out very well for them.

Okay, yeah, it's the Washington Times, but this story deserves to be read...

HUD chief foresees a 'whiter' Big Easy
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By Brian DeBose
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
September 30, 2005
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A Bush Cabinet officer predicted this week that New Orleans likely will never again be a majority black city, and several black officials are outraged.

Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of "500,000 people for a long time," and "it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, quickly took issue.

"Anybody who can make that kind of projection with some degree of certainty or accuracy must have a crystal ball that I can't see or maybe they are more prophetic than any of us can imagine," he said.

Other members of the caucus said the comments by Mr. Jackson, who is black, could be misconstrued as a goal, particularly considering his position of responsibility in the administration.

...

Mr. Jackson, whose remarks were reported by the Houston Chronicle, said New Orleans might reach a population of 375,000 people sometime late next year with a black population of about 40 percent at the highest, down from 67 percent before Hurricane Katrina sent a storm surge that overwhelmed New Orleans levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

Posted by crimnos @ 8:49 AM

Read or Post a Comment

I have never seen so much blatantly racist hate speech as I have in the past few months of Bush's second term

Posted by Blogger Jes @ 3:16 PM #
 

Jessica:

I agree.
I am very passionate about the rebuilding of N.O. as some of you have probably noted on my blog.

Posted by Blogger Handsome B. Wonderful @ 4:16 PM #
 

I know, it's getting particularly bad. I keep wondering when I'm going to wake up. How could so much work have been undone so quickly? Or did I just not notice that the progress was never really made?

Posted by Blogger crimnos @ 4:19 PM #
 
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