Posted on 09/06/2005 5:20:49 AM PDT by jmc1969
LET ME START by saying that if I had my life to live over a thousand times, the one thing I would not change would be my race. I am proud to be a black man. There are times however, when I wish that certain people and I did not share that trait.
For the past few days, the whole world ... well, at least those who have access to satellite and cable television, have been seeing pictures of the virtually total devastation of the cities of the U.S. Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 90 per cent of homes in New Orleans have been destroyed by flood waters and more than 100 people have been confirmed dead.
We see people standing on the roofs of their submerged homes desperate to be rescued, others being airlifted to safety, and we have heard tear-jerking stories of families losing their loved ones. But in all of this, we have also seen the really dark side of black people.
The day after the hurricane passed, there were reports of looting but network reporters had been saying that people were looting out of desperation, in search of food and water. A lot they knew.
The pictures I have been seeing are of people - black people - stealing shoes, diapers, and television sets. Not food and definitely not water. Not unless the armfuls of clothing, shoes, and appliances I see people wading through the streets with count as food and water.
Now, if all the looters were looting out of desperation, how desperate were the guy and girls I saw toting several boxes of size 13 Nikes? How desperate was the fellow with the stack of diapers? What, is it that he has several babies at home suffering from loose bowels? What am I talking about, what home? Everything is under water and what isn't, has been totally destroyed.
Plasma TV?
And just what are those guys stealing the plasma television sets going to be watching when there is no power in the entire city?
Desperation? Yeah, right. I am beginning to believe that black people, no matter where in the world they are, are cursed with a genetic predisposition to steal, murder, and create mayhem.
The entire firearm department at a Wal-Mart department store, for example, was cleaned out and the looters used the stolen weapons to rob people. How low is that? Everybody is suffering and the black people would seek to rob people who are suffering just like themselves.
No white looters?
And it has nothing to do with poverty. Where are the white people in all this? I am sure there are poor white people living in New Orleans, Biloxi and the other towns affected by what has been going on. Is it that the media are not showing pictures of them looting and robbing? Or is it that they are too busy trying to stay alive, waiting to be rescued, and hiding from the blacks.
And you know what? Even if the poor whites were looting and robbing, wouldn't it be nice if the blacks could have made them the only ones doing it
Just once, I would like for us blacks to take the high road in situations like this, where instead of showing our darkest side, we put our best foot forward. But I guess that would be too much to ask, too much of a case of wishful thinking.
It does raise some interesting points, though.
It's not the color, it's the culture. New Orleans was a racially-charged blackocracy that embraced the plantation-welfare state. A disaster like Katrina just busted it wide open for all to see.
The title wasn't the best choice of words.
Ditto,
It is culture and history and the slavery of low expectations that hurt those people more than anything else.
That's a fact.
You are totally correct. It has nothing to do with the color of their skin. Most of us are the same color as the Nazis but I sure don't feel any sense of kindred with them.
What happened in NO is purely the end result of Johnson's "Great Society".
Well said.
And yet there are wonderful role models like Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice.
Has Thomas Sowell written about this yet?
"It's not the color, it's the culture. "
I Concur.
"The title wasn't the best choice of words."
No but it is kind of humorous.
I recently read Sowell's Black Rednecks and White Liberals.
I think that book says it all.
If some freepers don't get insulting, maybe it won't.
The only thing I wonder is why the "black leaders" justify such actions as the result of "oppression". In other words, if you are poor (and black?), then you are justified in stealing from your neighbor (be it a business or individual).
I would refuse to indict anyone caught stealing food, water, and within reason, clothing (after all, I don't know what these people lost). Desparate times call for desparate measures, but a Game Boy is not going to feed/clothe/protect anyone.
Another telling indication is that some of the most common and first thing(s) taken were guns/ammo. Were they for intended to protect or prey? Watch for the gun control nuts to come out in force.
It's kind of funny, I said something along these lines to my mother a couple of days after the hurricane. However, I believe the majority of black people are good people.
The man stealing diapers was dealing with survival needs as anyone with a child in diapers can attest. With access to fresh water for washing, maybe then you could fault the guy for not using the tablecloth to make the improvised red and white checkered diaper. Or perhaps take Teh-ray-za's advice and let the kid poop up the place au natural.
No, the underclass - black or white - is the problem here and the demographics in the Big Hard make this particular incident a predominantly black one. But consider what would have happened if this storm hit Southie in Bean Town instead. Simply run the negative instead of the print.
Rice alone has got The LOOKS to cow even the toughest looter with a full magazine.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.