What If They Were White? (CBS News Sunday Morning Contributor Nancy Giles Commentary)

CBS ^ | Nancy Giles

[hipaatwo]

The fact that many of those suffering most in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are poor, and black, has outraged a lot of people. Justifiably so, in the opinion of CBS News Sunday Morning Contributor Nancy Giles. Here is her commentary from Sept. 4, 2005:After meeting with Louisiana officials last week, Rev. Jesse Jackson said: "Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response." He continued: "I'm not saying that myself."

Then I'll say it.

If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival.

Their bodies would not have been left to float in putrid water.

They would have been rescued and relocated a hell of a lot faster than this. Period.

I mean, reporters and crews are getting to stranded people, and government and military agencies can't? Why doesn't CNN run FEMA?

When I saw pictures of black people taking things from stores, my first thought was: "How are those Air Jordans necessary for your survival?"

Then it hit me: People needed shoes and clothing. Some escaped the floods with just the clothing on their backs

We have American citizens, not "refugees" from an underdeveloped country, still waiting for shelter.

Waiting.

Waiting.

You leave children, pregnant women, the elderly, even the able-bodied, in a city destroyed with no help, no food, no water, no electricity for three, four, five days? What would you do if your family was starving, and you saw people dying in the street?

And why didn't the stores in the disaster areas simply make their goods available to these desperate folks? Surely, they've got insurance.

Love thy neighbor. Didn't I read that somewhere?

The real war is not in Iraq, but right here in America. It's the War on Poverty, and it's a war that's been ignored and lost. An estimated 37 million Americans are living in poverty. New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the country, with 40 percent of its children living in poverty. Mississippi has the highest poverty rate of any state. We've repeatedly given tax cuts to the wealthiest, and left our most vulnerable American citizens to basically fend for themselves.

The whole world is watching. And once again, a day late and a dollar short, words of wisdom from our president: "This is a huge task that we're dealing with." "These are tough times." "Give cash."

Once again, he finds the photo op: Some black folks to hug, some white men in Mississippi to bond with. He flies over the messy parts of New Orleans, waves and leaves.

The president has put himself at risk by visiting the troops in Iraq, but didn't venture anywhere near the Superdome or the Convention Center, where thousands of victims, mostly black and poor, needed to see that he gave a damn.

[hipaatwo]

E-MAIL: sundays@cbsnews.com

[hipaatwo]

I wan't this woman's head on a platter ping!

[Pukin Dog]

If they were white, then of course, the water that engulfed New Orleans would not have been water, but fine wine. The dead people would have been replaced with floating trays of twinkies, and there would have been a new SUV in every driveway, blown in from the heavens.

[RexBeach]

Nancy Giles is a racist. Period. She is also a meathead.

[EagleUSA]

Scumbag race-baiter...plain and simple.

[tiredoflaundry]

I must control my self at this time!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[txroadhawg]

Another idiot Liberal heard from, now STFU!

[Corin Stormhands]

Rev. Jesse Jackson said: "Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response."

Well, Jesse is partially right. It was their voting patterns that elected Nagin and Blanco...

[AmericanDave]

Very Good!

And if they were white, their maids would have brought them their MRE's in bed..

[NRA1995]

"If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival."

I just decided.....a plasma TV is vital to my survival.....

[cripplecreek]

A lot of them were white but New Orleans has a predominantly black population. If we saw more white people being rescued from the city it might indicate racism but we don't.

[TravisBickle]

I mean, reporters and crews are getting to stranded people, and government and military agencies can't? Why doesn't CNN run FEMA?

Let's see. The National Guard, FEMA, the Coast Guard and other federal agencies saved 182,000 people in four days. How many did CNN save?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Where would we be without the racial entrepreneurs?

[Polybius]

What If They Were White? (CBS News Sunday Morning Contributor Nancy Giles Commentary)

If they were poor and white, they would have been left stranded in the New Orleans flood bowl death trap too by the gross incompetence of Mayor Nagil and Governor Blanco.

NOBODY was supposed to be left trapped in the New Orleans flood bowl death trap as 200,000 low-income residents were as a result of the gross and possibly criminal negligence on the part of the Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, who failed to follow their own evacuation plan prior to the landfall of Katrina.

New Orleans is in a Storm Surge Zone, below sea level, and surrounded by levies that were only designed to withstand storms lass than a slow-moving Category 3 hurricane. That means that any person staying in New Orleans during a Category 3 or higher hurricane is facing a very high risk of death. Katrina was forecast as a Category 5 and hit as a Category 4.

What Is "Storm Surge" and Why It Matters.

The 2004 Hurricane Pam Exercise was modeled on a catastrophic destruction of New Orleans after only a slow-moving Category 3 hurricane. It was based on the assumption that there had been a complete evacuation of New Orleans. Shelters outside of the New Orleans flood bowl had already been identified:

Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes.(2004 New Orleans Disaster Prediction)

President Bush requested that Governor Blanco allow the Federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, and Governor Blanco, for political reasons, refused:

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday..........The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they had been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals", said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

The Southeast Louisiana Evacuation plan supplement, revised in 2000, page 13, read paragraph 5, stated:

5. The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating. In spite of that,over four hundred New Orleans publicly owned buses remained parked in neat rows and 200,000 low-income New Orleans residents were left trapped in the ¡§New Orleans flood bowl¡¨ (as scientists call it) in the face of the incoming storm surge.

Those 400+ buses, at 70 passengers per bus, could have taken 28,000 of those low-income citizens per trip out of New Orleans on the inbound lanes that the Governor and Mayor inexplicably left unused during the evacuation.

As a result, 200,000 of the poorest residents of New Orleans were left trapped din a disaster waiting to happen with no where to go but the Superdome.

While 800,000 of New Orleans' residents with private transportation were being saved, 200,000 of New Orleans', low-income residents were left abandoned by the Governor and the Mayor in the New Orleans flood bowl to face a Category 4 Hurricane Storm Surge.

If the levies had failed catastrophically instead of at a few certain point as they did, the death toll would have reached Hiroshima proportions.

[wideawake]

If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water

The majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in MS and AL were white and they had to wait as long or longer than blacks in NO.

[SAMS]

A more important question should have been, why didn't the mayor of NO do MORE to help evacutate the poor, frail & elderly??? Does anybody happen to know BTW, where their city leader rode out the storm???

[brivette]

Twinkies? How about smoked salmon?

[pikachu]

JJ Sez: "Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response." He continued: "I'm not saying that myself."

So if they voted Republican, they'd be high and dry? Might be a catchy slogan to use in 2008 'Keep voting Democrat and suffer like New Orleans. Vote Republican and thrive.'

[Enterprise]

"Many black people feel that their race, their property conditions and their voting patterns have been a factor in the response."

Indeed! If you can live with your decision to vote for and elect corrupt incompetent goobers, you may die because of their decisions. One naturally follows the other.

[oldleft]

She needs a history lesson of us rushing to the aid of whites...

[hipaatwo]

I read here Andrew Young was intervied and he stated that the outlying suburban parishes were poor white communities and his take was that the total effected would be 50/50. We're only seeing inside NO, not the outlying parishes. I guess that won't fit into the MSM agenda.

[carlr]

Funny how it is always libs that think of people by race or other category of convenience first,to push their agendas.

[Republican Red]

I think the media and the dems are in for a big surprise when the death count is released. I think the majority of these people WERE white!

If you look at the breakdown of race in the surrounding LA parrishes, MS and AL you will see a big majority white population. NO is about 70% black, this is true, but St. Bernards is the flip of this. They are saying St. Bernards was hit the hardest in LA.

Opinion Journal has a race breakdown:
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007203

[Boston Blackie]

Why is it that the city of NO provided buses on election day to take people to vote but did not provide buses to evacuate these same people in order to save their lives?

[Pete]

Here is my reply. I posted it last Friday night. This woman has also descended into madness.

The Left Descend Into Madness

[hflynn]

Then I'll say it.

Your absolutely right Nancy. Their voting patterns were a key factor in the response. They elected an incompetent Mayor and an even more incompetent Governor. The people who were suppose to make decisions were not capable of absorbing a weather report and acting. Thanks Nancy, it's rare that the Clinton Bull$hit network gets anything right.

[TNCMAXQ]

If they were white there would be much less of the misplaced hate and vitriolbeing thrown at GWB.

[LOC1]

According to the Wall Street Journal today "Next door (to New Orleans), just outside the city limits, were the virtually all-white areas of St. Bernard Parish--Arabi, Chalmette and Meraux--home to more than 50,000 people..."

The article goes on to describe response in those areas, which was similar to response in the Lower Ninth Ward, the area most often shown on TV. It is a page and a half article beginning one page one of the print version of WSJ. Well worth the read.

Also, the white areas of Mississippi and Alabama, the prosperous areas near the coast, were completely devastated and response has been slower in many cases than in New Orleans.

[shuckmaster]

If the majority of the hardest hit victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans were white people, they would not have gone for days without food and water,

Perhaps that's because they had enough sense to evacuate? I keep hearing the welfare socialists say that the poor didn't have the means or vehicles to leave but, on every one of these air rescues, there's one or more cars in the yard! I don't know but, that's probably how they're finding the holdouts - look for houses with cars in the yard. Inside there's a fat welfare socialist wearing a "vote" t-shirt demanding the government feed them.

[gopwinsin04]

I wonder how she can explain the flat screen TV's being looted from stores?

[joesnuffy]

Poor black males had to rape 8 yr old boys and 14 yr old
girls and then slit their throats because.......

A.The white man made them do it
B.The hurricane made them do it
C.Anyone would have done this in order to survive
D.They are evil

[KC_Conspirator]

This article is a lie. Then Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco are rascists.

[oyez]

It's the War on Poverty, and it's a war that's been ignored and lost.

The war on poverty has been won for the best part. It has been in the hands of the impoverished since the Carter days. The opportunities are there for the poor to get out. It has been their choice. The old saying "You can lead a horse to water but you can't force him to drink." Holds true. I swear, these reporters must have just fell off the turnip truck.

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I just decided.....a plasma TV is vital to my survival.....

While plasma TV's have their niche, you can get very good value/performance from both DLP and LCD technology.

You might want to look at both DLP as well as LCD before making such a sweeping statement.

Just kidding

[bonfire]

The word "outraged" is so over-used by the left.

[robjna]

I came to a revelation the other day concerning Hurricane Katrina. Democrats and liberals came face to face with the failures of their policies. The policies that created a group of people incapable and unwilling to take care of themselves.
And is scared them s*(tless. That is why they are adamant in finding fault in anything other than liberal policies that created a weak class and that the class acted so in-appropiately during a crisis.

[HusbandMan]

If this were truly "all" racially motivated, then there would be no white people helping save the unfortunate souls who have been affected by this storm.

I wish someone with a national pulpit would stand up and say, in no uncertain terms, to all the finger pointers, "Do two things at this time: 1)Shut up, and 2)you choose, roll up your sleeves and help, or get out of the way of those that can and are helping. There will be plenty of time after we clean up this mess to set right the things that were shown to be lacking by this storm."

[ArrogantBustard]

In no particular order

1) Je$$e Jacka$$ is not a 'reverend'. I'm sick of that lie.

2) You (the author) display a thoroughly ugly racist paranoia. It must truly suck to be you. I'd hate to have such a sewer of a mind.

3) Mayor Nagin must really hate black people (if we follow this author's line of thinking). Evacuation of a city is primarily the responsibility of that city's government.

4) Stealing television sets, jewelry, liquor has nothing to do with "mere survival".

5) The so-called "War on Poverty" was declared by the Democratic politician Lyndon Johnson, and has resulted in the destruction of urban culture, particularly black urban culture. We've been throwing billions of dollars, per year, taken by force in taxes from "the wealthiest" (your words) at the misbegotten "War on Poverty" and gotten only more poverty. This so-called "War" is primarily an effort of the race-hustlers in and around the Democratic Party, and it is more of a "quagmier" than any military effort that these United States have ever been involved in.

6) Ma'am, you're an idiot. Piss OFF!

[TexasCajun]

Is Nancy suggesting we bus White-Folk to other "Black" cities like Atlanta and Chicago to live?

[petitfour]

The MSmedia is evil. (not all of them, but on the whole)

[stopem]

Absolutely!

There were A LOT of different race and color that were and are suffering.

The majority of people who are suffering as bad are the people who worked to get the very houses they lost in the flood regardless of race or color, take your poor black badge and sell that to someone else cause we aren't buying it anymore.

It's always about race and color and class.

In fact if I were one of the black evacuees I would be highly insulted for constantly being referred to as that by their very own leaders.

[Williams]

Luckily, the left has not succeeded in igniting the race war but they keep trying. Sick, despicable people who want to destroy this country. The nation is doing everything to help, an entire region relocated, 100's of billions being spent within days, and they have black Americans looking for an "apology."

AHow evil they are. Of course we can't take all the aid away to show them real neglect, but they turn this outpouring of help into an offense. And how evil they are, ridiculing the president for visiting, for hugging, for caring. Yet somehow in their evil twisted minds his every kind move is the mark of someone who doesn't care.

The left are vicious people and they will destroy America if given half a chance.

[No Blue States]

"Please let as many people as possible know what's going on in the Astrodome. There's a public health crisis, both medical and mental. A child was raped and women continue to be sexually assaulted."

Entry on blog form Sept 4th, tab down below the pictures of security breaches at the Astrodome for the full entry.
I hope those have been secured.
(Sept 5th say conditions inproved with more LEO)

http://whitewashingblack.blogspot.com/

[Congressman Billybob]

Okay, here's my "what if":

What if the reporters for CBS were honest and competent?

What if they noticed that Mayor Nagin is black?

What if they noticed that New Orleans HAD an evacuation Plan?

What if they noticed that the Mayor and the Governor failed to follow (or even notice) the Plan?

What if they noticed that the Plan called for the Mayor to use public buses to evacuate the poor?

What if they noticed the flooded buses?

What if they noticed that the Constitution requires the Governor to act first with the Guard?

If they had noticed all that, would they have fired Nancy Giles and apologized for putting this garbage on the air?

What if....

Congressman Billybob

Latest column: "Tide of Lies Swamps NY Times: Employees Riot and Steal Office Supplies"

[Jim Noble]

If they were white, they would have left before the storm.

If they were white, the ones remaining behind would have organized men to protect the women and the elderly.

If they were white, they would have organized activities to comfort and distract the children.

If they were white, they wouldn't have looted hospitals.

If they were white, they wouldn't have shot at people bringing them food and water.

And so on.

[SE Mom]

OMG.
This has simply GOT to stop. We are being over run by people who WANT a racial war in our country.

[NRA1995]

Thanks for your advice; I'll make sure I carry a copy of "Consumer Reports" on my next looting spree. /sarcasm

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

If they were white the MSM reporters would have found people who represented the survivors the least for on camera interviews. "Redneck" types that the news is so fond of showing to make everybody there look like hicks. They would also downplay the sympathy angle so the casualties would be the same or more.

Does this moron know that the major damage isn't just confined to the areas we see on TV? Help was needed everywhere.

[7thson]

Baton Rouge.