Some intriguing numbers came out this week proving that race played no role in the response to Hurricane Katrina. Of course, this bit of news never saw the light of day among America's leading news providers. They couldn't even tell the amazing news of 15 million people going to the polls in Iraq with only scattered violence. No, they had to concentrate on the feckless John McCain and his sympathy campaign for the terrorists. But I digress ...
The numbers were released from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. What they indicated was worthy of front-page coverage in every newspaper in America.
On a whim, I decided to run a Google search to see how many listings reported Kanye West's nationally televised statement saying the president didn't "care about black people." As of Thursday evening, there were 137,000 entries; they included links to most of the major news organizations across America.
As the days following Katrina have ticked away the rhetorical residue that was left across America in the aftermath of the hurricane was formed by West's absurd statement, coupled with intellectual giants like Louis Farrakhan (Nation of Islam), Malik Zulu Shabazz (Black Panther Party) and Damu Smith (National Black Environmental Justice Network), and multiplied over again by the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton and their media omnipresence in the hours and days following. Enough ideologues said it again and again to where they convinced the better part of black America that it was true.
But according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, we now know exactly the opposite to be the case.
In the devastation of Katrina it was whites – not blacks – that died in the highest percentage according to population. Whites perished at a rate of +8.6 percent above the population rate. Blacks perished at -18.15 percent below their population rate. All other groups perished at a rate of -.7 percent.
Coupling these hard statistics with what we now also know of the New Orleans mayor's negligence in not following his own hurricane evacuation protocol – and leaving some 2,000 buses unused a full 48 hours before the hurricane made landfall – makes the truth a bitter pill for the aforementioned black "leaders" to swallow.
If there was an elected leader who acted swiftly to assist the residents of New Orleans it was President Bush. His persistence was rebuffed multiple times, according to Gov. Kathleen Blanco's recently disclosed e-mail records on the matter.
If there was an elected white politician who acted with negligence and almost defiant carelessness toward the residents of New Orleans, it was Gov. Blanco who refused federal help even a full two days after Katrina made landfall.
And if there was an elected politician whose own incompetence led to the deaths of hundreds of black residents in New Orleans – unnecessarily – it was Mayor Ray Nagin.
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