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Bush doesn't care about poor black people!!!


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Katrina Pushes Issues of Race and Poverty at Bush

By Michael A. Fletcher

Washington Post Staff Writer

Monday, September 12, 2005; Page A02

Hurricane Katrina has thrust the twin issues of race and poverty at President Bush, who faces steep challenges in dealing with both because of a domestic agenda that envisions deep cuts in long-standing anti-poverty programs and relationships with many black leaders frayed by years of mutual suspicion.

In the storm's aftermath, the White House has been scrambling to quell perceptions that race was a factor in the slow federal response to Katrina and that its policies have contributed to the festering poverty propelled into public view by the disaster.

Last week, Bush summoned faith-based relief organizations and religious leaders -- many of them African American -- to a White House meeting to discuss his vision for providing long-term help for impoverished people displaced by the storm.

He dispatched Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to her home state of Alabama. He also has had his political surrogates reach out to civil rights groups that previously felt ignored by the White House.

"Katrina has been an attention-getting experience for this administration," said Bruce S. Gordon, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP. "It's clear that the administration has not had [black and poor people] as high on their priority list as they should have."

Angry about how an affiliate of the NAACP portrayed him in a 2000 political ad, Bush has rejected invitations to speak at the organization's past five conventions, making him the first sitting president in more than 80 years not to address the group. NAACP Chairman Julian Bond has excoriated Bush as a reactionary conservative. In the past week, however, Gordon has had multiple conversations with top administration officials and fielded calls from aides to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.

"They wanted to be sure they knew what we were thinking," Gordon said.

Bush also has resolved to tackle the poverty that ensnared 28 percent of New Orleans residents and many others on the Gulf Coast. Many of those poor people were unable to heed warnings to evacuate as the storm approached, compounding the disaster as tens of thousands of mostly black residents overwhelmed sparse government provisions when they sought shelter at the Superdome and convention center in New Orleans.

"Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to reveal a social disaster," said Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourner's, a liberal evangelical journal.

During Tuesday's White House meeting with 20 religious leaders and representatives from relief groups, Bush vowed to provide job programs, health care, life-skills training and housing aid to those displaced by the storm. Echoing a position taken by some civil rights leaders, he asserted that it was insensitive to refer to the poor people fleeing New Orleans as "refugees," a term that for some evokes people fleeing their native country.

When some people at the meeting said that New Orleans residents and local businesses should reap much of the economic benefit from the huge investment that will be required to rebuild the city, Bush readily agreed, according to one participant.

"He didn't receive many of these concerns as some kind of 'race' issue," said C. Jay Matthews, a Cleveland minister who attended the meeting. "There was a feeling that maybe what we have been doing up to now to fight poverty maybe hasn't been effective and we need to move toward long-term solutions."

But some skeptics fear these reassuring words are a disguise for pursuing long-held conservative goals that are viewed with hostility by many black leaders. Congressional Republicans, for example, have voiced opposition to federal programs that set aside government contracts for minorities. And Bush has already moved to suspend the law requiring federal contractors to pay workers the average wage in the region, holding down salaries for many minority laborers.

In the place of traditional poverty programs, Bush has touted faith-based social service programs, calling them more efficient and effective than those run by the government. Many programs of an earlier generation, he says, have served only to perpetuate the plight of the poor.

Overcoming mistrust of blacks compounded by Katrina is an important hurdle in one of Bush's political goals -- making the GOP more competitive with traditionally Democratic African Americans.

"What we've been trying to do is what we believe will help us close the gap we see in America in terms of education, health care, home ownership and wealth," said Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "We have policies that will actually achieve those goals."

To underscore his outreach efforts, when the president toured a hurricane evacuee shelter near Baton Rouge last week, he was accompanied by the Rev. T.D. Jakes, a prominent black evangelist who has known Bush for years. He also went to New Orleans yesterday. Those trips came after Bush was criticized for having little contract with poor, black victims during an earlier visit.

"I mean, it's puzzling, given his immediate response during 9/11, that he did not feel a greater sense of empathy towards the folks that were experiencing this enormous disaster," Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said yesterday on ABC's "This Week."

Whatever approach the administration takes as it moves forward, any Katrina-inspired increase in federal outlays to alleviate poverty would represent a sharp turn for an administration that has moved to reshape government by reducing outlays for social programs by encouraging individual ownership of -- and responsibility for -- everything from housing to health care and retirement accounts. Meanwhile, White House budget makers have projected deep cuts in traditional poverty programs, including food stamps and public housing.

But the calamity spawned by New Orleans has placed Bush under new pressure. A poll last week by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that two-thirds of African Americans believe the government's response to the storm would have been faster if most of the victims had been white. Also, 71 percent of blacks agree that the disaster revealed that racial inequality remains a major problem in the country -- a sentiment shared by 32 percent of whites.

A prominent Louisiana politician called this perception unfair. "The two parishes south of New Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines, are mostly white. They are devastated and they arguably got a lot less attention than New Orleans," said former Louisiana senator John Breaux (D), who has worked closely with Bush. "A lot of people didn't get out because they didn't have a car. This is more a problem of poverty, rather than race."

Rep. Barbara T. Lee (D-Calif.), however, accused Bush of being indifferent to the poor. "If anyone ever doubted that there are two Americas, this disaster and our government's shameful response to it have made the division clear for all to see."

Addressing a meeting of black Baptists in Miami last Wednesday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said the government's slow response revealed "the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a significant role in who survived and who did not."

Michael L. Williams, the only black member of the elected Railroad Commission of Texas and a longtime Bush friend, said the racial and class divisions pushed into the national debate by Katrina present a formidable test for Bush. The answers, he said, will come with how Bush addresses the underlying issues.

"It isn't surprising that African Americans across the country feel pain for the victims of this disaster," Williams said. "When people feel pain, they want to find someone to blame. There is no doubt that it adds to the challenge facing us. But the real story is going to be what it always is: What is really being done about education? About jobs? About housing?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5091101131.html

So, prominent political figures, black and white, agree that Bush doesn't care about poor, black people. The reaction to Hurricane Katrina was not an isolated incident.

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But some skeptics fear these reassuring words are a disguise for pursuing long-held conservative goals that are viewed with hostility by many black leaders. Congressional Republicans, for example, have voiced opposition to federal programs that set aside government contracts for minorities.

Because that would be affirmative action -- racism.

So, prominent political figures, black and white, agree that Bush doesn't care about poor, black people. The reaction to Hurricane Katrina was not an isolated incident.

Yes. Howard Dean. :rofl:

This whole debacle had nothing to do with race, and everything to do with Ray Nagin being a myopic indecisive idiot and not getting all the "poor, black people" out of the city. It was the local government's responsibility, and they botched it. Obviously there's the issue of people not wanting to leave, but face it, Nagin should've been able to get more people out.

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New Orleans has had a long history of bad leadership..obviously, or else the levies would have been made stronger and higher like the experts had suggested YEARS ago.

Liberals are way too eager to blame Bush for something though...anything actually, so there's no convincing them. Even though he has promoted minorities to the highest places in government than anyone else in history.

There would be a case for calling him an elitist (probably common among the ultra rich), but a racist?...not quite.

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New Orleans has had a long history of bad leadership..obviously, or else the levies would have been made stronger and higher like the experts had suggested YEARS ago.

Liberals are way too eager to blame Bush for something though...anything actually, so there's no convincing them.  Even though he has promoted minorities to the highest places in government than anyone else in history.

There would be a case for calling him an elitist (probably common among the ultra rich), but a racist?...not quite.

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The people of color that he put in government, like Colin Powell and Condelizza(spelling) rice are people known in the Black Community as "TOKENS" or "HOUSE NIGGAS"!!! To people unfamiliar to those terms, those were the terms to Black slaves that we treated better by the "ol Massa" than the other Black slaves, and were loyal to their owner.

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The people of color that he put in government, like Colin Powell and Condelizza(spelling) rice are people known in the Black Community as "TOKENS" or "HOUSE NIGGAS"!!! To people unfamiliar to those terms, those were the terms to Black slaves that we treated better by the "ol Massa" than the other Black slaves, and were loyal to their owner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What a sickening response. Keep on waiting for Kanye West to be appointed to a cabinet position if you like. I'm sure by then you'll have a reason to hate him and call him names too.

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The people of color that he put in government, like Colin Powell and Condelizza(spelling) rice are people known in the Black Community as "TOKENS" or "HOUSE NIGGAS"!!! To people unfamiliar to those terms, those were the terms to Black slaves that we treated better by the "ol Massa" than the other Black slaves, and were loyal to their owner.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What a sickening response. Keep on waiting for Kanye West to be appointed to a cabinet position if you like. I'm sure by then you'll have a reason to hate him and call him names too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

:laugh:

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it seems to me that America has big class issues and that (from my experiences in the US and what i have seen as well as my very limited knowledge of sociology) 'blacks' (as well as other ethnic minorities) are generally in lower demographic groups. i personally think that hurricane Katrina has shown the underbelly of American society and has highlighted the poverty in many areas. the fact that many of the poorer persons affected were black does not mean that the response or even George Bush was racist but suggest that maybe America does not adequately cater for its poorest and most vulnerable citizens. it seems to me that this is a class NOT a race issue (despite the fact that many a sociologist would say that they are linked which is true but is really of little merit in this discussion) but that someone (in this case Kanye West) had to just get the discussion out in the open rather than letting it smolder . . .

your complicated system with state governors, mayors, the president, the senate and all that crap seems to be inefficient and to have resulted in a less than impressive response . . .

on another note Kanye West is bloody amazing!!!

that's my view anyway. take it or leave it . . .

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But some skeptics fear these reassuring words are a disguise for pursuing long-held conservative goals that are viewed with hostility by many black leaders. Congressional Republicans, for example, have voiced opposition to federal programs that set aside government contracts for minorities.

Because that would be affirmative action -- racism.

Racism is the reason why affirmative action was implemented in THE FIRST PLACE!!! :whistle:

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Racism is the reason why affirmative action was implemented in THE FIRST PLACE!!! :whistle:

Not true. Affirmative action, as it pertains to admitting persons into colleges and universities, is intended to allow people who are not, for lack of a better term, smart enough to be admitted under the normal standards for enrollment into the school anyway, based on the color of their skin.

It's racism if someone gets into a university because they're black, not because they're intelligent, no? Keep in mind, it also prevents some white person who worked hard from getting into the school.

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Racism is the reason why affirmative action was implemented in THE FIRST PLACE!!! :whistle:

Not true. Affirmative action, as it pertains to admitting persons into colleges and universities, is intended to allow people who are not, for lack of a better term, smart enough to be admitted under the normal standards for enrollment into the school anyway, based on the color of their skin.

It's racism if someone gets into a university because they're black, not because they're intelligent, no? Keep in mind, it also prevents some white person who worked hard from getting into the school.

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um i believe what k_dub means to say is the following...if not for the injustices that blacks have faced for the past couple of centuries, affirmative action would not have been thought to be necessary in the first place. if not for oh um lemme think...slavery and segregation and other various setbacks that blacks have faced , perhaps by now they would be on an even playing field as whites today and affirmative action would not be necessary. to think that the events of the past dont still affect black people and culture today doesnt really make sense to me. affirmative action was meant as a kind of corrective technique. it's not like it just came out of nowhere, and lets not pretend that it did. thanks.

most universities dont just let someone in "because they're black." getting into a university is not simply about "who's the smartest" you know a lot of smart people get rejected from top schools? ...the school, provided it has a good admissions system, looks at more than just test scores. it's a whole package thing. furthermore, the amount of energy spent talking about how unfair affirmative action is, is hilarious to me because most of the people i've talked to who disagree with affirmative action for some very strange reason dont seem to have a problem with legacy students getting preference.

i'd also like to mention that affirmative action isnt just for race...it was also implemented to make sure that women get a fair shot. but no one seems to have a problem with that...or perhaps people just forget?

also one more thing, despite this idea that affirmative action prevents hard working white folk from getting into good schools, most schools still have a majority of white students in it. lots of hardworking people are prevented from going to college, and it aint just because of affirmative action.

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It's racism if someone gets into a university because they're black, not because they're intelligent, no? Keep in mind, it also prevents some white person who worked hard from getting into the school.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's such a stupid thing to say!

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so who's fault is it that it is ok to have Black Entertainment TV but if there was such a thing as white entertainment tv that would be racism. this is a no win arguement for everyone. black and white will never be treated the same because neither really wants to be.

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