the shit has hit the fan

As I have been watching New Orleans sink deeper and deeper in chaos, if the major media outlets can be believed, I mean, they are pretty inflammatory what with the shots of dead bodies and 'rape counts', as I've watched this really fucking wild event unfold, the most pressing thing on my mind has been issues of race.

From the photos and video I've seen, the vast majority of the people stuck in New Orleans, living in squalor, are of African descent.

The poorest sections of New Orleans were apparently hit the hardest, where apparently the vast majority of the population is black. Similarly, the poor people, who seem to be mostly black, weren't able to flee the city when the mandatory evacuation was called. They couldn't charge a last minute plane ticket or hop in the car and head to their sister's in Chicago.

I'm fairly certain that this event will provoke some serious thinking in this country about racial issues, at least I hope it will.

Anyway, the NY Times just published a piece that I expect from them. While they certainly seem to have their problems as a news outlet, they definately manage to take a more responsible and in depth look at the issues. Anyway, this piece was about the race and New Orleans.

"The victims, they note, were largely black and poor, those who toiled in the background of the tourist havens, living in tumbledown neighborhoods that were long known to be vulnerable to disaster if the levees failed. Without so much as a car or bus fare to escape ahead of time, they found themselves left behind by a failure to plan for their rescue should the dreaded day ever arrive."

I suppose the culturally responsible position to take, and I actually think the correct explanation as well, is to explain the looting, raping, snipering of the hospital evacuations and rescue missions (perpetrated by blacks?) as also a sympton of their cultural status. I also wonder how exaggerated these reports are?

Of course perhaps it's a bit hasty and inherently racist to immediately paper over the whole situation with the 'race label'. The Times article also briefly addresses the issue of poor rural communities, which tend to be, at least in the midwest, appalachia and northeast, almost completely white. These people seem to get screwed over on a pretty regular basis. The media coming out of Mississippi and Alabama and the rural areas there is not quite as dramatic because the population density isn't nearly as great. There aren't 30,000 poor white people standing around a football stadium. But I would imagine those who couldn't get the fuck out of dodge got royally screwed by this storm. And I bet they were white.

Well, whatever the case me be, I think this is clearly a cultural phenomenon and not one of 'race', whatever that may be. Of course our intuitive understanding of race may be primarily conditioned by cutlural cues. NOT by skin color. It's just terribly easy to SEE that and make race an issue of skin color.

And while I'm on this impromptu rant, what's up with all the fucking god talk? It really fucking pisses me off. 'Thank God we're not dead, just completely fucking screwed. God really saved us there.' Yeah, but first he rammed a giant goddamn hurricane down your throats, gave guns to looters and made possibly the stupidest man in charge of a country ever responsible to deal with it at the federal level. Clearly God had to fuck you over royally in order to save you.

Keep prayin'. He's got a plan. He works in mysterious ways.

Both the race and the God thing are very tender issues for me. I'm not sure how to deal with them.

I'm just glad I'm not stuck down there.