The REAL legacy of Katrina
Storm exposed latent racism now permiating the country.

August 30, 2006 by mugsy.

While everyone else is talking about what was and was not done in the rescue and rebuilding of New Orleans and Biloxi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I want to discuss something else the winds of Katrina exposed besides the Mississippi topsoil… the growing racism spreading in this country (Republican and Democrat alike).

As the one-year aniversary (memorial?) has drawn nearer, the racist tendencies of so many Conservatives has begun to spill out like water over a levee.

Photos and video of the bloated carcassas of dead poor black victims in New Orleans floating face down in the flood waters of the NOLA 9th ward, hundreds of people at the lowest rung of the economic ladder crying out for rescue at the Super Dome, to Conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh letting loose a little Freudian slip when he called New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, “Mayor Nayger”, have invaded our sensibilities this past year.

WV Senator George Allen’s…

…now infamous “Macaca” insult to a dark-skinned kid of East Indian origin (”Welcome to America”, Allen chuckled) is just the latest example of what appears to be a worsening trend.

Montana Senator Conrad Burns joking about the “little Guatemalan man” doing some painting for him, even suggesting he’s here illegally, which besides being just rude, is surprising for someone that has railed on the floor of the Senate over people that hire illegal immigrants. Huh.

Florida Rep. Tramm Hudson suggested that he believes most black people “don’t know how to swim”. Okay, that’s just stupid. But when you consider that apes are physically incapable of swiming due to their build, the question of whether or not the Congressman was using this as the basis for his beliefs is disturbing.

But we must be fair now, New Orleans Mayor (D) Ray Nagin… for whom black LSU history professor Leonard Moore titled his book “Oreo in a Chocolate City”… did indeed use that term to describe what NOLA would be “once again”, and then sounded like a word-parsing idiot the next day suggesting he meant “chocolate made with white creamy milk”. Oh! THAT’S what he meant! I feel like a stupid racist for even thinking otherwise!”

But why stop there? “[T]he majority of terrorist attacks have been carried out by Muslims”, says Florida Dist13 (R) candidate Mark Flanagan. I wonder if Mr Flanagan ever heard of Timothy McVeigh, Eric Rudolph, or Ted “The Unabomber” Kaczynski? Because before 9/11, the only terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since the ‘93 trade-center bombing were by militant Conservative white guys.

Paul Nelson, a Republican running in the third district of Wisconsin, knows how to spot a Muslim at the airport: “If he comes in wearing a turban and his name is Muhammad, that’s a good start”.

I have an easier solution:

Fox news commentator Mike Gallagher, on the air, proposed a “Muslim’s only” line at the airport. You know, because the last thing a terrorists wants to do is blend in. I’m reminded of the old argument about “if you ban guns, only the honest people will turn them in”. Likewise, only the “non-terrorist” would single themselves out for greater scrutiny and get in that line, don’t ‘cha think, Mike?

Pat Buchanan, a varitable fount of racist xenophobia, who has wanted a 2,000 mile long concrete wall along the border with Mexico since his early Presidential aspirations in 1992, is now suggesting we need to put a moratorium on “all immigration into this country” until we can decide who we want to let in and who should go home. And just who should we let in? Why, “folks from cultures and civilization that have been assimilated before”.. you know, Europeans.

And don’t forget his claim that “Mexicans don’t want to assimilate” into American culture (96% of Mexican-born Americans do).

But his Cou’de’gras has to be his recent accusation that “Mexico seeks to re-annex 7 southern states”. Time to invade Mexico!

Is any of this a surprise as this White House fosters anti-immigrant nationalism that has shown nothing but disrespect for anyone that isn’t a rich white person of European decent?

Remember when we were PROUD to be thought of as the country whose motto is, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.“? Today, it’s not the Statue of Liberty the rest of the world is reminded of when they think of the U.S., it’s Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

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