White Opportunism : Black Looting

It's very telling that our state and federal beurocrats wasted no time in giving a stern warning to looters in New Orleans that they would be met with a "zero tolerance" (i.e. intolerance), "shoot-to-kill" policy. While poor people are starving and dying of thirst and diabetic shock and disentary and other entirely preventable maladies, the governments earliest priorities were to meet black faces stealing tennis-shoes and televisions with excessive force.

You see, when you're poor & black, it isn't taking advantage of an opportunity to enhance your chances of survival, but looting that will not be tolerated by the powers that be - even when they should be concentrating on much more important things, like making sure hundreds of thousands of Americans don't succumb to the ravages of a natural disaster. Here's a practical solution: if you're carrying anything that you don't need for survival, like water or formula or diapers or food or medicine, then you don't get help. Ten boxes of Nikes are surely an economic and social boon to some poor, black, urban male, but you can't eat shoes no matter how cool they look. Now, if you're stupid enough to shoot at people who are trying to rescue you, then you deserve to be shot.

At the same time, when rich white businessmen gouge consumers at the gas pumps and take obscene profits from the war in Iraq with no-bid contracts, that's NOT looting. Somehow that's ok. Those people don't get an M-16 pointed at their heads for stealing from the federal treasury and from the American taxpayers. Instead they're celebrated as clever opportunists by right-wing conservatives (i.e. fascists). I'm sure those people are already positining themselves to re-build New Orleans and parts of Missisippi and Alabama. I bet the back-room handshakes have already left their palms sweaty. I know, we can get Dick Cheney to give the New Orleans re-construction contracts to Kellogg, Brown & Root and Haliburton and/or their less publicized subsidiaries - they've been having a helluva time in Iraq and would much rather deal with poor blacks instead of poor Iraqis.

I believe this administration and their corporate comrades in the private sector are guilty of the worst looting in the history of our country (and the federal deficit will bore that out when all is said and done), yet nobody is threatening these unapologetic theives with extreme force - even in the voting booths. Too bad. Oh, and remember, this is the same administratioin who ignored the looting of Baghdad.

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It will be a mistake for the Katrina victims to turn the slow response to this crisis into a black/white, racial thing - even though there's still undoubtedly unspoken forces working against black America when it comes to white empathy. But I think it's really about class. Those with the means and the sense to leave, were never in any danger. Those without? Well, right-wing conservatives are true social Darwinists who don't feel any guilt in saying "fuck 'em" - as long as it's not on the record in print, radio or television.

As soon as the Fed had boots on the ground yesterday, the top priority seemed to be positive photo-ops to counter the negative publiciity about the slow response to the human crisis. It started with President Bush, who coddled two black women in his arms and kissed them on their heads. Then the generals got into the game today, kissing black babies and and making damn sure they got videotaped barking orders, getting shit done. Well, they were definitely losing in the PR game with this crisis - they had to do something.

I think it's probably true that the magnitude of this crisis played a large part in the slow response. Add to that the poor communication between local, state and federal authorities and you've got a real, dangerous mess on your hands. But it I think it really opened peoples eyes to the fraility of our nation and our susceptibility to natural and man-made disasters - regardless of how deluded we are about American superiority.