Kanye, Its not black people * doesn't care about, its POOR people

[gennifer6]

This has nothing to do with colour and everything to do with income. If you were black and had money, I'm sure George would like you very much....

[Wetzelbill]

1. especially if you sold out you own people and became a Republican nt

[melody]

2. Look at Dr. Condi...if you have to...aka Mrs. Bush

Yeah, it's POOR and working/middle class people the man hates...he's shown that over and over again.

[mzteris]

5. She's NOT black

she just plays one on TV.........

[Sydnie]

6. LMAO!!

First good laugh all day. Thanks!

[gennifer6]

12. oh, thank you...yeah, that was funny

:rofl:

[mzteris]

3. it's ANY f'ing people

GWB doesn't CARE ABOUT ANYONE but HIMSELF. Numero Uno. He may posture for those he considers useful or for those paying his bills - but care? pah. He doesn't care about anyone. You can look at his eyes and tell that!

[Tyranny_R_US]

7. Its amazing when there is racism commited against the blacks...

there is always someone out there denying it and trying to covering it up, WHY cant people just call it what it is?

[mzteris]

9. Sorry - not trying to deny

the inherent racism - just pointing out what a psychopath george is.

Believe me, you're preaching to the choir here.

[Tyranny_R_US]

4. Its black people you can deny it but what happened was clear cut racism...

but for the sake of argument name one rich black out there that Bush helped NAME ONE!

[mongo]

11. Last time our little corner of Appalachia was flooded out

it took Bush two and a half weeks to sign a disaster declaration for FEMA to even come in.

It is about economic caste. In the sense that the majority of people in that caste are black, it is racism. But he doesn't care for us poor whites any more than the poor blacks.

We're on the same team here.

[melody]

25. yup

There are sections of southern Appalachia that don't have electricity or indoor plumbing to this day.

They don't like poor/working-class people - end of story.

[melody]

27. Larry King the midwest monster

He's supposed to be black. He's one of George's buds.

This is a class issue...it simply is. New Orleans is 70% African-American...many black folk are poor (that's where racism comes into play). I absolutely believe Bush is a white supremist, but his ilk simply turn their lily white noses up at poor people. They don't know the racial makeup. They only know the tax base and the political registration rolls.

[GettysbergII]

8. Absolutely, it's all about the Ownership Society and the urban poor

are only valued for the revenue stream they create for the prison industrial complex

[Chovexani]

10. Oh for fuck's sake

You know what I am sick and fucking tired of? I am sick and fucking tired of (white) DUers saying this has nothing to do with color. Denying it when we have a history in this country of systematic oppression and genocide against people of color. When we have a history of things like the Tuskegee experiments where BLACK MEN were treated like lab rats out of Nazi Germany. Where we had native peoples who were WIPED THE FUCK OUT. I am sick and goddamn tired of being told this is all in our heads, we're crazy, we need to "think".

And you people wonder why people of color are so cynical of the Democratic Party. You people never want to fucking listen to us unless it's election time and you want our goddamn vote.

Fuck this noise, I'm out.

[mongo]

13. Play the race card if you like

and you have several valid reasons for doing so, but it really doesn't help you or the lower economic caste, or the Democratic party.

As far as history goes, there is a history of systematic oppression of Irish folks too. Many were kidnapped into the union army, among other things.

There's just as many poor rural white people in this country as inner city blacks - who are being equally screwed by Bush. Really, the working rural poor are being more screwed at the moment - as many have to travel 50 miles each way to find a decent job.

No, you're not crazy. There is racism on both sides. But when you play the race card you divide us.

[gennifer6]

16. This has nothing to do with denying oppression & genocide on people

of colour.

WHITE PEOPLE OPPRESS OTHER WHITE PEOPLE. That being said, oppression of people not white is an absolute certainty. I'm sorry you took it that way. Someone else in another thread mentioned that the only colour George Bush cares about is "green." Money is more important than race to these people. Money is more important than anything. Their inability and unwillingness to handle this situation correctly comes from being unable to understand what a person who only makes $8,000 a year (if that). Because they have credit cards and SUVs and airline tickets to get themselves out of town and in comfortable hotels, it doesn't occur to them that other people can't do that. Such is the sad result of ignorance. The idea that poor people can't afford to evacuate probably didn't occur to them as quickly as it should have.

[Matariki]

18. it has everything to do with race

it has everything to do with race. it has everything to do with race. i'm saying this as a (mostly white) DUer.

it's true that bush doesn't care about any of us, but it goes beyond george. a friend of mine pointed out the lack of donation solicitions in her office like there were for 9/11 and the tsunami. racism is our part of national mental illness.

and to the person who used the sentence 'playing the race card'. well blah x(

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. The two are inextricable

That doesn't mean that there are no poor whites or rich blacks. It means that race and class are intimately connected throughout American society, and separating the two is sociologically ignorant and politically fucking stupid, and usually only the province of whites trying to pretend that America is not infected with systemic racism to this day. Those people are poor, in large part, BECAUSE they are born black in America. Exceptions? Of course. And the exceptions prove the rule. Every fucking sociological statistic since people started taking statistics shows the correlation (not the CAUSE in an inescapable determinism, but the correlation). It's not "imagined" or "overblown" or "outdated." It's quite real, and has profound effects on the psyche of every American. Don't pretend it doesn't exist just because white people are poor too. That's a cop out, and really tired 1980's reactionary nonsense, that has somehow found its way into the speech of Democrats who should know better (another testament to the triumph of right wing rhetoric over the last thirty years).

[mongo]

17. Everything you say is true

but what does making that the front and center issue buy you?

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. I like the pragmatism

I really do. I'm a bit of a pragmatist myself, as is Cornel West.

I think you have to make it AN issue in a constellation of issues. I take your implication to be that so many white Americans will bristle at the idea that they perform systemic racisms basically every day - they all have black friends, doncha know - that even mentioning it will destroy any positive effects we could attain by arguing otherwise. It's a good point, and a rhetorically important point. But until it is on the table for conversation, it will continue on as it has, and as we're seeing this week, it simply cannot: this is the moral challenge of our times. W.E.B. DuBois famously said that the problem of the 20th century will be the problem of the color line. He was, of course, correct - racisms in all their various mutations were the problem of the 20th century. The problem of the 21st century may not be the problem of the color line, but the problem of pretending the color line no longer exists. That has to be on the table. It is a social imperative. And yes, it will make people uncomfortable, just as did a few, then more, then thousands of black college students sitting at those diner counters and facing down the dogs in our cities.

[Marr]

15. No way. This has ALOT to do with race.

[1932]

19. Bush would not have pulled anti-looter/law&order BS if victims poor&white

[Blue_In_AK]

28. Exactly ... if the majority of people stuck in NO were

poor WHITE people, there wouldn't have been all the "we're afraid to go in there" talk. While I agree that Bush has no use for ANYBODY who's poor, what has happened to NO is a racist disaster. (I'm white, but I call it like I see it.)

[1932]

31. "The natives are getting restless" -- a first-responder used that phrase

it was in one of the threads transcribing scanner traffic the night before last night.

That's the attitude Bush was projecting.

[Cleita]

20. Something I know about racist feelings in white people is

that if they accept you it's because "you're not like the rest of them. You're different."

I also found this out about being a Catholic. "You're not like the rest of them. You're different."

You kinda of rack up points of being "different" than the rest of people exactly like you because circumstances kind of push you together and they start seeing you as a person.

It never means that they accept the rest of your tribe, believe me.

[gennifer6]

23. that's pretty horrible

I haven't thought about that in concern with this situation in particular, but sad enough, I know people like that.

There is nothing different between me and the black girl with me buying cigarettes for 10-cents a piece paying for it with pennies. There's no colour, there's only understanding.

For the sake of argument, I'm a tatooed & pierced Goth chick, and I have vitiligo. I know all about being "different."

[Cleita]

26. Hi to another one of the different.

:hi:

[gennifer6]

30. right back at ya...

:silly: :hi:

[Catchawave]

22. John Edwards email today:

Dear xxxxxxx,

During the campaign of 2004, I spoke often of the two Americas: the America of the privileged and the wealthy, and the America of those who lived from paycheck to paycheck. I spoke of the difference in the schools, the difference in the loan rates, the difference in opportunity. All of that pales today. Today - and for many days and weeks and months to follow - we see a harsher example of two Americas. We see the poor and working class of New Orleans who don't own a car and couldn't evacuate to hotels or families far from the target of Katrina. We see the suffering of families who lived from paycheck to paycheck and who followed the advice of officials and went to shelters at the Civic Center or the Superdome or stayed home to protect their possessions.

Now every single resident of New Orleans, regardless of their wealth or status, will have terrible losses and life-altering experiences. Every single resident will know and care about someone who was lost to this hurricane. But some, ranging from the very poorest to the working class unable to accumulate a cushion of assets to rely upon on a very, very rainy day, will suffer the most because they simply didn't have the means to evacuate. They suffered the most from Katrina because they always suffer the most.

These are Americans some of whom who left everything they possessed behind in order to save those they loved. These are Americans huddled with their children or pushing a wheelchair between rows of those too beaten or weak to stand. In this moment, we have to remember they are part of us, Americans who love their country and are part of our national community. In this moment, it is hard because our hair is clean and our clothes are washed and our eyes are not glazed with hopelessness. But these are our brothers and sisters, and we have to remember this not just for them, but for us. We must finally recognize that when any of us suffer, we are all weaker; it affects us all.

Commentators on television have expressed surprise, saying they think that most people didn't know there was such poverty in America. Thirty-seven million Americans live in poverty, most of them are the working poor, but it is clear that they have been invisible. But if these commentators are right, this tragedy can have a great influence, if we listen to its message.

The people most devastated have always lived on a razor blade, afraid of any setback, any illness, any job loss that could disrupt the fragile balance they achieved paycheck to paycheck. They didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. Some didn't leave their homes because they wanted to protect the hard-won possessions that made their lives a little easier.

The government released new poverty statistics this week. The number of Americans living in poverty rose again last year. Thirteen million children -- nearly one in every five -- lives in poverty. Close to 25 percent of all African Americans live in poverty. Twenty-three percent of the population in New Orleans lives in poverty. Those are chilling numbers. Because of Katrina, we have now seen many of the faces behind those numbers.

Poverty exists everywhere in America. It is in Detroit and El Paso. It is in Omaha, Nebraska and Stockton, California. It is in rural towns like Chillicothe, Ohio and Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Nearly half of the children in Detroit, Atlanta and Long Beach, California live in poverty. It doesn't have to be this way. We can begin embracing policies that offer opportunity, reward responsibility, and assume the dignity of each American.

There are immediate needs in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, and the first priority is meeting those, but after that, we need to think about the American community, about the one America we think we are, the one we talk about. We need people to feel more than sympathy with the victims, we need them to feel empathy with our national community that includes the poor. We have missed opportunities to make certain that all Americans would be more than huddled masses. We have been too slow to act in the face in the misery of our brothers and sisters. This is an ugly and horrifying wake-up call to America. Let us pray we answer this call. Now is the time to act.

- John

[msgadget]

24. He's admitted to not paying attention to politics

Kanye's admitted to not being political and he's reacting emotionally, I'm sure, to what he's seeing on television and in the papers. Class and race can be synonymous. There was an element of racism regarding the early reporting and, if you read the rightwing sites, a certain detachment.

[fishwax]

29. Bullshit. They aren't mutually exclusive.

Yes it's color. Yes it's income. To deny the racial aspects is to deny reality.

[VolcanoJen]

32. DON'T LET THEM MAKE THIS ABOUT KANYE WEST.

They're going to attack everyone in the entertainment world to get us to forget who to point the finger at.

It's begun.

DON'T LET THEM.