News from Australia: "America's inept response"

[Bluebear]

Hurricane Katrina may have exposed a racial fault line between blacks and whites in America, say staff writers at the LA Times.

Most middle-class blacks, like most white residents, were able to leave New Orleans, a city of 1.4 million that is 70 per cent black, about half of whom live below the poverty line.

In Images of the Victims Spark a Racial Debate, reporters quote David Wellman, author of the book Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society.

"Many whites will focus on the lawlessness of what's going on in New Orleans," Wellman said. "Many blacks will focus on the desperation of the victims, the fact that they're being neglected and ignored."...

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/americas-inept-response/2005/09/05/1125772447681.html