per mass email: N.O. Blacks are criminals, lazy.

[Deep13]

Here is a mass email forwarded to me by my gandfather. He forwards essetially everything he gets to everyone on his address list.

On edit: the subject line of the message said something about what people must think after hearing what the "liberal media" reported.

"The hurricane only hit black family's property New Orleans was devastated and no other city was affected by the hurricane
"Mississippi is reported to have a tree blown down
"New Orleans has no white people
"The hurricane blew a limb off a tree in the yard of an Alabama resident
"When you are hungry after a hurricane steal a big screen TV or after ya get your $2,000 debit card....buy a Diamond Tennis Braclet
"The hurricane did 23 billion dollars in improvements to New Orleans:now New Orleans is :
"Welfare, Looters and Gang Free with NO school Taxes and they are in Our City...Houston.
"White folks don't make good news stories
"Don't give thanks to the thousands that came to help rescue you, instead bitch because the government hasn't given you a debit card yet
"Then Bitch again when We give ya a NEW House..& NO furniture
"Only black family members got separated in the hurricane rescue efforts
"Ignore warnings to evacuate and the white folks will come get you and give you money for being stupid
"Damn, I feel so sorry for all those black folks."

Here is my response:

"So which Klansman sent you this piece of racist trash? Here is a copy of a note I recent sent to my mother.

"Hello

"Well, by now you must have heard from Bill O'Reilly and the rest of them that the Democrats are using the recent hurricane catastrophe to make political hay. You may have also heard that it is mostly the fault of Louisianna's governor and N.O.'s mayor. Least you suppose that I have signed on with a bunch of assholes, I have provided a link to a timeline of the events in question drawn from public sources. Hopefully this will at least partially correct the damage done by the repeated violation of the 9th Commandment by those who purport to be Christians.

http://www.thinkprogress.org/katrina-timeline

"In response to some specific lies, let me say this.
-Once a Federal emergency is declared by the president, FEMA owns that problem. It does not merely fill in the gaps left by locals.
-Levees surrounding N.O. are under the supervison of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Bush reduced their budget for levee maintainance.
The Army has exclusive jurisdiction over all navigable water in America.
-FEMA predicted they would be able to get 60% of the residents out of N.O. Mayor Nagin succeeded in evacuating 80%.
-The situation was exacerbated by the absence of most of Louisianna's Nat. Guard who were in Iraq with their amphibious vehicles. (Isn't Iraq a desert?)
-Gov. Blanco never blocked the Feds from entering the state. Anyway, it is not as if the state has a front door she can just lock.
-Brown, the then head of the Fed. disaster relief is an expert on Arabian show horses by profession. His previous assignment was investigating the use of liposuction in show horses. He knew Bush in college and has no emergency management experience.
-Halliburton, Dick Cheney's company, has already been given contracts for the relief effort and stands to make a lot of money on reconstruction. Cheney is no longer CEO, but he is a large shareholder and maintains close ties with the company management.

"me"

[Misunderestimator]

1. That's so incredibly racist, I can't even read the whole thing.

And frankly, I think it pollutes the mind to read it. Anyone who would be receptive to this kind of vitriol is unredeemable. Knowing what those kind of people write and read doesn't help me at all.

[Deep13]

3. Those kind of people have method to their madness.

Sure, blame the messanger.

I can't tell you how many hate-mongering emails I get every month, though most are not this overt. Some are angry. Some are upbeat and purport to be common sense. Some throw a couple of progressive ideas in there to make it appear balanced. They all prey on people's subconscious fears and are calculated to keep people afraid. Somewhere, someone with right-wing ties and an understanding of the politics of division is righting these goddamn things.

Sorry for tracking mud across your previously pristine brain. :eyes:

[Misunderestimator]

6. Wow, you sure did take that the wrong way. I was responding to the

EMAIL, not the messenger. I would IGNORE emails like that... in fact I do. That was my point. But take it however you like... in the end, I really did not enjoy reading that hateful crap.

What do you expect to accomplish, anyway, by posting it here?

[zanne]

5. They're showing their true colors.

There is an entire culture that attempts to hide its' racist impulses. When there's an incident or a tragedy like this, they just can't pretend anymore.

[spinbaby]

2. Is it a joke?

It's so bizarre and misguided I can only imagine that it's someone's misguided idea of a joke.

[Deep13]

4. Guess I missed the punchline.

These mass, anonymous emails are pretty well calculated.