Class warfare + racism = no coincidence poor are mostly brown-skinned

[omega minimo]

Please quit pretending that it is either/or (those of you who are) classism OR racism or that the two are not intertwined or that it is not a waste of time, an embarrassment and an INSULT to see this argued repeatedly on the eminently "progressive" DU.

Please. :hi:

[omega minimo]

1. No, really!

:bounce:

[kodi]

2. no coincidence, at all

.

[omega minimo]

3. Nuff said

:evilgrin: Now, let's move on.

There's "hard work" to be done. :evilfrown:

In honor of those who have suffered.

[omega minimo]

4. Pardon me, apparently this does have to be spelled out for some

And by the way, I cannot begin to fathom the need of some at DU to ever BOTHER trying to deny the racist element in this story. To even think about trying to deny it seems-- unfathomable!

My immediate concern watching the New Orleans disaster unfold on Tee Vee was that some Americans would downplay the inhumane treatment of the survivors because they were black; the habitual association of African Americans with poverty and indignities permeates the American consciousness.

THESE SCENES WOULD BE PERCEIVED TOTALLY DIFFERENTLY IF THESE PEOPLE WERE NOT BLACK-- THEY WOULD NOT EVEN BE HAPPENING. (The posts today advocating "rubbing people's faces in the photos" of the dead in NO made me want to :puke: These are human beings-- not cartoon characters. We don't need to look at those photos to guage the suffering or the horror). THAT is the racist aspect here. To deny it is not to see honestly what is before our eyes-- and it is imperative that we do.

The bigger picture is that we have to recognize that this IS A TEST of how we respond to the inhumane and irresponsible treatment of a segment of the population. To downplay the implications because these poor, brown people "should have" done something other than be in NO when the hurricane hit, is to miss the point....

To split hairs over whether this is about their race OR their class is to also miss the point.

This could be your neighborhood. The lesson here is THEY WILL DO THIS TO ANY SEGMENT OF THE POPULATION, ANY COMMUNITY.

This is an experiment. The safe, opinionated, observing public are the GUINEA PIGS.

This is a test. This is only a test. Had this been an actual emergency, you would have been notified by the dead air on the emergency broadcast system and the helicopters flying overhead, passing passing passing into the distance.......