Image source: Reuters

Now I have purposely not said anything regarding Kanye West’s claim that George Bush doesn’t care about black people simply because he is just exercising his right to freedom of speech in this country. With that being said, I also believe in the old saying “With freedom comes great responsibility”. I believe that Kanye did not exercise responsibility with respect to the time and place he decided to exercise his freedom.

I also did not give his “expression” too much attention simply because he is a musician and not someone who formulates public policy. This is why I hate it when mainstream media continues to seek the political views of played out and tired TV stars and over-drugged and over-sexed musicians (no, I am not referring to Kanye West!). Do their opinions count? Sure. But so does the opinions of ordinary people like you and me. What really matters in this country are the opinions of those WE THE PEOPLE elect to public service.

Kanye’s statement was not based on a personal experience with President Bush, but on what he along with millions of other people worldwide saw on television (remember what I said the other day about how our opinions as a people are largely influenced by what we see and/or hear?). Kanye saw the over-dramatic news reporters repeatedly pointing out that most of the hurricane survivors were black (as if we could not have seen that for ourselves) and that federal aid was nowhere to be found. So he drew the conclusion that Bush does not care about these people because they are black.

Enter the “other” affected cites like Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, and others–all in Mississippi. These are cities where, like New Orleans who were also affected by the delayed federal response (not too long ago, I provided a link to an article that describes how FEMA has a long history of delayed responses–again, keeping in mind that it is the local government’s job to function as first responder). Below are the comments of concerned family members and citizens who were wondering about the welfare of individuals in these other affected areas:

From MSNBC:

“As a former resident of Pascagoula, I too have been surprised by the lack of national coverage of the eastern Gulf Coast of Mississippi. I have been getting my Pascagoula news from the Mississippi Press Register online. According to today’s paper, 80% of Pascagoula homes have been damaged or destroyed and aid has been slow to arrive. My parents have not been able to get in touch with friends due to the phone lines still being down. Pascagoula residents, as all the hurricane victims, are in our prayers.”

“Check out the complete and total devastation of waveland and bay st. louis. My neighborhood (the cedar point are of bay st louis) has been obliterated — hundreds of homes reduced to rubble including mine – and I haven’t seen that in the news at all.”

“My uncle lives in Pascagoula, and I finally reached him on Sunday, 9-4-05. He almost lost everything in his home. He told me that there is a roof with four walls, but everything else is destroyed or gone. he has lived in this house for over 40 years. He was in very good spirits, for what he and others there have been through. He said pascagoula was hit hard, and almost unidentifable. Sounds every bit as bad as Gulfport area, but you don’t hear much about the Pascagoula area. It was a long week not knowing or hearing anything from the media in this area. There was news from about every other city in MS AL and LA. Many people in Pascagoula have lost everything. Hang in there, help is on the way.”

“I am appauled at the lack of coverage for Pascagoula, Wiggins, Hattiesburg, and other small towns in Mississippi! I understand that NOLA is under water, but, if no one see how devastated the rest of the hurricane area really is, then they are going to get short changed in the relief (and are getting the short end currently!). I have family in Pascagoula, and Hattiesburg. I can tell you that my family has said that they have not seen FEMA in Hattiesburg and that when our mayor (Dupree) asked Haley Barbour for help with security, Barbour told Mayor Dupree that he hoped we get it worked out! I am more than appauled!!…”

And here is a person who is wondering about an Indian reservation in the area…

I would love for people to talk about communities other than New Orleans.

While i do care for these people and wish them the best, I need/want to find out about other communities. I have family in Central MS and still haven’t heard a word. There is the choctaw Reservation in MS and I don’t know how they faired.

These are questions I would love to find answers to. i can’t call anyone b/c the phone circuits remain busy.

I also know that the Biloxi area has a large Vietnamese population who were also hit pretty hard. To many of them, their livelihood was based heavily on the Gulf because they make their living in the shrimping industry. Many of them lost everything.

And what is the common denominator of many of these other affected cities?

They have significant white populations.

So then are white people justified in making the claim that George Bush doesn’t care about them either?

What about the Vietnamese people? Native Americans, Samoans? Gays? Lesbians? Transgendered?

Hey, let’s go crazy with this–How about all the dogs, cats, zoo animals, farm animals, etc. ? Does Bush care less for them as well?

The reason why there was such an emphasis on blacks in this situation is because our plight has long been the fuel for those in this country who want to keep America in a perpetual state of guilt–and we freely allow these political pimps to do this over and over again. Saying “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” will get a lot more gripe mileage than if he was to say that Bush didn’t care about whites. Mainstream media chose to place more of an emphasis on blacks because they knew it would get them better ratings. Some of the most respectable news agencies in the industry chose to focus on exaggerated claims of mass murders and rapes without taking the time to validate their stories simply because the claims themselves were a lot more believable if blacks were committing these crimes than whites. The end result? Higher ratings and a divided country.

The truth of this whole situation is in the numbers—

Whites were far more affected by Katrina than blacks.

{data taken from census.gov. Chart format is from James Taranto’ article “Is Katrina Racist?” in OpinionJournal.com–part of the Wall Street Journal}

The table below lists all the major counties that were affected by Katrina broken down by race.

And before someone makes the point that the “issue” is about how many blacks were left behind, please stop and ask the question “how many blacks got out?”. You will be surprised at the number. This article does a great job breaking down those numbers.

And while we are accusing whites for leaving po’ black folk behind, please do not leave out the fact that it was US that left US behind as well. No need to use selective reasoning if our goal is to unearth the truths behind this issue.

What really disturbed me about Kanye’s “expression” was not his actual comments, but how many in our community readily accepted his baseless claim as though it was the gospel truth. Both our dear press and most of the black blog community produced great elaborations on his comments as it had been written in stone and brought down from the mountain by Moses himself. Very few looked at it for what it really was–a baseless emotional outburst.

While many of us were trippin’ over two pictures put together by someone who wanted to underscore the fact that racism still exist in this country (like I have said many times before, racism DOES exist, but so does passing gas. It doesn’t mean that I have to illustrate that point every chance I get to prove that it exists), there were whites in the region who lost just about everything helping blacks and vice versa. I’ve heard of stories where predominately white ministries not only bought housing for black hurricane victims, but furnished it.

Now that is America!

Of course you will not hear of these types of stories (and there are many of them) from those who want to compare the Katrina aftermath to the days of slavery or Jim Crow.

The true spirit of America where brother helps brother and sister helps sister REGARDLESS of race, creed, religion, color is happening all around us. Unless we stop using the filtered lens of race, we will overlook the opportunities to see it in action.