USNews.com: John Leo: The race canard (9/26/05)

USNews.com: John Leo: The race canard (9/26/05): "A letter to the editor of the Oregonian, in Portland, Ore., said of Katrina: 'I am deeply disturbed and angered by the number of reports claiming racism has something to do with the delay in the relief effort. These claims are unsubstantiated and a complete lie. To even suggest that our government would allow people to die simply because of the color of their skin is despicable. ... In a time of national crisis, another media-driven race war is the last thing this country needs.'"

"despicable"? But the ancestors of the same people were enslaved in America because of the color of their skin for at least two centuries. Nothing that the African - American has today came without the sacrifice of blood, tears, and lives to get it. Maybe white Americans, and a few Black Americans, forgot... A black person couldn't sit in the front of a bus where whites were allowed to sit... Is the connection that hard to see? Is the pain, history, and legacy of racism in American deleted/taken off the historical harddrive because it's not acknowledged and discussed? Did America have a conversion that it didn't tell black folks about? Is every other "ism" a figmet of our imagination as well? The pain is a pain that aches deep in my bones. I want to heal it. I will do my part. God, I must do my part.

What are the conditions that exist in America that allows any person, black or white, to believe that race could be a factor in the United States governments lack of immediate response to relief in New Orleans?

Cnn reported that 60 % (6 of 10) of Black people in America polled felt race was a factor. They didn't come to that conclusion because they heard Jesse or Al say it. Hell, there hasn't been any media coverage of Jesse or Al for anyone to see. I only see the articles on the internet that criticize them for expressing what they believe. I haven't heard them for myself... So, I must thank you for letting me know that they are speaking up and out. Black people in America have carried the pain of racial inequality with them since before they emerged from the hulls of slave ships. That history, that legacy is not erased or forgotten because some white people refuse to acknowledge it. The United States of America walked out of the World Conference on Racism in 2001, and now Bush acknowledges during a speech "That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America". I know, I know...he'll say just about anything to get his behind off the hot seat and his approval rating up. I just don't think that Karl Rove and his team of writers will allow that to go into the speech if it wasn't grounded in some reality. I guess you never know, though...Someone lied, or should I say gave him misinformation about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction.