Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans apologized for making a statement, during a Martin Luther King Jr speech, urging residents to "rebuild a chocolate New Orleans". Residents were angry, accusing Nagin of trying to divide the city.
Nagin insisted he wasn't being divisive, and tried to explain by describing the process of making chocolate. "You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink..."
That's just fine with me. Go ahead and build your "chocolate New Orleans". When the next hurricane comes, us vanilla folk will be watching the carnage on CNN. Hope you all can swim better than you did last time.
Jesse Jackson said it was not racist if you new what he meant. WHAT!! If a white guy said it he would hang him. Nagin is a biggot along with Jackson and the rest of them. Give me a break!!
Did anyone catch the comment he had made on I believe it was The Colbert Report. Saying how God is punishing America for its involvement in the war. I dont think any of us have the comprehension to understand 'his' plan. The New Olreans is definately a moron, the fact that he wants to rebuild in the areas that are the least protected shows that perfectly.
Many people were affected by the floods. However, the lowest-lying areas were primarily (poor) black neighborhoods. Since poorer people have less resources to rebuild and depend entirely on an overloaded system for aid in rebuilding i think these comments were justified. Why is it racist or devisive to direct an encouraging comment toward a certain group on a day set aside for members of that group to reflect on their history and struggle for equality? In this litigious society it is a shame how careful our officials have to be with what they do and don't say. Honesty has died at the hand of political correctness.
I live in Northeast Louisiana and work in the marketing department of a large hotel chain. We still have 30 "families" in our hotel, FEMA won't be kicking them out until mid-February. What most people don't know is that FEMA gives every "family" unit $2000us per month for living expenses and $8000us expense check when they signed up. The "family" may consist of two or more individuals that do not have to be related, meerely staying at the same address. Now one might say that 2k doesn't go far when you're paying for a hotel room every night. FEMA pays for the rooms seperately from living expense checks. They get free room and board. Most people in the hardest hit area (9th Ward)were renters not owners. The only expenses most had to cover were lost personal belongings (dvd player, etc...) which the 8k covered for the most part.
All of the New Orleans guests that we have in the hotel are jobless still. Not because the market is flooded (sorry 'bout the pun), but they're living free...living good and free. None of the people that I have talked to have said anything about moving back to the Big Easy, most say they'll go to Texas after "milking FEMA dry." None of the guests that are still staying with us had lost anyone in the flood. I think that Mr. Nagin needs to take a hint from Morgan Freeman http://shortnews.com/...
Mr. Nagin is part of the problem.... racist back-peddling bastard.
Yes, the comment involved race, and he is backpeddling. No, I don't think it was racist. Why? Because from what I see here, there's nothing that says that New Orleans needs to be mostly black because blacks are superior or any such thing. What I see is a reactionary statement, possibly a desperate attempt to keep the city what it was. I've not seen the demographics from the last election, but I'd guess that those "Uptown" people weren't the ones who put him into office. They certainly weren't the people who made the city what it was. Yet, they are the ones with the money to rebuild, and unless he can spur the poor black population back, they'll likely rebuild New Orleans in their image. If it's not the issue of his office and it really is love of city, he's still right to be afraid that those people will turn New Orleans into some kind of neo-Florida.
Frankly, I can see the worthwhile sentiments here. But this guy has a real problem with saying the wrong thing. On the other hand, he is under a lot of pressure, and with the extreme Right still holding a grudge against him for letting the federal government's lack of preparedness become apparent, he's also under a lot more pressure not to slip up and provide them with soundbytes.
Anyone moving back into New Orleans is a fool and their insurance companies will make sure they get a nice fat premium for living in a floodzone.
Wealthy white people bilked the 9/11 relief funding, so why should we expect impoverished people of another race to do any different in this scenario? I urge you to consider what will happen next time a hurricane churns through the Gulf and destroys the area?
If your tax-dollars go back to anyone who lives there next time the place gets wiped out, you should considered youself snookered and taken for a ride.
"I wonder how long NOLA residents are going to put up with this moron?"
Believe it or not im sure a lot of the residents LOVED him saying that. But like another poster said, if they want an all black NO then dont be calling on big brother to support your racist ass.
