Friday, September 02, 2005

"Lawsy me, Miz Scarlett, we jest gots to get those darkies to move their lazy butts!"

SteveRose at Daily Kos writes the most shocking story I have seen yet: Red Cross NEVER allowed into New Orleans.. He wondered why he hadn't seen any Red Cross workers in all the TV coverage of New Orleans. So he phoned:
So I called the Red Cross and asked them if its true. And, to my surprise, the nice lady answering the phone said it was true and they told/asked/ordered not to enter . . . Homeland Security told the Red Cross DO NOT enter New Orleans and says this still now. And why, you may ask? Not Security. Not worker safety. Not lack of access. It was because people would be drawn to the Red Cross food and they wouldn't want to go to be evacuated. So I asked: 'The people starving and dying at the convention center yesterday couldn't get Red Cross food and water because they would be drawn to the food at the convention center, where they were, and not want to be evacuated from the convention center where no evacuations were going on or planned and all the while they are dying'. . . . she said yes, that was true. She seem relieved to admit it.
Emphasis is mine. And so is my outrage. I don't think I have ever heard anything more patronizing and racist. So some "overseer" decided that all those lazy, greedy black people had to be starved out -- for their own good, of course. Disgusting.
Now, of course I know there are Canadians even today who would have the same kind of attitudes toward Aboriginal people.
But who put ignorant racists in charge of the Homeland Security department? And why did the Red Cross just shut up and follow orders? At some point, doesn't somebody have to SAY something?

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