posted on September 4, 2005 10:22:12 AM new
The Pot Calling the Kettle Racist: New Orleans, Cannibalism, and Racial Watersheds
Written by Brian Melton
Saturday, September 03, 2005
I couldn't tell if the streaker was a man or a woman because it had a bag on
its head.”
Yogi Berra
I’m a busy man, and that fact means that I’ve rather fallen off the op-ed horse recently. But every so often I come across something so incredibly over the top I simply have to respond. I’m referring to “civil” rights activist Randall Robinson’s blog, featured on both the Drudge Report and Worldnetdaily. Robinson claims: (a) that black hurricane victims have been reduced to eating each other to survive; (b) that it is somehow the fault of America as a whole; and (c) that the result is a watershed for American race relations. Like Yogi, Robinson is blind to the obvious.
Let’s take these points one at a time.
First, the suggestion that people have been forced to eat one another after only four days is plainly asinine. People can and do go for much longer periods of time with no food, and do not resort to cannibalism. Were we talking about weeks, I could possibly believe that part of his rant, but mere days? It’s ridiculous. If it’s happening (which I doubt), then it is for reasons other than starvation. Perhaps it’s due to hallucinations because of dehydration. Perhaps animals are eating the corpses, and some people are jumping to conclusions. There are obviously some very hungry people there, but there is no reason for anyone to be eating people after only four days, in order to “survive.”
If anything, it is a testament to how well off most Americans are if they think they’re “starving” after such a short time. Anyone who knows so little about real hunger as Mr. Robinson has, in my mind, disqualified himself from being taken seriously on this subject in the future.
Second, to say that it is somehow the fault of America in general is equally fallacious. Is it the national government’s responsibility to make sure that nothing bad could ever happen in America? That’s an impossible goal. One might as well argue that America is a farce because it hasn’t earthquake-proofed California and still allows tornadoes in Kansas. Why not ask why so many thousands of people would be stupid/complacent enough to stay in a city seven feet below sea level with a category-four hurricane bearing down on them, when years ago this exact result had been predicted?
Now, I agree that there are things the government should have done, and there’s plenty of stupidity to be critical of Washington and elsewhere, but selectively pointing fingers doesn’t in any way make the entire country a “monstrous fraud.”
Third, this is a disaster, and a horrible loss of human life, but it is only a “watershed” in racial affairs for people who are looking for a convenient situation to exploit. The simple fact is that the main reason so many African Americans were affected is that hundreds of thousands happened to live in affected area, and quite a few of them made the decision to stay. No one forced their hand. No one bussed them in just before Katrina hit. (Whether people are “looting” or “scavenging” is beside the point, and it’s something that people need to take up with the liberal media, not a semi-conservative administration.) To suggest that Bush hates African Americans because of Katrina is to suggest that he somehow intended for this to happen. Until someone shows that President Bush has the ability to somehow steer the hurricane into New Orleans, I see no reason to listen.
The real racial watershed came years ago, when the civil rights movement, led by people like Robinson, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson, transformed itself from a righteous crusade for equal rights and opportunity into an industry of exploitation that judges people not as individuals, as humans, but rather as nameless factors in a racial equation. People are reduced from thinking, active, powerful moral agents into nothing more than the sum total of their politicized skin color. “Whites” think thus and so, because they’re white. “African-Americans” believe x, y, and z, because they’re black. “Latinos” all want the same thing, because they’re Latinos. In the case of Robinson’s accusations, whites are guilty because they are white and African-Americans are victims because they are black. The fact that there might be some of each on both sides doesn’t seem to have occurred to him.
Judging people and determining their motivations, guilt, or innocence, based on the amount of melanin in their skin; it is the very essence of racism. It is the antithesis of the colorblind life.
I for one am sick and tired of racists hiding behind their skin color and getting away with it. Perhaps Robinson, in a powerful reaction to a very emotional situation, simply made a mistake, and his comments don’t reflect his true spirit and mind. If that is so, it is time for him to come out, repudiate them, and apologize. We won’t make any real progress towards eliminating racism while we tolerate wolves in sheep’s clothing, especially when the wolves are so ready to take advantage of human misery on this scale.
About the Writer: Brian Melton is an assistant professor of history at Liberty University. Brian receives e-mail at [email protected].
