Moral Poverty Costs New Orleans

by Frannie Banannie 46 Replies latest social current

• 

  Frannie Banannie

  How many "All American" black family, tv shows have you seen over the last 25 years? I can name a few that my kids love to watch - The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince and That's So Raven. BTW - two of those shows ended years ago. Now flip through the channels. You see MTV "ganstas", you see young blacks on COPS getting busted, you see rich, black football players spounting off, black comedians saying "n*gger" over and over again. What about having a show or news story about a middle-class black family? Now, I'm not syaing "oh, the media is racists...blah blah blah." All I'm saying is that today the media is bombarding America with negative images of blacks and it does subconsiously re-enforce negative sterotypes. When CNN shows over and over again a small minority of black people in New Orleans stealing or report stories over and over again of shots being fired I could almost feel people across the country going "wow, look at THOSE people." Yes, the news has to be reported but these news channels need to ask themselves if they are going more harm then good when they replay stories like these 24/7.

  Roybatty, the media definitely will "air" that which gets them the highest ratings, because the dollar is king. However, there are plenty of channels in cableland wherein many of TVlands' and Movielands' more affluent can produce the type of programs that would reinforce a positive image of any particular peer group they decide. Where is their initiative? And why are people not writing to the media demanding more positive middle-American black family shows?

  Personally, I don't know what does more harm - the media or the Jesse Jacksons of the world.

  RB, IMO, they appear to have a symbiotic relationship, eh?

  Frannie
• 

  Cady

  Last night I had dinner with one of the volunteers I met in Houston who came from Seattle as well; among others there was a former evacuee

  who had moved to Seattle. With this thread in mind I ventured a question about race. We talked about the topic for a bit, rehashing ideas and

  the usual lines. But a few minutes into it he said that 20 years ago he couldn't have had this conversation with me. That at that time he would

  have changed the topic to football or made an excuse to leave, after which he would have gone and had a drink (or several). He said living with

  it every day made it too painful to actually talk about; just the experience of dealing with racism was overwhelming.

  The change he said was not in the rest of the world but in him; he'd grown older (is 43 now) and stopped taking absorbing others' opinions

  of him and believing them. He said if you look into Dr. King's message it is not about race; it is a spiritual msg of love. If you are okay with

  yourself, you have no need to put others into negative categories in order to elevate yourself.

  I want to sit and analyze his argument, put it into practical terms, etc. But the quiet dignity he carried himself with as he spoke - I can add

  nothing to his words, and to even attempt to seems wrong somehow. I will say only that the peace which he carries calmed me and gave me

  hope.
• 

  Frannie Banannie

  Cady, that's simply beautiful. The man you spoke with sounds like a wonderful person. It's a shame Dr. King isn't around anymore to further that message of love. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

  Hugs,

  Frannie
• 

  Caedes

  Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We know how that plan turned out.

  I agree with happyout's comments especially regarding economics having a lot to do with the problems in black areas. I've lived in black areas and asian areas and the problems I have seen are all economic problems.

  I would also like to add regarding the quote above, It's very easy with hindsight to criticise someones actions but doing something is always better than doing nothing which is exactly what bush did. It might be interesting to find out what the author of the article did to help during the disaster.
• 

  3rdEye

  Avishai,

  I didn't see the quote about white people being potential humans on the site you linked. Maybe I missed it. I wasn't able to find it in the archives of the Philly Inquirer either. As you know, Jews are a religion not a race. That doesn't excuse the hateful things that he has said about them over the years(most of which he apologized for), but Jewish leaders have said hateful thing about Farrakhan too. To compare him to neo-Nazis and skinheads is way off base IMO. The family of Malcolm X, including his wife before she died, said that they don't believe that Farrakhan was involved in Malcolm's assassination. Dr. Manning Marable, a professor at Columbia University did some research and found that the NYPD was very much involved in the assassination of Malcolm X.
• 

  upside/down

  As you know, Jews are a religion not a race.

  WTF?

  They're BOTH.

  As you "know"...

  u/d
• 

  Bryan

  The official NO evacuation plan was "everyone will drive out of here".

  This is not correct. The official evacuation page has been deleated... conveniently.

  http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26

  I did save these quotes though from the page and posted them on another site:

  Identification of sheltering resources and the establishment of shelters and the training of shelter staff is important, as is the provision for food and other necessities to the sheltered. This preparation function is the responsibility of the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

  Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed.

  Transportation will be provided to those persons requiring public transportation from the area. (See Special Needs Transportation, ESF-1).

  There was a plan and the Mayor did not follow it.

  Bryan... (Of the evacuee class)

  Have You Seen My Mother