Apparently Mayor Nagin isn't fond of vanilla. He wants New Orleans to be a "chocolate" city. OK, at first I thought he was talking about ice cream but it turns out, he's talking about people. Yeah... white folks aren't welcome....
Of course, never mind the fact that millions of people of all flavors donated billions to help rebuild "his" city. That, of course, is irrelevant...all he sees there is green.
"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."
Ironically...these words were spoken at a celebration honoring Dr. Martin Luther King. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dr. King's work about tolerance and acceptance of one another? I really don't think Mayor Nagin's "chocolate" plan is what Dr. King had in mind.
The sad fact of the matter is that New Orleans was a poor city with a high crime rate. And most of those who were displaced from their homes cannot wait around for the city to be rebuilt and have moved on to other cities and states. Those who are still waiting aren't going to be able to afford to move back into the city...it will simply be too expensive.
As far as I'm concerned, the remarks made by Mayor Nagin were racist and exclusionary. He's all for allowing people of all colors to fund the rebuilding of New Orleans but only allowing people of one color to benefit.
Lisa
Others talking: Michelle Malkin
It should be painfully obvious to everybody by now that Nagin is just a pandering opportunist . . . A Reep when he was a businessman, became a Dem to run for Mayor of a Dem city, and now is blaming God's wrath for the disaster that struck New Orleans, a tactic of the radical right wing. No doubt this is all leading up to a run for Governor, or (probably) worse.
Posted by: catastrophile | Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 05:13 PM
"Those who are still waiting aren't going to be able to afford to move back into the city...it will simply be too expensive."
Hrm . . . you've struck on something here, though. Why is it that the taxpayer-reconstructed city is going to be too expensive for the displaced people to move back into?
Posted by: catastrophile | Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 05:16 PM
Cat... eventhough taxpayer dollars are paying for the reconstruction...the buildings will be privately owned. They will be built better...therefore worth more...therefore the tax assessment will increase... increasing the rent... making it unaffordable for those who used to live there.
Posted by: Lisa | Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 05:37 PM
He will easily get away with all he said! (Wonder why?)
Someone asked today "What if the mayor of Salt Lake City said that they would be the white vanilla city?
Posted by: Chris Sears | Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 10:49 PM
Nagin has already apologized and backtracked from his original statements. At least he apologized. That has been rare in Dems lately who screwed up, such as the governor of LA.
As to what would happen if the mayor of Salt Lake City said something like that, he would get hammered for being a racist. Only white people can be racists, you know.
And cat, obviously claiming God did it to us isn't only a right wing trick. Fred Phelps did it first, is doing it now and he is A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT TO THIS DAY.
He is one of your comrades, pal.
Posted by: USMC Steve | Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 01:00 PM
Zell Miller is also a registered Dem, so are a lot of people who identify more with right-wing positions (see also: Dixiecrats). Being associated with the Dem Party makes them no less right-wing.
On the other hand, picketing a funeral because he deceased was gay? That makes you a right-winger.
See, Dem != liberal and Reep != conservative. Political parties are not philosophies, they are power structures. Cope. What's classic right-winger is preaching that everything that happens is a message from God that just happens to jibe with the preacher's own political message. That tactic employed constantly by radical theocrats, a notoriously right-wing demographic.
Lisa: "They will be built better...therefore worth more..."
True or false: if I had come here the day after Gee-Dub's NO speech claiming, as many did at the time, that for all the billions of tax dollars being invested in reconstruction, the end result would be for all intents and purposes a land grab resulting in lots of new and reinforced oceanfront properties being made available to the rich, I would have been derided as a conspiracy theorist. Because people were so derided.
But now that it's happened, it's treated as "well, of course, duh."
Posted by: catastrophile | Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at 06:34 PM