[Xantar]

Originally Posted by manasecret

It's just that all I hear is people pointing fingers on the news now. While I think it's right to ask questions, I think it's also right to sit back for a moment and remember that this is a major disaster, and you cannot prepare for everything that will be needed in a disaster like you can with hindsight. It's a disaster, that's the nature of it.

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I think people dying on the streets like this is unacceptable. But the vast majority did make it out of New Orleans safe, and now Americans are being extremely generous to help them in any way possible. Let's hope Katrina is a lesson learned for the gov't, and I think asking questions about the response will help make sure of that.

So what exactly do you want? I'm confused. On the one hand, you're saying that it's a disaster and it couldn't have been totally prepared for and that's the nature of the beast. On the other hand, you're saying the deaths are unacceptable and that you hope the government learns a lesson. What would you have us do exactly? What do you expect to happen after all the questions are asked? How is the government going to learn a lesson unless somebody is held accountable? It seems to me that you would like the government to sit down and collectively say, "Sorry. We messed that one up. We'll do better next time." The only other way I can interpret your post is that you are trying to double talk by saying that we should "ask questions" but also realize that this is a natural disaster, as if that means that nobody screwed up and got thousands of humans killed. I'd rather not assume the worst about your post, though. Everybody knows this was an act of nature. I don't understand why you keep trying to insist on that point as if it makes any difference.

It seems to me that you are somehow offended by blame being cast. Sorry, but when somebody screws up, he or she has to be made responsible for it. And in this case, there is no doubt that somebody did screw up. Politicians are now busily trying to throw the blame away from themselves, and that's bad. But that doesn't mean every finger pointed is wrong. A lot of people have died unnecessarily. That is beyond doubt. You can say that nobody could have been prepared for this situation and recite more excuses all you want, but the fact of the matter is we pay a lot of good money for our government to be prepared for every contingency. We ought to demand the very best preparation, planning and organization possible, and I find it hard to believe that this was present with Hurricane Katrina, particularly with an Arabian horse trader running FEMA. This is the government that says it has plans to take care of us (or at least minimalize casualties) in case of a catastrophic biological attack.

But Hurricane Katrina was an act of nature. It wasn't forecast far enough ahead of time to get every last person out of the city. It was a bit unpredictable.

Ok, fine. Now what?

Originally Posted by manasecret

And like DeathsHand, yeah, maybe you can't but I can honestly say it would be the same response for me. Thank you for not assuming others are racist.

Question: my mom is an Asian woman. Do you think she's taller than you or shorter than you? Do you think she speaks English perfectly? Do you think she's more likely to be an actress by profession or a doctor? Do you think she was an avid surfer in her youth?

Everybody notices race (except maybe the blind). I could even pull studies to show that if you wanted. The first thing anybody notices about somebody else is their ethnic background (or what they think it is). When shown portraits and asked to pick words or describe feelings, people choose differently depending on the race of the person they see in the portrait and for no other reason. It just seems hard-wired into us. I choose to acknowledge the fact that I do this and deal with it honestly. Frankly, I think anybody who pretends they are totally colorblind is just in denial.

I'm not saying that we all saw black people in New Orleans and immediately thought, "Oh, well they're black so they don't matter." I'm not saying that any of us care less just because the faces we see are of a certain color. I'm not even saying that any of us literate, middle-class, relatively well-educated people talking here on this message board would react less urgently if we had seen white people dying in the streets. But deep down, something does register differently, and it's fair to ask whether that really does affect the national response because really, we aren't going to know unless a few thousand white people really do get killed in a natural disaster. It's been proven, unfortunately. And even if you think you really are so enlightened and better than all the random subjects in studies, how confident are you that every single government official involved in the relief effort is the same way?

I say let's just be honest. We all make stereotypes. It's our brain's way of working with incomplete information, and psychologists actually think that for the most part, we wouldn't function very well without it. All the same, trying to deny what's going on in our heads isn't going to help anything. I'll bet you've been resisting this whole line of argument the entire time, but here's the question you should be asking yourself: is that absolutely, completely because you think I'm spouting a load of hogwash or is it because if it really is true, you wouldn't feel so good about yourself?

Originally Posted by Indigo Montoya

If you were walking down the street at night and saw a group of young black males dressed in hip-hop (man, I feel white just saying that) clothing, would you get nervous? Now, put them in Armani suits. See my point?

Now make them white peolpe dressed in hip hop clothing. Do you feel just as nervous about them?