Clueless!

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/cao_tries_to_crack_black_caucu.html

Just go and read some of the comments on this link. They're far too short sighted and misinformed. Apparently racism has vanished and Black people are really racist toward white people. However, in my own experience, I just recently I had a conversation with a white man who identified as a DEMOCRAT who used the n-word during this conversation. Old attitudes and beliefs do not die so quickly. It seems vitriol is masked in public but escapes in close, private company. It makes me wonder how many other people, even those who identity as Democrats, share similar views.

Very much related is the article about race and Hurricane Katrina on The Nation website. I have really been more incensed and saddened in reading an article before. Apparently in the Algiers, which is a neighborhood located just across the river from New Orleans, Black individuals were trying to escape the floodwaters. However, once in Algiers they were shot and harassed by local white individuals. In one of the interviews conducted, these people are referred to as 'it'. This 'it' is significant because it emphasizes a dehumanization of persons based on race. These Black individuals become sport animals; like deer or elk, the one who shoots the most receives the most praise.

It is so deeply unsettling to hear both those who identify as Democrats and those who are but a half hour away express such racist and hateful ideology. Any consciousness of white privilege or racial inequities, undeniable anywhere you look in New Orleans, is non-existent. I wonder what other people think about this and if there is any hope for a more just New Orleans and surrounding areas based on race.