Katrina+shows+up+US+class,+colour+rift,+The+Star



=Katrina shows up class and colour rift in US=

The Star, Johannesburg, Saturday, September 3, 2005
Washington - Black leaders have condemned the slow response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

They said yesterday that poor and mostly black storm victims in New Orleans were bearing the brunt of the suffering.

"We cannot allow it to be said by history that the difference between those who lived and those who died in this great storm and flood of 2005 was nothing more than poverty, age or skin colour," said Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and former head of the Congressional Black Caucus.

The overwhelming proportion of black people among the refugees, made clear to Americans by TV coverage of huge black crowds pleading for water and food in New Orleans, has raised questions about the role of class and race in the response.

Blacks, who have suffered discrimination since the days of slavery and segregation in the South, account for about two-thirds of the nearly 500 000 residents of New Orleans.

About 28% live below the poverty line, more than double the national poverty rate.

"Many of these Americans who are struggling to survive are Americans of colour," Cummings told a news conference. "Their cries for assistance confront America with a test of our moral compass as a nation."

He noted President Bush's comment yesterday that the relief effort so far was "unacceptable."

"Unacceptable here sadly means people are dying. Hopefully, he will synchronise his conduct with his conscience."

Among those left behind in New Orleans were residents without access to their own cars or those who could not afford to heed official warnings and leave the area before the hurricane.

"If these people hadn't been poor and black, they wouldn't have been left in New Orleans in the first place," William Jefferson, a black Democrat who represents most of New Orleans, said.

"The response time and all of the rest of it - it has to do with the fact that people are poor and desperate and left in a situation where they didn't have a way out.

"It's an indictment of our whole society, that at the bottom of the rungs all the time are poor African-Americans."

Congressional black leaders pleaded with Bush and federal disaster relief officials to speed aid and said they were stunned by the failure to feed and shelter refugees after the storm ripped through the region.

"In the last 140 or so hours we have witnessed something shockingly awful - and that is the lack of response, a quick response, from our government to those Americans suffering or dying," said Illinois Rep Jesse Jackson Jr, son of the civil rights leader.

"Shame, shame on America. We were put to the test, and we have failed," said Diane Watson, a black Democrat from California.

Republican House Leader Tom DeLay of Texas rejected any suggestion that race or class played a role in the hurricane's aftermath. – Reuters


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=131&fArticleId=2862517**