"George Bush Doesn't Care about Black People"

Kanye West, they say, spoke from his heart; but his head knew what it was doing. His comments have raised hackles, eyebrows, and the flag of racism. On the one hand, people are disgusted by partisan politics creeping into the relief effort. On the other, people are disgusted by the lack of effort going into addressing the real issue.

This is the 21st century, and Americans have been pinched awake from the so-called success of the Clinton era. Suddenly, America has realized it isn't any different from any other place on the globe. Remember the huddled masses, the poor and the oppressed? They never went anywhere. Cities hid them from tourists and their own inhabitants, and it took a Category 5 storm to wash out the secret society that blue and red state Americans have ignored.

People who say this isn't a racial issue are trying, admirably, to walk the middle path. I agree, "playing the race card" should be avoided at all costs, but that isn't possible in this case. The victims were predominantly black and poor. In the words of one Astrodome refugee: "We had nothing before the hurricane. Now we have less than nothing."

The fact is that Katarina has revealed how empty the idea of "compassionate conservatism" is. The compassion it touts as essential to its ideology is merely code used to harness the power of an electoral bloc. You can read more about the death of compassionate conservatism here.

Bush and his team of merry pranksters have clearly proven that they have no idea of how to respond to any kind of emergency. As with 9-11, our "pet goat" President is content dishing out nifty one-liners from behind a bullhorn, rather than doing what Oprah did and getting out there. Unlike the tireless reporters who have brought the full-extent of this damage to light, Bush has allowed himself to be guided by the black hand of Rove-ian politicking—sticking to his "image" rather than backing it up with anything substantial.

If you found yourself in disagreement with the idea that Bush doesn't care about black people, here is an excellent Slate article that tackles the accusation. Yes, he gave more money than Clinton to Africa, but he never left the airport in New Orleans....

Finally, it should be noted that race is a large part of the reason why things transpired as they did. However, useless comments by people like Jesse Jackson regarding the inherent "racism" in the word "refugee" are uncalled for and immature. People seeking refuge are refugees. People who don't use dictionaries are idiots.