Feel the shifting tectonic plates

I think that for anyone who paid attention in the horrible aftermath of Katrina, it's hard not to think about the bloated, waterlogged bodies bobbing along the edge of a bridge wall in New Orleans, days dead in the aftermath of the storm, like so much trash tossed carelessly from a passing car, left over from a picnic, washed out into the water by rain or wind or some kid who just kicks it around. Empty plastic bags of humanity, abandoned to the elements, choking the other life out. My stomach still churns at the thought of it, my lunch feels like it's fighting to get back out.

But then again, maybe it's not that hard to forget, or have not to seen or cared, or cared enough to see.

Earlier this week, a colleague forwarded an email titled "Emergency Weather Bulletin" purporting to tell the tale of those tough, true American Midwesterners who, when faced with a blizzard of 90 mile hour winds and four foot snow, were able to help themselves, without government assistance. "Obama didn't come. FEMA did nothing. No one howled for the government. No one even uttered an expletive on TV. Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton didn't visit..." And on and on.

And then, the email tells us how those enterprising snow-bound Midwestern real men helped themselves: "We just melted the snow for water. Sent out caravans of SUVs to haul people out of snow engulfed cars. Truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks..." Self-help, that's what it was all about, so they "did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks." Why? because "The world DOES NOT owe you a living."

Any reasonable person would know that the "Category 5 Snow Storm" never happened, would know that even if there were such a blizzard, it's nothing like the destruction of a Hurricane Katrina. And so this touching tale of resourcefulness and dignity and American values in response to intense weather, which never happened, could simply reflect the unfortunate, incoherent gullibility of those who forward it.

But the gullibility is merely a reflection of ignorance. The real problem with this email is the message that it sends, and the lack of shame of those who circulate its race-baiting nonsense. Because it truly is shameful, premised on the idea that lazy liberalism has encouraged dark-skinned people to demand from government what they don't need, that their problems, whether economic or environmental or health or basic life sustainment, are the result of affirmative action and their own doing. Katrina? Whatever. Get yourself a shovel and drain that water from your home. Lazy, good for nothings.

Not like those real Americans in the Midwest. They don't need Al Sharpton. Because those Midwesterners, they're helpful and enterprising, fixing their own problem, being responsible. They've got strong, conservative values.

Oh, and they're white.

Not that that has anything to do with it.

As you know, on Tuesday, Haiti was devastated by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake, the most powerful in over two centuries. Deaths are estimated in the tens to hundreds of thousands. We just don't know. President Obama has pledged to help.

But that email makes me wonder. Why do Haitians expect a handout? Why can't those Haitians just get some shovels and help themselves? What makes them like those lazy New Orleans people, and so different from those amazing Midwesterners?



And if you think I'm jumping to unfair conclusions, take a look at the take on the Haiti disaster from Pat Robertson. Robertson takes the they-deserved-it angle, asserting that black slaves in Haiti were able to gain freedom from their French oppressors because they made a pact with the devil.

[S]omething happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French. Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, “We will serve you if you get us free from the prince.” True story. And so the devil said, “OK, it’s a deal.” They kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free.

But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That island of Hispaniola is one island. It’s cut down the middle, on the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island.

You read that correctly: a so-called Christian is lecturing Haitians on why their misfortune is a result of fighting for their emancipation from slavery. Instead of concern and charity, Robertson condescends, pities and condemns them. The Haitian revolution resulted in the only time and only place where African slaves were able to end slavery and establish a free and independent nation. But to Robertson and his ilk, winning their freedom is not the result of the resolve and passion and hard work of Haitian freedom fighters, but instead the result of a pact with the devil; his is the conceit that black slaves were not capable of emancipation on their own, and worse, that their emancipation is the work of the devil. Robertson worships a vision of a god (intentionally lowcase, because it's most certainly not my diety) that punishes a class of people for wanting freedom from oppression. Yglesias takes on the so-called facts. TNC blasts Robertson's racism.

Rush, meanwhile, isn't much for charity, either, as he leads the anti-affirmative-action half of this confederacy of dunces' pincer movement.

This will play right into Obama's hands. He's humanitarian, compassionate. They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, 'credibility' with the black community -- in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made-to-order for them. That's why he couldn't wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.

And then, rejecting the idea of people contributing to a rescue effort:

We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax.

Shrill warning: America obviously doesn't need the KKK anymore, with racists spreading their venom in secret societies, when people like Robertson and Limbaugh can say what they say in the open, and when their adherents can be called (with a straight face) populists.

Those who follow them, those who forward their type of bile, should be ashamed.

But most of them don't even understand why, or care.


[Statue of Toussaint l' Ouverture with sculptor Richmond Barthe in 1950. This statue stands in front of the presidential palace in Port au Prince, Haiti. Additional links added after original posting.]