Water is an amazing element. It can roll in, reshape the face of mountains, and roll out leaving that which stands in its wake raw and exposed. The floodwater associated with Hurricane Katrina submerged a city and drowned a faƧade. Amazing.

Enter Kanye West.

West having observed images of mostly Black victims of this disaster inside what is ostensibly a mixed city did what many of us, even if we wanted to, would not have the opportunity to do; he opened his mouth, seemingly to recite his part of a script, and spoke of the unscripted realities of racism.

Here is a news flash for anyone who believes that racism was not a factor in this disaster -- it was. I will allow that Kanye's assertion regarding the president is beyond my ability to verify but his comments about the actions of the press, George Bush (if we look at him as representative of his office and thus the "system" inherent in our system of government and the larger issue of race in general cannot be denied.

Question, what would be expected of a group of wealthy individuals faced with having to pay labor more because there are more jobs than there are laborers for those jobs. I would expect that they would act in a manner to protect their interest, which here is profit. After all, we would not expect that one would sit idly by and take a loss in profit without attempting to create an excess labor condition.

Finding a source of excess labor would be akin to finding gold or in this case "black gold". Now if while discovering this source a plan could be put into action to foment an environment where using this source in anyway necessary to maximize output then all the better. Thus from this need a system of whiteness with seemingly inherent benefits for even the most diverse ethnic whites, if the buy into it, begins to take shape.

Poor whites who had themselves worked as indentured servants or descended from such, whose situation was more closely related to the Blacks than the wealthy whites, begin to invest in this system and its privilege. This is the story of the birth of a system that was so necessary that our brilliant founding fathers, men of wealth themselves (as demonstrated from their ability to take such a long time off to construct the constitution), wrote it into The Constitution; a pro-slavery document that is the basis for America. [1]

So it becomes necessary that once freedom comes to these men (often referred to as freedom comes to the slaves) that there be rules and laws which maintain the most important conditions of slavery even if not in name.

But what does this trip down historical lane have to do with present day New Orleans? Post civil rights America? George Bush caring about black people?

Quite a bit actually, it turns out. The reason that New Orleans was without defense was because it is so poor, thanks to the system, and to borrow from Wolf Blitzer, so Black.

Cries for help from Louisiana did not always find deaf ears in the federal government. There was a time when whites in Louisiana and the nation as a whole needed the sugar and cotton plantations in that state functioning and in order to facilitate this need found that their interests necessitated maintaining a population of Black workers and an area safe from flood. During this time, the Army was pulled out of the south and the government assisted the white business leaders by heading the call to lead the way in protecting their land.

Sugar and cotton eventually lost their importance, the civil rights movement eventually decimated the stronghold of the Democrats in the south, and the whites abandoned those who had created the wealth they enjoy. This left Louisiana vulnerable especially the heavily Black populated New Orleans.

Enter George Bush.

Bush was not elected by Louisiana though the state did nothing to hurt him in 2000. Running as a limited interventionist who determined value by markets it is natural that George Bush's concerns are those of they who elected him (I am not speaking here necessarily of the voters but of the involved interests).

It is no surprise therefore that when asked for funds to shore up the levees President was not interested in doing so. It was not in his interest or those of his electors. After all one need ask what of value, given his method of determining value, existed in New Orleans that was worth spending the money required . The Black Gold had long ago lost its luster.

George Bush cared about that which would get him reelected and leave him with, from his purview at the time, the legacy he desired. These interests run counter to the interests of poor people who disproportionately are Black especially in New Orleans. You can not have both so one therefore would logically conclude that George Bush does not care about Black people. This is not to say that he doesn't like some Blacks or even have as some of his best friends Black people but caring for Black people (meaning their issues as a group) is not the same as that.

So when Kanye made his statement perhaps he did not think it through like that but let's not so quickly dismiss what he said because in the context of the system we have in America it only, unfortunately, makes too much sense.

[1] Article1 sections 2 and 9, Article 4 section 2 and Article 5.

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© September 2005 By Afromerica