Being Black Means It's All Right to Suffer

Barbara Bush, the president's mother, remarked yesterday from her palatial home in Houston, or was she hobnobbing with Poppy Bush at Kennebunkport?, that since the people (meaning black people) in the Astro and Superdomes were poor, their situation could be seen as an improvement in their condition (don't believe me? click here). She also thought the prospect of all those black people coming to Houston "scary." This certainly takes the heat off of W., who astoundingly praised the head of FEMA, and told the rest of America not to use too much gas and that everything will be okay. It also takes the heat off of Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, who said that New Orleans could be bulldozed (God I love compassionate conservatism in action). Perhaps a subsidiary of Haliburton could receive a no-bid contract to do the dozing.

Apart from the appalling stupidity and callousness of Barb's comment, it highlights the fact that if you are a black American, or worse, an black African, suffering is considered to be your normal life experience. This view is not merely held by those like Barb, who wear triple strands of pearls to the country club (the almost all-white club), but is in fact the unexamined position of nearly everyone, including, sinfully, myself. Consider our news reporting. Did you know that 13 million southern Africans, especially in Malawi, are in danger of starvation at this very moment? I didn't, until doing a little internet research I came across the Irish Red Cross appeal for aid (link and also here). Some of us have heard about the suffering of Darfur, but it hardly rises to the level of say, Jennifer Anniston's feelings about Brad Pitt. Some of us may know that in Swaziland, 40% of the population has AIDS, but Brian Williams won't tell you that, and if he did we would just shrug and say, well those Africans don't really know how to govern themselves anyway, and that they don't mind suffering since they don't actually own much. We may not verbalize that statement, but it flits through our heads as we change the channel. In effect, most of us are subconsciously channeling Barbara Bush right now.

If Katrina had struck Palm Beach Florida, I wonder if I would be writing this post? I somehow doubt it. I somehow think that a massive airlift of food and water would have reached the friends of Barb and Poppy Bush the day after the storm ended. It would be Evian water, of course, and the "refugees" would be relocated to a Hyatt Regency.

Let' summarize Fox News and our government's counsel: "All you good black folks in Louisiana, Niger, Malawi, Ivory Coast, and other places of even less strategic value, hang in there, for perhaps suffering will make you stronger - unless of course you're dead - but then that's your fault for not having the resources to get out of such hellish places. Let's get together and stop blaming FEMA, stop blaming Western apathy, and start blaming the victims: it's always much easier, and even fun at cocktail parties and fundraisers."

P.S. We interrupt this Katrina coverage to bring you the news that Chief Justice William Rehnquist, no friend to people of color, has passed away. He now lies in state at the Supreme Court, feted by the media as a man of great dignity. For a somewhat different view of his life click here. Let's hope Judge Roberts, a devoted Rehnquist clerk, proves to be truly a compassionate conservative for people of all colors.