Nagin’s Speach
As promised I’m writing a response to Nagin’s speech that he gave the other day. For those of you who don’t know who Nagin is, he is the mayor of New Orleans that called out in anger for the lack of response when they were hit by hurricane Katrina. While I agree that the federal government was slow in responding to hurricane Katrina I think its crap for people to assume the slow response was racial. As part of the rebuilding process for New Orleans Mayor Nagin gave a speech that was to some inflammatory.
As we think about rebuilding New Orleans surly God is mad at America. He’s sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane and its destroying and putting stress on this country. Surely he’s not approval of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We’re not taking care of ourselves. We’re not taking care of our women. And we’re not taking care of our children. When you have a community where 70% of its children are being born to one parent. We as black people. It’s time. It’s time for us to come together. It’s time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans. And I don’t care what people are saying uptown or where ever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African American city. It’s the way God wants it to be. You can’t have New Orleans no other way, it wouldn’t be New Orleans.
Excuse me?! What in God’s name are you thinking? I thought you were giving a speech to encourage people to come back to the city. Instead you decide to insult the government, insult the African American community, and then insult any non African-American all around MLK Jr. Day! Good job. Rather than trying to pull everyone together (a la MLK Jr.) you divide the city and piss off the nation.
So let’s break this down some. The comments about Iraq really don’t have any place in this speech. The speech was supposed to be inviting people to come and help rebuild New Orleans so where does Iraq fit in? If the 70% statistic Nagin gave is true then yes that is an alarming statistic, one that ANY race, gender, nationality, etc, should be concerned with. I still don’t see how this is helping to get people to come back. “Hey everyone, we have a serious problem with family values. 70% of children born are born to one parent. Doesn’t that sound like a great place to come and raise your family.” Seriously, what are you thinking? The only person in the last couple of years to make a criticism and not get marked a racist was Bill Cosby. And then we come to “Chocolate”. Yes New Orleans was a predominant African-American city but to have the nerve to tell any non African-American we don’t want you here?! How can this country become united (MLK Jr.) if the leaders are dividing it?
Some of you reading will probably consider me a racist for saying what I’m about to say but it’s something that’s been bugging me for a while. STOP PLAYING THE RACE CARD!!! When the city was hit by Katrina the government response was horrible. “The city is 60-70% African-American so it must be race related right?” No, it’s not race related. It was horrible response. Let’s rebuild New Orleans everyone. Race Card. It’s going to be a “Chocolate” city and “I don’t care what people are saying uptown or where ever they are.” For the love of God stop playing the race card. Not everything is about race. Stop trying to make it race related. For those out there that think that Nagin’s comments were not inflammatory ask yourself this. If a white mayor said “We’re going to make this a marshmallow city” what would be response from that? Or how about a “Mexican”-American mayor saying “Chorizo” city? I could go on and on but I won’t. Stop playing the race card. It’s old, it’s annoying, and it makes everyone take a step back instead of a step forward.
