Playing the Race Card, and Losing

How, how, is everything turned into a black-white thing?!

From the Wall Street Journal;

Though Katrina is an equal-opportunity destroyer, the news media's coverage
of the disaster has centered on the city of New Orleans--which is understandable, given that that is the center of the metropolis, that it is densely populated, and that it is 80% underwater.

That means the faces of the suffering that we have seen have mostly been black ones. And so what? These are fellow human beings and fellow Americans; the color of their skin makes their misery no more or less heartbreaking, and their rescue no more or less urgent.

From the 2000 U.S. Census;

Parish or county.......White -- Black
Jefferson, La.............69.8% -- 22.9%
Orleans, La............... 28.1% -- 67.3%***
Plaquemines, La...... 69.8% -- 23.4%
St. Bernard, La.........88.3% -- 7.6%
St. Tammany, La.....87.0% -- 9.9%
Hancock, Miss......... 90.2% -- 6.8%
Harrison, Miss.........73.1% -- 21.1%
Jackson, Miss..........75.4% -- 20.9%