As blamed by some sources in the media and as doubted by many due to the large number of blacks involved, a poll now says that there was indeed prejudice on racial lines and that is what delayed or affected the response of the official machinery.
It is wrong to assume something as fundamental as race as one of the main slowing factor in the response to a natural disaster crisis like Katrina. That is questioning the very integrity of the individuals involved in the efforts.
However, the disaster response we saw on TV, Americans wailing and crying one week after a major disaster was unbelievable! If everyone thought that there was indeed racial prejudice, they cannot be blamed; such was the state of the reaction.
US president must have been on the ground inside the New Orleans Superdome. He must have been giving directions for the response to disaster and sharing the grief and loss of his people. Nothing short of that looks acceptable. No one would have dared to discuss race as a factor if he were amongst his people on the ground in the time of their utter distress.
President Bush might have his defenses, but the truth is, people across the world are in bewilderment of what they saw on the TV screens. America, which conducts a global war on terror, could not save its own people and could not even provide water, food, and other basic needs days after the disaster struck.
Hurricane Katrina struck; devastated, and gone. Preemptive war that Bush announced as a policy made some sense then. However when they knew for days an enemy is out there approaching fast, they could not pluck out every one of American citizen who was going to be affected, to safety. One wonders whether preemptive war makes sense any more.
Reaction to Katrina split on racial lines - CNN.
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