timalkin

Mayor: New Orleans to be "chocolate" again
1/16/2006, 1:16 p.m. CT
By BRETT MARTEL
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Mayor Ray Nagin told a crowd gathered at City Hall for a Martin Luther King Day march that New Orleans will be "chocolate" again.

"We ask black people ... It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans — the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," Nagin said Monday. "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."

The city was more than 60 percent black before Hurricane Katrina displaced about three-quarters of its population, but spared several predominantly white neighborhoods.

Along Martin Luther King Boulevard, a grassy median near a King statue and memorial was cleaned up and landscaped in advance of the parade that ended there Monday. Still, many of the buildings nearby, including a major public housing project, remained abandoned and in ruins, still bearing horizontal brown water stains left behind by flooding.

Several blocks from the end of the parade route — an area that normally would have been immersed in music and teaming with neighbors socializing and children eating cotton candy — old wooden shotgun homes that had been inundated with up to four feet of water for more than a week after the storm sagged on their foundations. Some had collapsed and others appeared to be on the brink, with roof shingles missing and siding partially peeled off and dangling.

A light breeze periodically brought whiffs of rot and garbage.

There were piles of debris on the sidewalk and one man in a white T-shirt, walking in the direction of the parade route, was the only sign of life for a quarter-mile.

"It used to be thousands of people hanging out on the streets, getting ready for the parade with their kids and stuff," said Charles Jones, who was selling red candy apples and blue and pink cotton candy out of an old metal shopping cart near the King statue. "Kids are all in school somewhere else now. It's not really a family event today. Just people who've been able to come back, working. It's really sad."

Charles and his wife, Darlene, lost their Ninth Ward home in Katrina's flooding. They have moved in with relatives in one of the areas that was spared. They live with three families in one, three-bedroom house, Darlene Jones said.

"It's depressing to see how slowly the city is coming back, but I believe it will," she said. "It's like trying to eat red beans and rice somewhere else. It just doesn't work."

Jones said her family lost a total of seven houses in eastern New Orleans and the Gentilly and lower Ninth Ward neighborhoods.

Yet she smiled while talking about her periodic trips to Canal Street in the heart of downtown. And she was thankful to still have her job as a florist. She had even put together an arrangement in front of King's statue.

"There are sections of the city that are alive," she said. "Each week I go down to Canal Street and I see more and more lights, and it makes me feel like my city is going to come back."

Story:
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisi...list=louisiana

Video:
http://www.wwltv.com/sharedcontent/V...46812&catId=53

I can't believe that such blatantly racist comments, from a blatant racist, can go unchallenged by the good citizens of the United States. Can you imagine the reaction if a white person would have given the same speech, but declared that God wanted New Orleans to be "vanilla?"

Can someone shed some light on what is going on here? When did the racism double standard become the norm in this country?

__________________
Trinity: "What do you need?"

Neo: "Guns. Lots of guns."

-The Matrix

alpha phi

Speaking on Martin luther Kings birthday
Sounds perfectly appropriate to me.
He want's to rebuild his city as it was or better.
without a black majority he won't get re elected.
"racism double standard "??? what america do you live in?
when has there ever not been a double standard,
of one race over another?
He makes many good points about building
a better more peaceful community.
It would take a hateful person
to see this as hate speech.
of course many thought Dr. King was spreading hate speech too.

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Seaver

It's not appropriate. If any white person in the US stated that God intended the city to be for white people, said person would be called a blatant racist and probably get a myriad of death threats.

MLK wanted people to "be judged not by the color of their skin but on the content of their character". What part of that says for blacks to have their own city?

MLK and thousands of others fought oppression to end segregation, this flies in the face of MLK.

Mojo_PeiPei

What was that one crazy cats name, George Washington Carver?

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Seaver

What does a Botanist have to do with this discussion? Other than he was Black and lived in the South?

Paq

you do realize that one of the main uses of vanilla is in the production of chocolate



and while i don't agree with exactly how he said it, i do agree with some of the things he said, that being about the black on black racism and violence. i do think you're right that if any white man got up and said that god wanted the city to be vanilla, then you'd ahve a case...namely, the culture of new orleans is a predominately black inspired culture. add that to speaking on MLK day with a majority of your constituents and there ya go. as gwb said at a luncheon of the elites< "some may call you the top 1%, i call you my base"...that, to me, is more hurtful than what was said about Nola

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Live.

Chris

ObieX

I've seen people turn this part into saying it means that "God" prefers New Orleans to be "vanilla". People say god says a lot of things. (he struck down ariel sharon ya know!)

People need to stop thinking they can speak for god.

__________________
We Must Dissent.

pan6467

Racism is racism, and it is wrong, in any context.

If this were a white man he would have been barbecued. If this were Pat Robertson talking about what "God wanted", people would talk about how crazy and power hungry the man is.

But since we have grown up and been force fed that whenever a black man speaks out and says things like these, it is ok because they were once oppressed.

FUCK THAT.

This man is just as prejudiced as any white man who would say that. This man is just as radical and uses religion for power as much as Pat Robertson does.

AND WRONG IS WRONG.

Our acceptance of bullshit and speeches like this on both political sides needs to end. This is divisive, hate filled, anger rising racist prejudiced and for anyone to accept this shows why we still have a long way to go to truly end racism.

While, I have shown total disagreement, anger and believe fully it is hate filled what he said. I do support his right in saying it, as I do Pat Robertson's hate speak.

The scary part is not that they say it, the scary part is that people believe what has been said.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

maestroxl

Sounds like Nagin has been channeling Pat Robertson.

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be the change you want

NCB

Are his comments racist? Of course they are. However, he was playing his base ( a base which btw, resides in hotels across the country waiting for the govt to take care of them) for his coming reelction

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NCB

On second thought, perhaps this is what he meant:

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barenakedladies

a man named adolf hitler also called for the world to be blond haired blue eyed aryan world.... as god wanted it to be.

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highthief

Agreed. This guy is vile.

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Si vis pacem parabellum.

djtestudo

Sounds like stuff I have heard from black leaders in Baltimore.

Then again, since we're another "chocolate" city, no one cares

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
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djtestudo

This is a fantastic point.

If he was still alive, I would bet anything that he would be leading the fight against idiots like that.

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

Willravel

Nobody but me likes starberry flavor. Also, are malatos considered cookies and cream, or maybe someone left out neopolitan in the sun for a while?

This is ridiculous, and I find it ofensive.

Toaster126

Gee, I love it when "leaders of the black community" keep setting back race relations.

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"The question isn't who is going to let me, it's who is going to stop me." (Ayn Rand)
"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." (M. Scott Peck)

aceventura3

Isreal is a Jewish country.
Utah is a Mormon State.
San Francisco is a gay city.
Miami is known as little Cuba.
Southeastern USA known as the Bible belt.
Good ol' Boys (i.e. white men with souther accents) have various cities.
Scandinavians have Minnesota

There are a bunch of others. The point is nobody gets bent by cities having an emphasis on a certain group, unless that group is black. Just because a location has a emphasis on a group doesn't mean others are not welcome.

__________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions on vegetarianism while the wolf is of a different opinion."
"If you live among wolves you have to act like one."
"A lady screams at the mouse but smiles at the wolf. A gentleman is a wolf who sends flowers."

pan6467

So for the record can we set our boundaries now before we go any further?

What cities are for Crackers? Then we have to subdivide our crackers into.... Dego's, Micks, Krauts, Pollocks, Gypsies....

What cities are for Spooks?

What cities are Slant eyes?

What cities are for Wetbacks?

What cities are for Fags?

What cities are for KKK, Skinheads and Neo-Nazis?

What cities are for the Black Panthers and the Farrakhan followers?

Then what do we have for the cities of the biracial zebra couples?

What cities are for the Feminazis, the Tree huggers, the Fascist Neo Cons, the whacked out pinko Libs?

What cities are for the Kikes, the witches, the towel heads.......

Then we need cities for the Nerds, the Jocks, the nerdy Jocks, the Goths, the loners, the gang bangers.

Is there anyone I missed?

Let's just divide up the country now claim your city and fuck diversity, treating everyone as equal and basing your judgement on someone for who they are inside not what they look like, how they believe or their sexual orientations.

(If I offended anyone I am truly sorry, the point was to demonstrate how fucking stupid prejudice ANY prejudice thinking is.)

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Willravel

As a hetero cracker, I do take offence to people calling SF 'gay city'. I realize that San Francisco does have a very active gay community, but the vast majority of people living in SF are not gay. It's generalizations and sterrotypes like that that started the whole PC thing. If people whould have just calmed down about racism/sexism/religous-ism/sexual prefrence-ism/etc. in the 80s, then none of this crap would have happened. Because the political correct revolution was so great, we are now in a backlash where racist jokes and bigoted outbursts are considered common and even funny. The mayor is racist, pure and simple. What he said disrespects everyone who was not black who lost their homes and were forced to evacuate.

pan6467

Great minds think alike.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

pan6467

I think political correctness was a backlash from people who saw that people may actually have been seen as just people and not for color, sex orientation, religion, etc.

So then they had to come up with whatever- americacan so that they could still seperate themselves and not have to be identified for who they are as a person. Because for some people they let that Adjective before American dictate to all who they see themselves as.... not who they may be if they let go.

If any of that made sense.... I have a good point just hard to communicate it properly.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

fresnelly

In his defence, (and I'm only offering a degree here, not an excuse) I think he was trying to address the black residents' fear and cynicism, that they will be shut out of the city's redevelopment.

Having been dispersed across the country, remembering a history of political neglect, and faced with a monumental civic works project, I don't think this community's fear is unreasonable. Naturally they'd be looking for some reassurance.

The Mayor should have taken the opportunity, his inspiration from MLK, rather than just pandering to racist rhetoric and cynicism.

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aceventura3

If Nashville TN. had to evacuate. Then the mayor says he wants his city to return to being the country music capital of the world, is he disrespecting people in Nashville who make classical music? I guess, if the classical music guys are really, really sensitive. Perhaps a kiss would make them feel better

__________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions on vegetarianism while the wolf is of a different opinion."
"If you live among wolves you have to act like one."
"A lady screams at the mouse but smiles at the wolf. A gentleman is a wolf who sends flowers."

pan6467

The only thing I can think of is that he truly fears developers will go in make housing unaffordable for those who lived there and make NO some type of DisneyLand.

Course it would be a lot less divisive and to the point if he had stated his beliefs in a non racist way.

__________________
I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"

Willravel

Music prefrence doesn't equate to sexual prefrence because they aren't treated the same socially. I've never had my ass beaten for linking classical music (which I do, actually). I've had several of my friends involved in 'gay bashings'. It's really sad. ALSO there aren't a bunch of clasical music lover-phobes trying to limit the rights of people who like classical music. That'd make me pretty pissed.

aceventura3

Didn't think you take that example literally. But since you bring it up, there are a few country music bars where blacks/jews/gays/etc. are not welcome.

__________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions on vegetarianism while the wolf is of a different opinion."
"If you live among wolves you have to act like one."
"A lady screams at the mouse but smiles at the wolf. A gentleman is a wolf who sends flowers."

aceventura3

Time for a consitencey check.

How many of you guys were vocal against South Carolina flying the rebel flag on the state capital?

__________________
"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on lunch."
"It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions on vegetarianism while the wolf is of a different opinion."
"If you live among wolves you have to act like one."
"A lady screams at the mouse but smiles at the wolf. A gentleman is a wolf who sends flowers."

Willravel

Confederate flag = pro slavery. Idiot mayor = probably rasist. That's where I see those issues.

Locobot

Nagin did come out with a pretty sincere apology today. Contrast that with Pat Robertson...

alansmithee

You're right. If a white person made these comments, he'd be villified.

But on the flipside, if the majority of people in NO had been white, they wouldn't have been left to drown and starve, either.

I think letting a mayor trying to rally his citizens isn't quite in the league of allowing people to die.

martinguerre

he's a bad rhetorician...he made a good goal sound stupid.

NOLA had the largest concentration of college educated african americans in the entire nation, before katrina.

there's something unique about that...for a kid of any color to see the people around them value education is something that helps encourage them on that path.

not to mention the musical culture of the city, which had heavy contributions from african americans...

NOLA wasn't a city without issues. but it had some unique contributions to make to African-American culture...and i'd hate to see that get lost.

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For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

timalkin

If God intended for New Orleans to be a "chocolate" city, he sure took his time in making it happen. New Orleans has been a mixture of French and Spanish majority for three hundred years, up until the last couple of decades. This is also the guy who told people to vote for Bobby Jendal in the last governor's election, because he is a "man of color." I still can't believe that nobody really cares.

And do you think his "apology" was really sincere? He told the press that "chocolate" is made from dark chocolate mixed with white milk to make a wonderful drink. Does he think we're all fucking stupid?

__________________
Trinity: "What do you need?"

Neo: "Guns. Lots of guns."

-The Matrix

timalkin

Nagin let's 205 school buses sit idle before, during, and after the hurricane, and Bush hates black people.

__________________
Trinity: "What do you need?"

Neo: "Guns. Lots of guns."

-The Matrix

alansmithee

I'm not saying he didn't screw up, but if it were whites, SOMEONE would've gotten the busses moving (and had places for them to go to).

And it isn't just Bush who hates black people-white America hates black people.

alpha phi

What does one have to do with the other?

All you are doing here is perpetuating racism
I've researched your posts here
most of them stink of hatered and ignorance
the white lady who wrote nigger on the forehead
of a black child she babysat
you said
About hip stars you have to say
Hate and ignorance breeds hate and ignorance
If this was a white guy you'd be defending him.

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timalkin

Alpha Phi, would you care to post something other than flame-bait?

__________________
Trinity: "What do you need?"

Neo: "Guns. Lots of guns."

-The Matrix

Cynthetiq

Agreed. Racism is racism, no matter who says it. If they say the N word is racist, then it's racist when they say it too.

In the early 90s we had Black Expo at Jacob Javitz. It irritated me because there could never be a White Expo, not without any kind of media saying it's racist.

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I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.

Hardknock

What exactly would a "white" expo entail anyway? History? You got that everyday in history class when you went to high school. You probably can't remember if you had a single day of black history in high school. And if you did you most likey didn't care. Be honest. That is why there are "black" expos.

These types of events were meant to show the culture of the minority, not the majority.

Cynthetiq

Doesn't matter, if the minority can have it then the majority should have it as well. It's called EQUALITY.

__________________
I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not.