C. Ray and the Katrina Diaspora

C. Ray's on the right track with his remarks to the National Newspaper Publishers Association, but he misses the bigger picture when he focuses on race. It's more than just a black white thang. Nagin said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere," Nagin told the association. "They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community."

"dispersing the community" is more than just keeping the black folks away from New Orleans. Simple racism is easy to identify. We should all know by now that BushCo isn't motivated by simple racism, but rather acquiring and maintaining power. To that end, there are a lot of white folks that remain dispersed from New Orleans as well as the blacks from Da Ninth.

The media spotlight, when it shines on New Orleans, usually shines on the neighborhoods of the Ninth Ward and New Orleans East. While this focus is good in terms of the loss of a major cultural component of the city, black musicians, it only tells a small part of the story. The loss of the neighborhoods of Lakeview and Gentilly are much more serious to the overall speed of recovery in New Orleans. Both are middle to upper middle class neighborhoods. The loss of the residents of these parts of town means that thousands of professionals and skilled laborers have not returned to the metro area or are permanently relocated to the suburbs. Companies who employed these workers have also either bailed for Metairie, Kenner, or the Northshore, or have left town altogether.

This is the dispersal that worries Nagin, and it's far from an all-black shift. The Lakeview neighborhood was buried in 10+ feet of water when the 17th Street Canal was breached. Prior to the storm, this section of town was as white as a magnolia blossom. Lakeview is joined to most of Uptown to form Council District "A," a long-time bastion of White Republicanism in New Orleans.

If this was all about keeping Teh Eeebil Coloreds out of New Orleans, there would be a mechanism for Lakeview residents to return and rebuild. That's not happening, though, because the last thing the Republicans want is to have these particular Republicans gathered together. They're a bunch of angry folks, angry because the Corps of Engineers lied about the levees and floodwalls. They're angry because they're getting the runaround from the insurance companies, after years of voting for Republican Party-endorsed candidates for Insurance Commissioner. They're angry because they see the money that's flowed into Mississippi for re-building. Most recently, they're angry to learn that the President's brother Jeb is now involved in selling defective pumps to New Orleans.

These folks are also part of the 65% of Americans overall who think the wars are going badly. They had a good thing going before the storm, and now their employers want them to move permanently to Houston, Dallas, or Atlanta. They're often in serious personal financial trouble, because flood insurance claims max out at $250,000 and their houses are often valued at $300K+. These folks have never voted Democrat in their lives. They don't like Coloreds, educate their children at home or in religious schools, and vote "NO" on every tax and bond issue.

They're angry. They may not be angry enough to vote with the donkey, but they're certainly angry enough to stay home completely.

All the better reason to keep them in Texas.

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