The Bigotry of the Lowest Expectations

The hysterics over Katrina revealed plainly what I think is the true force of racism in the U.S. today. From affirmative action to government housing, the ideas of the left are driven by the fact that Democrats simply don't think black people are capable of taking care of themselves. And from the start of Katrina, the local officials, the media, and much of the left's leadership has believed the worst of the people of New Orleans.

Rapes of babies, rampant murder, and cannibalism, all reported, all repeated, all false. All easy to find the truth of. Why didn't anyone look into it any further? Because for them, it was too easy to believe that a relatively black city would descend into Thunderdome inside of a week. From the Times-Picayune:

In interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Compass reported rapes of "babies," and Mayor Ray Nagin spoke of "hundreds of armed gang members" killing and raping people inside the Dome. Unidentified evacuees told of children stepping over so many bodies, "we couldn't count."

The picture that emerged was one of the impoverished, masses of flood victims resorting to utter depravity, randomly attacking each other, as well as the police trying to protect them and the rescue workers trying to save them. Nagin told Winfrey the crowd has descended to an "almost animalistic state."

I'm so tired of being defensive on the right from accusations of racism. We've been right at every major junction, from the Civil War, to the Civil Rights Act, to Senator KKK Robert Byrd.

I've walked through the "wrong" parts of New Orleans at 3 in the morning (sober), and I don't remember ever feeling I was in danger. I wonder how it is that people were so ready to report, and so ready to believe, that a city of black people is just hours from anarchy at any given time. I think it's time the lefties started answering some questions.