# If Ray Nagin gets re-elected in April **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 17, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424 "2006-01-17T22:17:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/1 "2006-01-17T22:17:52Z")
> [@](#): > > “I don’t care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day,” Nagin said in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech. “This city will be a majority African-American city. It’s the way God wants it to be.” > > Uptown is a reference to a mostly white part of the city. > > Pressed later to explain his comments, Nagin, who is black, told CNN affiliate WDSU-TV that he was referring to creation of a racially diverse city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, insisting that his remarks were not divisive. > > “How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about,” he said. Bullshit, dipshit. You make \*milk chocolate \* that way. And if your mix peanut butter with it you have a not-so-funny commercial. Uptown is filled with your constituents too. Admit it. You want a majority black NOLA so you have someone who will vote for your racist ass. Neopolitan isn’t a new flavor, but I guess considering it is equal in color, it wouldn’t fit into your agenda. > [@](#): > > In his speech, Nagin also said “God is mad at America,” in part because he does not approve “of us being in Iraq under false pretenses.” > > “He is sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it is destroying and putting stress on this country,” Nagin said. > > He said God is “upset at black America also.” > > “We are not taking care of ourselves. We are not taking care of our women, and we are not taking care of our children when you have a community where 70 percent of its children are being born to one parent.” And while you are no contender to Fallwell or Roberts, maybe you should cut back on the God’s Will bullshit to justify your racism and political ideals. ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/2 "2006-01-17T22:19:31Z")
the top of my post got cut off: I’ll move to France with that Baldwin twit. [“This city will be chocolate at the end of the day”](http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/17/nagin.city/) ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/3 "2006-01-17T22:25:35Z")
CNN reported this morning that Nagin was actually elected by white voters, with the majority of the minorities (heh) voting for his opponent. I don’t know if that’s actually true, but that’s what they said. Which makes what he said even dumber. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/4 "2006-01-17T22:38:19Z")
Man, I’m probably just out of touch or something, but I just cannot get worked up about the “chocolate city.” I think it’s kind of funny, what with the thought that making a city into a children’s drink is an odd platform. But I just can’t see taking offense at the comment: Yes, the comments were not PC, but good god, lighten up, people. I’ll not get concerned until he starts advocating policies to get Whitey out of the city. The whole wrath of God comments, however, are just odd. ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/5 "2006-01-17T23:04:24Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Man, I’m probably just out of touch or something, but I just cannot get worked up about the “chocolate city.” I think it’s kind of funny, what with the thought that making a city into a children’s drink is an odd platform. But I just can’t see taking offense at the comment: Yes, the comments were not PC, but good god, lighten up, people. I’ll not get concerned until he starts advocating policies to get Whitey out of the city. > > The whole wrath of God comments, however, are just odd. Doesn’t suprise me. It seems anytime racism against whites, or by anyone but whites, are ever pitted in this forum, we get this cookie cutter response. To be fair, we usually have someone try to defend against the pile-on whenever a white is pitted for racism too. ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/6 "2006-01-17T23:31:13Z")
the problem is, making a city out of a delicious candy is even _less_ structurally sound than making the city out of, oh i don’t know, more substansial building materials like wood, brick, and concrete admittedly, a chocolate New Orleans would be much _tastier_, albeit more melty in the hot summer months… MMMM…the Land of Chocolate! ---
**Author:** ![dbuzman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@dbuzman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbuzman)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/7 "2006-01-17T23:35:15Z")
Actually, since he says you mix them to make a drink is he is describing chocolate milk. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/8 "2006-01-17T23:46:11Z")
I hear “chocolate city” and think of P-Funk. That doesn’t bother me. But Nagin deserves a Category Five “go fuck yourself” for blaming the people who elected you (among others) for what happened to them. From their own mayor as opposed to a psychopathic televangelist, that’s awful. Yeah, Ray, I guess God was really pissed off at the way poor people are running this country. What the fuck? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/9 "2006-01-18T00:20:18Z")
Is it true that 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/10 "2006-01-18T00:57:50Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > Is it true that 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock? Yes, but now that Nipsey Russell is dead that figure is expected to go way down. (Nipsey’s gift for rhyme gained him opportunities most men only dream about.) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/11 "2006-01-18T01:24:23Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I hear “chocolate city” and think of P-Funk. That doesn’t bother me. I should restate this. Saying that it’s God’s will for a city’s population to remain a certain way is stupid, and it’s a ridiculous way to appeal to black pride. It doesn’t bother me as much as his other comments, but whose God gives a crap about Louisiana demographics? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/12 "2006-01-18T01:41:14Z")
Wait…I just read more about this on the news, and it’s just now sinking in. HOW DID THIS FUCKING MORON GET ELECTED? Elected officials reflect the attitudes of those who elected them. If these comments are typical fare from this guy, then my opinion of New Orleans’ voters is currently a very, very low one. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/13 "2006-01-18T02:07:34Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#): > > Bullshit, dipshit. You make \*milk chocolate \* that way. And if your mix peanut butter with it you have a not-so-funny commercial. Uptown is filled with your constituents too. Admit it. You want a majority black NOLA so you have someone who will vote for your racist ass… No he wants NO to look like it did pre-Katrina, [New Orleans City, Louisiana Statistics and Demographics (US Census 2000)](http://neworleans.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm) Race One race 478473 98.72% White 135956 28.05% Black or African American 325947 67.25% American Indian and Alaska Native 991 0.2% Asian 10972 2.26% Asian indian 1195 0.25% Chinese 958 0.2% Filipino 515 0.11% Japanese 283 0.06% Korean 358 0.07% Vietnamese 7118 1.47% Other Asian 545 0.11% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 109 0.02% Native Hawaiian 27 0.01% Guamanian or Chamorro 29 0.01% Samoan 24 0% Other Pacific Islander 29 0.01% Some other race 4498 0.93% Two or more races 6201 1.28% Hispanic or Latino and race Total Population 484674 100.00% Hispanic or Latino(of any race) 14826 3.06% Mexican 2578 0.53% Puerto Rican 1031 0.21% Cuban 1615 0.33% Other Hispanic or Latino 9602 1.98% Not Hispanic or Latino 469848 96.94% White alone 128871 26.59% ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/14 "2006-01-18T03:14:32Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > No he wants NO to look like it did pre-Katrina, Why? He wants the black population to be a majority. He thinks God wants it too. Why in the fuck would he want that? And why wouldn’t care what the citizens uptown say about it? You know, the white ones? ---
**Author:** ![Grelby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a5b964/32.png) [@Grelby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grelby)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/15 "2006-01-18T03:20:36Z")
> [@AFAIKnow](#): > > Doesn’t suprise me. It seems anytime racism against whites, or by anyone but whites, are ever pitted in this forum, we get this cookie cutter response. > > To be fair, we usually have someone try to defend against the pile-on whenever a white is pitted for racism too. It might be because racism against white people has never been institutionalized into a system that actively or passively works to keep white folks marginalized and poor. Me, I’m not too worried about someone who’s black, blue, yellow, green or any other color I can think of expressing racist attitudes about white people. Their words have absolutely zero power to cause actual physical or economic harm to me and my family. This is most certainly not true in the other direction; racism coming from a white elected official is cause for far more serious concern. Racism from a minority politician is plenty of cause for derision, but it doesn’t actually scare me. All that said, I’m not defending the guy. He sounds like a whackjob. Hell, the prejudice aside, the Will of God stuff is pretty bizarre. What an ass. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/16 "2006-01-18T03:30:57Z")
> [@Grelby](#): > > It might be because racism against white people has never been institutionalized into a system that actively or passively works to keep white folks marginalized and poor. Me, I’m not too worried about someone who’s black, blue, yellow, green or any other color I can think of expressing racist attitudes about white people. Their words have absolutely zero power to cause actual physical or economic harm to me and my family. This is most certainly not true in the other direction; racism coming from a white elected official is cause for far more serious concern. Racism from a minority politician is plenty of cause for derision, but it doesn’t actually scare me. > > All that said, I’m not defending the guy. He sounds like a whackjob. Hell, the prejudice aside, the Will of God stuff is pretty bizarre. What an ass. But, he is a Mayor right? That is some power no? I agree with a history of racism, but divisive politics need to be overcome, on both sides, to have a truly equal and pluralist society. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/17 "2006-01-18T03:35:33Z")
I was living in New Orleans when Nagin got elected. CNN was right: His supporters were (a) the rich white folks and (b) the rich and well-to-do black folks. The poor black folks had other candidates and failed to support Nagin in droves. So he’s not blaming the people who elected him. And it’s ironic that he’s advocating a city that is the exact _opposite_ of the folks who supported him. That’s why I can’t see anything sinister in his remarks. Dumb, yes. Grasping at straws, probably – he’s almost universally seen in the lower economic groups of the black community as, at best, a sellout for being a successful businessman rather than earning his money the old-fashioned way, i.e. corruption, so looking for support from those who despite him is probably futile. And it’s really a shame; mostly what he wanted when he got elected was to fix the streets and to try to uproot the culture of corruption and straighten out the city budget. And he was actually doing a great job of that pre-Katrina. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/18 "2006-01-18T03:41:02Z")
Nagin is an idiot. His dithering in the face of repeated warnings (and a call from President Bush) prior to Katrina making landfall and then publicly raging against the Feds (often getting his facts wrong) after the levees failed indicate that he is not competent to be the mayor of any large city. HOWEVER, two things should be considered regarding his MLK jr. Day speech: 1. There was a fair amount of speculation following the disaster that rather than rebuilding the city to let all the original inhabitants return, only the city center would be rebuilt for the tourists and the inhabitants of the poorer sections would be allowed to spend the rest of their lives scattered across the country. (No serious proposal was made beyond just abandoning the location altogether, but there was a certain amount of street talk on the topic.) - I suspect that his remarks were intended to quash those sort of rumors. 1. His speech also included a fair amount of “Bill Cosby”-like chastisement, taking black people to task for fighting each other and tearing apart their own neighborhoods. - It is interesting that the OP selectively quoted some portions of the speech (ignoring their context) while failing to remark on other portions of the same speech. ---
**Author:** ![AFAIKnow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@AFAIKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AFAIKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/19 "2006-01-18T03:59:19Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > - It is interesting that the OP selectively quoted some portions of the speech (ignoring their context) while failing to remark on other portions of the same speech. What should I have quoted to make you happy? I quoted where he tried to take the blacks to task on the 'evil ways". And I commented on it. If I had taken anything out of context, please enlighten me. If his speach didn’t boil down to: “I think God wants blacks to be a majority in New Orleans, and I don’t care what those white folks uptown think”, then I’ll eat my hat. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424/20 "2006-01-18T04:06:29Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > Wait…I just read more about this on the news, and it’s just now sinking in. > > HOW DID THIS FUCKING MORON GET ELECTED? > > Elected officials reflect the attitudes of those who elected them. If these comments are typical fare from this guy, then my opinion of New Orleans’ voters is currently a very, very low one. He was elected because he was running against even larger morons. Each election for mayor ends with one of the two black candidates claiming that the other really isn’t a true black person and is only a white puppet. Radio commericals during the last campaign said Nagin was a Ronald Reagan clone, playing off the rhyme between their names. One candidate gave a long sob story and made commercials about her brother being murdered in front of her home so she understood crime. Problem is, she left out the fact that her brother was shot by the police after being involved in an armed robbery. We had hope for Nagin, especially after he started a campaign against corruption and actually did a few high profile arrests. Now it’s back to the same old shit. Our family is talking about moving to Texas and I don’t think it could possibly happen soon enough. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-ray-nagin-gets-re-elected-in-april/340424.md?page=2)