# "The President \[doesn't care about\] black people." (ed. title) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 7, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534 "2005-09-07T16:13:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/101 "2005-09-09T01:16:33Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Even if Bush DOES care about black people it should still concern him that a large percentage of them sure don’t _feel_ like he does. In politics, perception is all that counts. I think we all learned a long time ago, Bush doesn’t care about peoples opinions and perceptions. He does what he wants, and if others don’t like it, too bad. ---
**Author:** ![lostworld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@lostworld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lostworld)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/102 "2005-09-09T02:04:24Z")
The flood in NO is a NATURAL DISASTER and was uncontrolled by the government. People elected to stay there in their homes and now they need to play the hand that was dealt to them and get out. Bush does not hate or dislike the black community. As seen in many different areas and situations you can’t please everyone all the time, just a few some of the time. No one gets his/her way all the time and most white communities have learned to adjust to this; however, the black communities continue to say that they are being left behind or mistreated using any event to paint pictures that the government hates them because they are black and the truth is they just could not get what they wanted. Well wake up neither do the white, Asian, Latino nor any other ethnic group get its way 100% off the time. It is a sad state when people are missing or dead and the black communities attempt to place blame even though they were warned about what might happen. People chose to live there; the government did not forced people to live there. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/103 "2005-09-09T03:36:13Z")
> [@lostworld](#): > > The flood in NO is a NATURAL DISASTER and was uncontrolled by the government. “Natural disaster, natural disaster!” Right out of the White House songbook. Blaming “nature” an inadequate defense in a number of ways. For one thing, the problem wasn’t so much the hrricane but the levee break and the levee break was a human failure, not a natural one. Moreover, it disingenuously evades the issue that the levee break was predicted far in advance and provides no excuse for the lack of advance planning, the obscene incompetence of “Brownie” in running FEMA or the seeming indifference of the federal government in providing any sort of relief or guidance to the victims left in the city. > [@](#): > > People elected to stay there in their homes and now they need to play the hand that was dealt to them and get out. Most of those people did not “elect” to stay there. They were the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people who had no ABILITY to leave the city. Is it really possible that you haven’t been informed of that yet? > [@](#): > > Bush does not hate or dislike the black community. As seen in many different areas and situations you can’t please everyone all the time, just a few some of the time. No one gets his/her way all the time and most white communities have learned to adjust to this; however, the black communities continue to say that they are being left behind or mistreated using any event to paint pictures that the government hates them because they are black and the truth is they just could not get what they wanted. Well wake up neither do the white, Asian, Latino nor any other ethnic group get its way 100% off the time. It is a sad state when people are missing or dead and the black communities attempt to place blame even though they were warned about what might happen. People chose to live there; the government did not forced people to live there. The people had no CHOICE but to stay there. And what’s wrong with placing blame where blame is due? It’s called ACCOUNTABILITY. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/104 "2005-09-09T19:18:23Z")
> [@Ring](#): > > He would have been entering not just unfriendly but downright hostile territory and I’m sure the NAACP members were licking their chops at the mere thought of the opportunity to embarrass and humiliate him. Really? A hell of a lot of candidates have addressed that organization, including a lot of Republicans, but how hostile have they ever been? > [@](#): > > He would have accomplished absolutely nothing by in effect crawling in to perform obeisance to this self-anointed all powerful group and would have only succeed in belittling himself in front of the US and the world. All he might have accomplished would have been to show that he intended to be President of ALL the United States, every one of us. That he embraced rather than separated himself from a large sector of our society. As for your opinion of the NAACP, where the hell does that load of bile come from? Do you know anything about it or its history or its views or its historical importance? > [@](#): > > On the other hand by not attending he in effect pulled the rug out from under them and portrayed himself as a strong and decisive candidate. He in effect set himself apart by saying “Don’t tread on me.” More likely that’s of a piece with his handlers’, or his own, huge reluctance to face \*any \* audience in \*any \* situation that hasn’t already been prescreened for loyalty or at least reliable support of the GOP agenda. We saw that throughout his last campaign and we continue to see it in his limiting his public appearances almost exclusively to military audiences. It isn’t courage at all, it’s cowardice. > [@](#): > > He may have given the impression that he didn’t care about blacks but I would think that anyone with an open mind would have realized he really had no other choice. Sure. He had the choice every other candidate has always had, and almost always taken, without negative consequences either. But it’s cost him, oh yes, it’s cost him, and it’s cost his party a generation’s worth of progress as well. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/105 "2005-09-09T19:21:25Z")
> [@](#): > > On the other hand by not attending he in effect pulled the rug out from under them and portrayed himself as a strong and decisive candidate. Yep. He firmly announced to white America that they had nothing to fear from having their (future) president actually paying attention to those other people. ---
**Author:** ![lostworld](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@lostworld](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lostworld)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/106 "2005-09-09T19:35:40Z")
How many years have the people of Big Easy known that the levees were rated for a category III hurricane only? If people insist on pointing a finger and placing blame on someone or some entity, it should be the mayor. :smack: Dhuuuu! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/107 "2005-09-09T19:47:21Z")
> [@lostworld](#): > > How many years have the people of Big Easy known that the levees were rated for a category III hurricane only? If people insist on pointing a finger and placing blame on someone or some entity, it should be the mayor. :smack: Dhuuuu! Yes, he should have stamped his foot until the Army Corp of Engineers spent $100 million dollars to upgrade the levees. They hate when you stamp your foot. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/108 "2005-09-09T20:02:41Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Yes, he should have stamped his foot until the Army Corp of Engineers spent $100 million dollars to upgrade the levees. They hate when you stamp your foot. Or, have an evacuation plan that includes using the hundreds of school buses and other public transportation he left unused. Oh wait, he HAD a plan that said that, only he didn’t follow it. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/109 "2005-09-09T22:39:17Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > Or, have an evacuation plan that includes using the hundreds of school buses and other public transportation he left unused. Oh wait, he HAD a plan that said that, only he didn’t follow it. Then what’s this? > [@](#): > > [**Nagin orders first-ever mandatory evacuation of New Orleans**](http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08.html#074564) > _New Orleans Times-Picayune,_ Sunday, August 28 > > New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for a first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city this morning, saying that Hurricane Katrina’s devastating power may well create the sort of cataclysmic damage that residents have long worried that a killer storm could cause in a city that lies mostly below sea level. > > … **Regional Transit Authority buses were scheduled to ferry people to the dome from 12 locations around the city beginning at noon today.** ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/110 "2005-09-09T22:43:02Z")
> [@Ring](#): > > downright hostile territory I’m curious about how this hostility might have arisen **prior** to his decision to shun them. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/111 "2005-09-09T23:05:27Z")
Sorry, **rjung** , I don’t consider warehousing poor people in the Superdome with inadequate supplies and no officials in charge and no police for protection to be the same as _evacuating_ the city. I think Bush bears blame for putting unqualified cronies in charge of FEMA, gutting the department of FEMA intended to set preparation for these disasters, and allowing the CoE project to rebuild the levees to be halted before the City border, but the decisions to wait until the last minute to make the evacuation mandatory, to not send police out to enforce the evacuation, and to call a Titanic-deck-chair-shuffling action _inside_ the city an evacuation lies squarely in the lap of the mayor. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/112 "2005-09-10T00:14:24Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Sorry, **rjung** , I don’t consider warehousing poor people in the Superdome with inadequate supplies and no officials in charge and no police for protection to be the same as _evacuating_ the city. I think Bush bears blame for putting unqualified cronies in charge of FEMA, gutting the department of FEMA intended to set preparation for these disasters, and allowing the CoE project to rebuild the levees to be halted before the City border, but the decisions to wait until the last minute to make the evacuation mandatory, to not send police out to enforce the evacuation, and to call a Titanic-deck-chair-shuffling action _inside_ the city an evacuation lies squarely in the lap of the mayor. Not to mention anything about the later evacuation to the Astrodome. Y’know the Astrodome had those cots and supplies, a plan and the means for housing people for **five years**. They have this town called Galveston, see. Which they figured might get hit by a hurricane so that it was only prudent to lay in some supplies and have a plan. * * * As for the OP. I agree. Bush **doesn’t** care about black people. For that matter, I don’t care about black people either. I personally think most of us don’t frame things in terms of race, unless somebody does it for us. I don’t think in terms of race too often. It’s just not particularly important or useful. In the world I live in, the people who make a big deal about race are almost always activists. Coming from privilege, I doubt ole Dubya spends his days worrying about race. Framing this in terms of race, or making a racial issue of it, is IMO disgusting, fallacious and useless. I hope and think Bush doesn’t care about black people. It’s a bad way to look at things. I simply hope he cares about people. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/113 "2005-09-10T01:03:46Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Yep. He firmly announced to white America that they had nothing to fear from having their (future) president actually paying attention to those other people. NAACP = All black people? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/114 "2005-09-10T01:05:33Z")
> [@](#): > > NAACP = All black people? Nope. Why do you ask? ---
**Author:** ![Ring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Ring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ring)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/115 "2005-09-10T01:06:59Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > I’m curious about how this hostility might have arisen **prior** to his decision to shun them. Well it appears it existed both before: > [@](#): > > [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1029-05.htm](http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1029-05.htm) > > Bond, in a speech in July at the civil rights group’s annual convention in Philadelphia, declared: "The election this fall is a contest between two widely disparate views of who we are and what we believe. One view wants to march us backward through history - surrendering control of government to special interests, weakening democracy, giving religion veto power over science, curtailing civil liberties, despoiling the environment. > > Bond acknowledged that his wide-ranging speech was critical of Bush. But he said the criticism wasn’t done in support of Kerry, who accepted an NAACP invitation to speak at the group’s convention after the president turned the group down. And after: > [@](#): > > During his keynote speech at the group’s 95th annual convention Sunday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Bond also assailed the Bush administration and the Republican Party, accusing the GOP of “playing the race card in election after election.” > The party appeals “to the dark underside of American culture, to the minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality,” Bond said. “They preach neutrality and practice racial division.” > > [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1029-05.htm](http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1029-05.htm) I think it’s pretty amazing that Bond has the gall to criticize someone for playing the race card. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/116 "2005-09-10T01:12:52Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Nope. Why do you ask? Ring, talking about the NAACP says: > [@](#): > > On the other hand by not attending he in effect pulled the rug out from under them and portrayed himself as a strong and decisive candidate. To which you reply > [@](#): > > Yep. He firmly announced to white America that they had nothing to fear from having their (future) president actually paying attention to those other people. It sounds like you’re saying that snubbing the NAACP is the same thing as snubbing black people as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/117 "2005-09-10T01:19:49Z")
It’s not black people Dubya doesn’t care about, it’s **poor** people. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/118 "2005-09-10T01:20:32Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > I personally think most of us don’t frame things in terms of race, unless somebody does it for us. I don’t think in terms of race too often. It’s just not particularly important or useful. I don’t usually give a second thought to wheelchair access. Are the aisles too narrow? Are there ramps? Can you turn around? Can the items/buttons I may need be reached while I’m sitting? Which doesn’t mean those aren’t important or useful considerations, I just don’t have to think about them. Some people in the country are lucky enough not to have frame things in terms of race very often, if at all. Some of us don’t get that choice. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/119 "2005-09-10T02:15:22Z")
> [@](#): > > It sounds like you’re saying that snubbing the NAACP is the same thing as snubbing black people as a whole. Not snubbing blacks, specifically, or equating blacks to the NAACP, but showing his “strength” and “independence” to his core white constituency by ignoring any non-white ethnic advocacy group (while demonstrating the same “strength” by “bravely” showing solidarity with his religious brethren at the (until recently, unaccreditable and frequently racist) institution, Bob Jones U.). ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534/120 "2005-09-10T02:48:40Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Not snubbing blacks, specifically, or equating blacks to the NAACP, but showing his “strength” and “independence” to his core white constituency by ignoring any non-white ethnic advocacy group (while demonstrating the same “strength” by “bravely” showing solidarity with his religious brethren at the (until recently, unaccreditable and frequently racist) institution, Bob Jones U.). OK, I think I get what you’re saying. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-doesnt-care-about-black-people-ed-title/320534.md?page=7)