Debunking more myths surrounding the Katrina aftermath
on September 10th, 2005 at 5:52 pmI was not planning to add too much to the site today; however, after finding the article below I thought it would be necessary for me to post it ASAP.
New Orleans myths: The numbers tell a different story
Written by Richard Baehr
[excerpted]
The basic major media premise all week has been that the 20% who were left behind were all black, and poor and the rich got out of town. This is simply put, nonsense – and racist. New Orleans is a poor city (more than twice the national poverty rate). Most of those who got out of town were not rich, and were not driving SUVs, as Tim Russert sneered on the air Sunday (in a disgracefully-conducted interview with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff).
[BI: I agree. Russert was completely out of character and has lost a lot of creditbility as a balanced interviewer in my book]
A little elementary math will address this canard. According to the 2000 census, New Orleans’ population of 484,000 included approximately 136,000 whites, and 326,000 blacks. The white figure includes 7,000 Hispanics who classify themselves as white on the census forms. If 80% of New Orleans residents got out early – and this is the Mayor’s number – then only about 97,000 residents remained. Assume all of them were black, (which of course they were not). That would mean that 229,000 blacks got out early, and 136,000 whites along with them. In other words, the successful mass evacuation substantially benefited black residents of the city.
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