Further Down the Rabbit Hole.

And we thought this country was divided before Hurricane Katrina.

On The Huffington Post, author Randall Robinson writes about reports of cannibalism beginning in New Orleans. He provides no attribution, and bloggers and online birdcage liners have swiftly moved to cast scrutiny upon his unattributed assertion. Rightly so, in my mind. However, it appears Randall Robinson's credentials are more than well established. This guy's opinion is respected.

Well, it was until his article got freep'd and the seedy underbelly of the wingnut scourge reveals where it wants to take this Great American Crisis. It does not bode well for the immediate future of race relations in this country.

Quotes from the mouth of madness below the fold.

His article is provocative. It is heartbreaking. It is full of outrage, full of raw emotion, and most of all, full of disappointment. This is more than an opinion he is "simply entitled to"; it is most certainly that, if anything. But no. His outrage at what we as a collective nation may have allowed to appear on this earth in these very "freedom-loving" United States of America, is only the beginning.

And I'm with him. It's high time we dismanlted the institutional disadvantage built in to this contraption of a nation. In other words, in my view, white America's death grip on the commanding heights of wealth has become too top-heavy and will eventually become untenable. People either see that, or they don't. Over time, I think sensible people will, and this will become one side of two dominant views that will evolve from this ongoing tragedy.

Let's face it. Never before has such an explicit, visceral example of class and race division in this country been thrust in everyone's face, for all to see, until now.

Personally, in viewing the first few days of coverage when the footage just started coming in, I couldn't imagine how the racial dynamic of the severe economic divide in this country wouldn't  become an issue. For most of the people we saw waving their arms for help, evacuation was a luxury they couldn't afford.

This is where the "other" dominant view presents itself.

Randall Robinson's article was freep'd with the most insidious, inciteful, vitriolic castigation from people who suggested that those trapped "should probably be put out of their misery as it shows they are too savage to function in society".

Oh boy.

I believe we will see this most considerably ignorant viewpoint grow over the course of days, weeks, months...maybe years. We'll most certainly hear all about that flowery fallacy of Rugged Individualism. We see Kos already writing about the death of Norquist's wet dream of drownable government. It is already beginning.

Who knows what it will look like, or how it will shape the next decade. But it will be a tempest of change, no doubt. The "last throes" of any ideology usually are.

I saved the worst for last. A few quotes from the freep'd Robinson article. Brace yourself. It's ugly:

You are crazy, if people are eating dead people than they should probably be put out of their misery as it shows they are too savage to function in society. This might seem harsh but its easy to say because I doubt that its true. I refuse to believe that help was purposely slowed simply based on the color of the ones in need. I think you wish that was the case so you'd have more to complain about. The reality is that help was given as soon as possible and was made more difficult by the locals shooting at the rescue crews and core of engineers.

and

If you dumbasses want to fall on your swords and apologize just because your white, you're worthless. This is just chlorine in the genepool, dummies too stupid to leave deserve what they get.

and

This is not about race, this was a natural disaster, and I am so tired of race hustlers like you not taking responsiblity for yourself, your actions, and your communities. This was a double pronged natural disaster ( hurricane + flood). You would have to live on Mars to not know a category 5 hurricane was bearing down on New Orleans. Where the hell is people's common sense. If they didn't have it before they just learned a very hard lesson. It is so easy to monday morning quarterback this thing and say that because of race, they were left behind. It looks to me, and to most Americans that I have talked to, that they made a conscious choice. I am sure they saw the TV warnings like everyone else. It does not appear to me that the mayor of New Orleans had much of a plan to get African Americans out of the city in time ( that is part of his job too, you know ) , but I am sure he had a plan to bus them to the polls when he needed their votes. What was the mayor's contingency plan to get people out or arrange emergency shelters in advance? I can understand that older people and sick people present a logistical problem in terms of moving them to high ground, but the people looting ( not for survival, but for TV's and sneakers) hardly look ill or old at all. The real shame is that when the chips are down, the African American community seems to prey on each other. We all feel terrible about what happened in New Orleans, but now is the time to mobilize, pick up the peices and move on. Continuing to bitch and moan about how oppressed you are in spite of people trying to help you only makes people who might be willing to help turn away in disgust. I am sorry if white people out there somehow feel responsible for this. I think it is pathetic if they do. This is about survival, common sense, the presence of mind to know that mother nature is not to be messed with. Unfortunately, if these people did not make the right decision, they paid for it dearly.

almost done

Quit Blaming Bush! Don't Blame the Government! It isn't the job of the Federal Government to do EVERYTHING FOR YOU. Ray Nagin was hired for his race(he's black) and his mafia ties (google it) and not for his leadership. Why were his school buses sitting in the local bus yard while the needy sat stubbornly in their homes? Why were people drinking on Bourbon St. the night before & after the hurricane hit? Ignorance, Incompetence and Irresponsibility - NOT RACISM! 6 days, and all we've got is Mr. Mayor and Mrs. Governor pleading to Bush for help. IT IS NOT THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO PROVIDE EVERYTHING FOR YOU! Blame the Governor and the Mayor for not being pro-active. Blame God for letting the French settle in a bowl 300 years ago. Or be better than that and give more of yourself to make this country better. Americans Still Love Americans.

a few more lines

Funny that I watch the mayor of New Orleans, a black man, walk side by side with President Bush, with a cocky strut with a BOTTLE OF WATER in his hand. The president wasn't parading one. A litte shitty isn't it?

and, the last one

You have got to be kidding me. If this had happened anywhere but a poor, black city - there would not have been a problem because the people would have sense enough to get out first and if they got caught, help each other, not act like animals.

So, there it is. Most of it. Sure, Robinson didn't cite to any reports. But time will tell if this is true. What is irrefutable is the unpredictable damage to the state of American race and class that Hurricane Katrina also brought down to bear.

Today, I despair for our nation's future.