Kanye West ripped into George Bush at a charity fundraiser for hurricane Katrina on NBC. Instead of reading the mild and well-spun script, he claimed George Bush is a racist, that he doesn't care about black people, and that the media and the Government accused blacks of looting while portraying whites as victims trying to get away.
Is Kanye West right?
Some right-leaning pundits are already claiming Kanye West is a racist. Is that appropriate? Why should conservative representatives of the elite, whites in this country berate a black man for speaking his mind?
Isn't this the pot calling the kettle black in the worst way?
It would be like Hitler calling the President of Israel a "Jew killer", it would be like Jeff Dahmer calling Mother Theresa a "cannibal". It just does not fly. The "reverse-race baiters", who call black men speaking their mind "racists", are invariably the most racist elements of our society.
Lets examine West's statements more closely. Is George Bush a racist?
He wants to abolish affirmative action, a program that clearly has not run its course to reverse de jure discrimination. We see proof of that in the Katrina disaster itself. How many of the victims in dire straits were white? Affirmative action clearly has not helped enough black people yet and you see it by the makeup of the people who did not have the resources to get out of New Orleans. The white folk, by and large, had less of a problem finding transportation, gas, or other resources to get away. George Bush, who uses race-baiting tactics, like "quotas" to turn the public opinion against affirmative action, clearly doesn't realize or doesn't care that now is not the time to remove affirmative action. Does that make him a racist? Not necessarily, but he is certainly biased against the black community in that regard.
Look more closely. George Bush refused to meet with the NAACP, the most important African-American organization in America, and the first President not to do so in a generation. The poor masses have grown larger under his watch, while the rich got richer, even though it was obvious by the makeup of his "tax cut" that this would be the result. The white, rich parents of students used Bush's vouchers to get away from African-American dominated schools, while blacks were left to rot in inadequate schools in the ghetto, with no escape, just like in Katrina.
Bush has decided it is a priority to cut Social Security benefits while maintaining the exploding cost of the war in Iraq. This will only harm the poor, while exploiting a disproportionate number of blacks to fight a war in a foreign land. The budget deficit and reckless spending of George Bush will result in wholesale inflation down the road, clearly a larger burden to the poor where food, clothing, and shelter make up a much bigger proportion of their total available money. Bush has decided that re-importation of drugs from Canada is just too dangerous to the profits of Merck and Pfizer, than allowing it and getting cheaper medicines to the poor.
Look even closer still. Bush and the Republican party have decided that even though they have renounced the "Southern Strategy" of race baiting to get white, prejudiced Southerners to vote Repoublican, those same white, prejudiced Southerners are the base of the Republican party that are constantly pandered to. Instead of poll taxes and intimidation, Republicans now use a "subtle Southern strategy" --by making difficult requirements for voting, like special ID's that will disproportionately disqualify blacks. Furthermore, they refuse to allow reformed felons to vote, knowing most are black. They even purge black names off voter rolls like the President's brother did in Florida, or they give inadequate resources to heavily black voting districts, like what happened in Ohio, so mostly blacks will have 8-10 hour lines and will hopefully go home without voting.
Some will argue Bush appointed Colin Powell and Condi Rice to high positions and that "proves" he's not a racist. Not really. It just proves he will use his own internal "quota". If a black American is willing to help him implement his anti-black agenda, they will be the first on the list of people he will appoint. This is a PR tactic, and nothing else (in Republican terms, this is how they reach out to the "black community"). Does this make George Bush a racist? It is hard to say but I think Kanye West is on to something. It is no wonder 90% of blacks vote Democrat.
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