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'MYL;ct), I !$if i ,hol : lered, "ou ' re shot.' I getup a n d t ri ed t o j um p over' tM~ t re e~b~ rn~s h l the street, an d a s soon as I got in m id -a ir a n ot he rhl~,~'~,:ltrne: i "mYh~ ,ck ;And I fell onthe ground agam.S o m eh o w, i t

"w(js'a;,miratle, ' lg9 fupagaifli a nd 1 b eg a n t o r un . J h ea rd [ th e w h it e~g ,Uys.~$a} ' ing ; , :Nigge' r,yo'Ugot tarun. "I ra n a ro un d a corner a nd I

s a lh 't hi sb la c kg uy s it tj ng ol 'i ' t he p or ch ,a n d 1 said " Ma n, h elp m e.", . fo . ,n .d :,ne;sa id ,"ComEl o n, " b ut he w as in th e h ou se w ith s om e w hite-~e~ple; ,When 1wentte.the back of the hou se , th is white l a d y s a id "I ~~ I1 "th el py ou .y ~~ go tta g eto ut of h ere ." S o 1 ra n away f ro m t he i r.hou~e;:J 3 ; f i d J " r a n upto t o t , s truck with tw o wh ite guys, a nd 1 said,

: "P IEla~~"P lea$e. pfe~se~elp me." I f el t l ik e I w a s g o in g to d ie . A n d~he, ,

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Perhaps social commentator and humorist Nancy Giles cap-tured the feelings of many when she more diplomatically, butwith no less outrage, framed the issue onCBS'sSunday Morning:

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After meeting with Louisiana officialslast week, Rev.Jesse Jacksonsaid, "Many black people feelthat their race, their property condi-tions and their votinS patterns have been a factor in the response."He continued, "I'rn not saying that myself." Then I'll say it: If themajority of the hardest hit victims ofHurricane Katrina in New Or-leans were white people, they would not have gone for days with-out food and water, forcing many to steal for mere survival. Theirbodies would not have been left to float in putrid water.... We'verepeatedly given tax cuts to the wealthiest and left our most vul-nerable American citizens to basically fend for themselves.... ThePresident has put himself at risk by visiting the troops in Iraq, butdidn't venture anywhere near the Superdome or the conventioncenter, where thousands of victims, mostly black and poor, neededto see that he gavea damn."

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Would Bush and the federal government have moved faster tosecure the lives of the hurricane victims if they had been white?The question must be partnered with a second one that permitsus to tally a few of the myriad injuries ofthe racial contract thathas bound American citizens together: did the lar~ bla~ andR~orcitizens in the ~lf Coastget left behind ~h.~_.~ereblack and poor?

It is clear that President Bush and officials of the federal gov-ernment, like the rest of us, have been shaped by racial forcesthat have continually changed our society since its founding.The tragic reign of slavery for 250 years, the colossal efforts ofthe government and the legal system to extend white supremacythrough Jim Crowlaw, and the monumental effort of black folk

D O E S G E O RG E W . B U S H C A R E A B O U T B L A CK P E O P L E?

to resist these forceswhile redefining black identity have formedthe rhythms, relations, and rules of race. The rhythms of racehave largely to do with customs and cultural practices that feedon differences between racial groups. The relations of race havemostly to dowith the conditions that foster or frustrate interac-tions between racial groups. The rules of race have to do withnorms and behavior that reflect or resist formal barriers to socialequality.The rhythms, relations, and rules of race have both defined

the forces against which progress must be made and provided ameasure of the progress achieved. They help us understand thateven when fundamental changes in law and practice occur-say,the Fourteenth Amendment, the Brown v. Board of EducationSupreme Court decision, or the Civil Rights Act of 1964-thereis the matter of racial vision and imagination to consider. Theyhelp us see that racial terror has bled through the boundaries oflaw as surely as harmful racial customs and beliefs persist in thedeep pockets of a formally changed society.This framework must be kept in mind as we answer the ques-

tion ofwhether race played a role in how the federal governmentresponded to Katrina's victims. But as I've made clear, the-9~:tion shouldn't be whether race played a role, but what role it-piaysd..:_HowlY be quarantmtion ofKatrina when it so thoroughly pervades our culture-thechoices we make, the laws we adopt and discard, and the socialpractices that are polluted by its pestering ubiquity? Of courserace colored the response to Katrina, although it may not meanthat explicit racial prejudice fueled the decision to leave poorblack folk defenseless before the fury of nature.After all, one need not have conscious or intentional racist be-

liefs to act out a script written long before specific actors comeon the political stage to play. We take our cues from different

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parts of the culture that have vastly opposed ways of viewingthe same racial event. Our conscious decisions are drawn fromthe reservoir of beliefs, attitudes, and dispositions that form ourgroup's collective racial unconscious. When we gear up for re-sponse to a particular event, when we dissect or process a spe-cific item of information, we pull from these resources, whichhave shaped our understanding ofwhat can and should be done.The collective racial unconscious, and the rhythms, relations,and rules of race, together constitute the framework for makingdecisions, even those that apparently have nothing to do withrace. Thus, one can reasonably say that race was the farthestt~ng from one's mind even as its subtle propositions lure one~ward into territory invisibly bounded by racial criteria. And

, ~~one can scrupulously proclaim, and mean it, that race does not, ...-:~affect one's calculus of desert, of how resources should be; ~- shared, while appealing to ancient racial understandings that

shape just who is seen asmeriting a particular sort oftreatment.It should also be clear that although one may not have racial

intent, one's actions may nonetheless have racial consequence.In discussing the charge that racism was at the heart of the re-sponse to Hurricane Katrina, Senator Barack Obama said, "I'vesaid publicly that I do not subscribe to the notion that thepainfully slow response of FEMAand the Department ofHome-land Security was racially-based. The ineptitude was color-blind."4 Obama went on to say that "I see no evidence of activemalice, but I see a continuation of passive indifference on thepart of our government towards the least of these."> However,one may agree with Obama that there was no racial intent, no"active malice," in the response to Katrina, and yet hold theview that there were nonetheless racial consequences thatflowed from the "passive indifference" of the government topoor blacks. Active malice iIDG-passive_indifference:.:,ebut .. 0 . "

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sides of the same racial coin, different modalities of racial men-~e that flare according tothe contexts and purposes at hand. Ina sense, if one conceives of racism as a cell phone, then activemaliceis the ring tone at its highest volume, while passive indif-ference is the ring tone on vibrate. In either case, whetherloudly or silently, the consequence is the same: a call is transmit-ted, a racial meaning is communicated.When it comes to the federal government's response to the

victims of Hurricane Katrina, the specific elements at play mustbe examined.' There were poor blacks, mostly from Louisiana,drowning in twenty-five-foot floods, stranded in their homes, orcrammed into makeshift shelters, awaiting help from a Texas-bred president and an Oklahoma-born head of FEMA. At itscore, this was a Southern racial narrative being performed be-fore a national and global audience. If Southern whites havebeen relatively demonized within the realms of whiteness-when compared to their Northern peers, they are viewed asslower, less liberal, more bigoted, and thoroughly 1/ country "-then Southern blacks are even more the victims of social stigmafrom every quarter of the culture, including Northern andSouthern whites, and even among other blacks outside theregion.Southern blacks, especially poor ones, are viewed as the worst

possible combination of troubled elements-region, race, andclass-that on their own make life difficult enough. They arestereotyped as being backward, belligerently opposed to en-lightenment, and tethered to self-defeating cultural habits thatundermine their upward thrust from a life of penury and igno-rance. Their woes are considered so entrenched that they cannotbe overcome by social programs or political intervention. Noteven a change of geography is seen as completely successful;when transposed to Northern terrain, poor Southern blacks are

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2 2 C O M E H E lL O R H IG H W A TE RI, believed to be victims of a time warp of anachronistic values

that work against absorption into the middle class and insteaddrive them to carve enclaves of urban horror from their ruralroots.When they were not being painted in unflattering terms on

the canvas of social history, the lives of poor Southern blackshave stirred the colorful fantasies of whites across their nativeregion and beyond, The exotic Southern black supposedly hadmore soul, was closer to nature as a semiliterate savage, couldsing and dance well, was more innately spiritual, was obliviousto the caste system that kept her in poverty, and, hence, washappy to be the white Southerner's slave, servant, or entertainer.The art created by poor blacks was rarely recognized by whitesunless it confirmed crude stereotypes of black sensual longingand intellectual emptiness. The complex and demanding cre-ations of poor blacks, whether sophisticated blues lyrics or vi-sual art of high quality, was either dismissed, ignored, or, atbest, seen as exceptional to the inferior work of other blackartists. In fact, white culture was burdened by bigoted beliefs inthe inherent inferiority of black humanity, intelligence, and cul-ture. Such beliefs die hard. Even when the customs that usheredthem into prominence fade, those Southern whites who inheritfrom their ancestors and predecessors the rhythms, rules, andrelations of race--and the collective racial unconscious-find itdifficult to defeat or betray their racial orientation to the world.To be sure, caricatures of black identity have been swept away

in many white Southern quarters and replaced with far more so-phisticated and nuanced ideas about black folk. But suchprogress runs hard into another wall constructed out of racialhistory: the structural inequities that support the inferior socialposition of poor blacks. While one may point to enlightenedideas about black folk as proof of racial progressivism, the per-

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sistence of, and investment in, complicated legacies of social in-equality by the very whites who wear their racial bona fides ontheir sleeves are equally confusing and troubling.For instance, Bill Clinton, who garnered wide black political

support, and continues to enjoy wide black affection, is as en-lightened a Southern white man as has come into politics. He in-tuitively sways to the rhythms of black life; he stands on thetransformed racial relations that the civil rights movement inau-gurated; and he helped to forge a modest defense of affirmativeaction, a significant racial yule. Despite his racial charisma, orperhaps because of it, he was able to do considerable damage toblack interests, especially those of poor blacks, by signing acrime bill that viciously targeted them, and a welfare reform billthat heaped stigma, but no help, on the backs of the vulnerable.

IfGeorge Bush lacks Clinton's racial charisma, he also lacksClinton's grasp of the need to play the racial game at a high, if ul-timately manipulative, level. Clinton proved every bit a victimof the collective racial unconscious of his Southern white her-itage, except the lesson he learned was that one must survive byappearing to support black interests while exploiting them.Thus, Clinton forged political survival in a racial climate stillsuspicious of black intelligence and humanity by signaling sup-port for the white mainstream through his embrace of conserva-tive policies that hurt the black poor. Clinton criticized Bush forhis leadership in the federal government's response to Katrina,noting the disproportionate burden borne by the black poor.sYet, because some of Clinton's presidential decisions hurt poorblacks, neoliberal neglect is sometimes just as large a factor intheir suffering as conservative assault. It may have been Bush'shands stretching forth to rebuke the interests of poor blacks inKatrina's aftermath, but the misery of the black poor has beenindelibly marked by Clinton's fingerprints.

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24 C O M E H E l l O R H IC H W A T ERStill, Bush's racial approach does not benefit black folk. Not'

only does Bush lack Clinton's mix ofadvantages and deficits, buthe lacks as well the instincts and policies that might push, or .play to, racial progress in our epoch. His racial etiquette hasbeen shaped in an ethos of hard conservative forces that foughtracial progress when it was unfolding and roadblocks its path Itoday. Not only is Bush devoid of the devout, if devious, racialgrammar deployed by Clinton. He lacks as well a suitable lan-guage of political empathy and moral suasion that resonateswith the rhythms of black culture-s-or an appreciation for thestructural and institutional matters that might revive poor blacklife.

It is safe to say that race played a major role in the failure ofthe federal government-especially for Bush and FEMAheadMichael Brown-to respond in a timely manner to the poorblack folk of Louisiana because black grief and pain have beenignored throughout the nation's history. Bushand Brown simplyupdated the practice. Southern black suffering in particular hasbeen overlooked by Southern whites-those in power and ordi-nary citizens as well. In discussing the profound differences be-tween white and black Southern historical memory, historian W.Fitzhugh Brundage captures how whites ignored black successand suffering, while blacks sought to overcome the segregatedconscience of white SOciety to emphasize a unified nationalmemory and purpose.

Southern white historical memory exalted white civilization, legiti-mated white power, and virtually excluded any admission ofmean-ingful black agency in the region's past. White accounts seemed toinsulate blacks from history. There was, in white history, no ac-knowledgment of true suffering or real accomplishments amongblacks. They were without personal ancestry, their lives were small,

and there was a great void in their past. And if southern whitesgrudgingly acknowledged the restoration of the union, they stillembraced a willfully sectional historical identity. This jealous de-fense of sectional honor that was at the heart ofthe white southern

O D E S G E O R C E W . B IJ S H C A R E A B O I JT B L A CK P E O P LE ?

memory had no parallel in black memory. Rather, most southernblacks, in rhapsodically nationalist terms, imagined a biracialAmerica in which they would assume their place as equal and fullcitizens. Tothe sameextent that white southerners insisted on theirsectional identity, southern African Americans exalted their na-tional ties. Likewise, blacks recounted a past in which black partic-ipation figured decisively in all of the nation's defining moments.7

The black poor of the Delta lacked social standing, racial sta-tus, and the apparent and unconscious identifiers that mightevoke a dramatic empathy in Bush and Brown.Had these factorsbeen present, it might have spurred Bushand Brown to identifywith the black poor, indeed, see themselves as the black poor.Since their agency and angst had been minimized in the South-ern historical memory, the black poor simply didn't register aslarge, or count as much, as'they might have h.ad they been.white. If they had been white, a history of identification-sup-p~ by structures of ~are, s~~ents of'empathy, and an ~vated racial standing-would have immeatately-!

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made Bush and Brown more adventurous, more daring, rnore :willing to suspend rules, more determined to accept help from.whatever quarters it came(they turned down offers ofhelp fromseveral countries), and more open to deferring procedural cor-rectness in the interest of saving lives. The irony is that poorblacks were pained by their erasure fromthe historical record- .both in the past and with Katrina-because, as Ignatieff argues,they uphold, and expect in return, the social contract. And, as.Brundage writes, they are fully invested in a democratic andmultiracial accounting of the nation's history.Ignatieff's and Brundage's arguments about race and memory

and political obligation can help to decipher Kanye West's con- .troversial television appearance in which he charged PresidentBush with indifference to the plight of the black poor. On Sep-tember 2, 2005, the rapper appeared on an NBCtelethon in sup-port of the American Red Cross disaster relief efforts in the GulfCoast. After Harry Connick, Jr., played piano as he longingly,achingly sang "Do YouKnowWhat ItMeans to Miss New Or-leans?" accompanied by Wynton Marsalis's crisp but mournfultrumpet wails, the cameras turned to comedian Mike Myers andWest. Both of them were to read from a script. Myers was faith-ful to the task. "With the breach ofthree levees protecting NewOrleans," Myers said in clipped speech that was nearly perfunc- .tory, "the landscape of the city was changed dramatically, tragi- .cally and perhaps irreversibly. There is now over 25feet ofwaterwhere there was once city streets and thriving neighborhoods."8Myers half-turned to the obviously nervous West, who clearedhis throat before he spoke."I hate the way they portray us in the media," West intoned.

"If you see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see awhite family, it says, 'They're looking for food: And, you know,it's been five days [waiting for the government to arrive] because

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most ofthe people are black. And even for meto complain aboutit, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away fromthe TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shoppingbefore even giving a donation. Sonow I'm calling my businessmanager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give.And just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my peo-ple down there. Soanybody out there that wants to do anythingthat we can help-with the way America is set up to help thepoor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. Imean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We alreadyrealize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fight-ing another way.And they've given them permission to godownand shoot US!"9West's nervy chiding of the federal government froze Myers'S

face in disbelief and small panic. But he soldiered on and stuckto the script, rushing his words as if he wanted to quickly aspossible banish the anxious feelings that fluttered in his eyes."And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastat-ing, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild andremain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people ofSouthern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the mosttragic loss of all." Once again, Myers turned to West, this timewith a bit oftrepidation creasing his brow. West let out his finaloff-script pronouncement with as sure a statement as he hadmade during his brief and amiable diatribe. "George Bushdoesn't care about black people."lO With that, just as Myersmouthed the beginning of his plea for viewers to phone in+-"Please call ... "-someone in the NBCcontrol room, workingwith a seven-second delay aimed at blocking profanity, finallyunderstood West's tack and ordered the camera to turn uncere-moniously awayfrom the duo and cut to comedian Chris Tucker,who picked up his cue and tried to roll past West's punches.

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~IiIIi Kanye West simply made Ignatieff's and Brundage's argu-

ments into a polemic. West was suggesting that the governmenthad callously broken its compact with its poor black citizens,and that it had forgotten them because it had not taken theirpain to heart. West's claim that "George Bush doesn't care aboutblack people" was a claim not about Bush's personal life, butrather his professional life. Bush's wife and father understand-ably jumped to his defense. "I think all of those remarks weredisgusting," Laura Bush said in an interview with American Ur-ban Radio Networks. "I mean I am the person who lives withhim. I know what he is like, and I know what he thinks, and Iknow he cares about people."IIOn eNNIs Larry King Live talkshow, former president George H.W. Bush defended his sonagainst the "particularly vicious comment that the presidentdidn't care, was insensitive on ethnicity .... Insensitive aboutrace. Now that one hurt because I know this president and Iknow he does care ... that's what's in his heart."12Unlike Bush's wife and father, West was not referring to the

president's personal sentiments about black people, which heprobably had no way of knowing. Neither was West addressingBush's personal concern for black people. West was speaking ofGeorge Bush as the face of the government. In fact, our under-standing of West's comments depends on our making distinc-tions in three categories. First, one must address the question ofpersonae-+ss one referring to a private persona that is, relativelyspeaking, autonomous and independent, or is one referring to apublic persona that is representational and functional? Second,one must address the question of identities-is one referring toan individual identity that primarily concerns one's self, an insti-tutional identity that is concerned with one's role in relation to aparticular institution, or a social identity that is concerned withone's role in society? Third, one must address the question of

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care--is one speaking ofpersonal care, an area of interest limitedto, or rooted in, one's own life; moral care, an area of interestshaped by consideration of ethical effects on self and others; orpolitical care, an area of interest shaped by the consideration ofpolitical concern and consequences in society?With these distinctions in mind, it is clear that when West de-clared that Bush doesn't care about black people, he was refer-

ring to Bush's public persona, not his private one, since whatwas at stake was his function as a representative public figure;that he was referring to Bush's institutional and social identities,asthe faceof the federal government and in his role aspresidentofthe United States; and that he was speaking ofBush's politicalcare in his role as chief symbol of the nation's political organiza-tion. West was thus calling into question-and in my opinionrightly so--the apparent lack of political concern by a publicfigure whose duty it is to direct the resources of the nation tothose areas that cry out for address. When West claimed thatBush doesn't care about black people, it was a critical judgmentabout the failure of the government, which George Bush repre-sents, to take care of, in a timely fashion, those citizens underhis watch. When Bush conceded that the response of the gov-ernment was "unacceptable"-and when he later took full re-sponsibility for the failure of the government to adequately doits job-he was partially acknowledging the legitimacy ofWest'scriticism. In the political realm, care is measured, in part, by thesatisfaction of legitimate claimswith effective action that fulfillsthe duties and obligations of one's office.Perhaps one of the reasons President Bush cares so little about

the black poor is that he has not found political favor amongthem, or, for that matter, among most blacks. Poor blacks are nei-ther economically stable nor vote rich; they matter very little inthe president's political philosophy. In 2000, Bush got 8 percent.

..

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of the black vote; in 2004, he got 11percent, extending a trendbegun in the 1930s of blacks voting heavily Democratic. Ofcourse, black freedom struggles, especially the civil rightsmovement, destroyed, then reshaped, the Democratic Party inthe South, driving whites into the party of Richard Nixon, andlater Ronald Reagan. Over time, the racist Southern Democratsof the Jim Crow era gave way to the liberal Democrats of thecivil rights era. As a result, Republicans have largely spurnedthe black vote for the last forty years and courted conservativewhite constituencies that were hostile to black interests andpeople.P This may help explain why Bush didn't rush to Demo-cratic-dominated territory in Louisiana nearly as quickly as hedid to Republican-friendly ground in Mississippi after Katrinastruck. As critic Jacob Weisberg says, "it's a demonstrable mat-ter of fact that Bush doesn't care much about black votes," andthat, "in the end, [it]may amount to the same thing" as not car-;ing about black people.14Weisberg argues that because "they don't see blacks as a cur-

rent or potential constituency, Bush and his fellowRepublicansdo not respond out of the instinct of self-interest when dealingwith their concerns." Rendering assistance to low-income blacks'is a "matter of charity to them, not necessity."15 Their conde-scending attitude is magnified in New Orleans, "which is 67 per-.cent black and largely irrelevant to GOP political ambitions."Only at election time are cities in swing states with large blackpopulations important to Republicans-and in the immediatepast, to Bush and his aides. Since Louisiana's paltry nine elec-toral votes are not presently up for grabs in an election cycle,thestate doesn't show up much on the conservative political radar.."If Bush and Rove didn't experience the spontaneous politicalreflex to help New Orleans," Weisberg writes, "it may be be-cause they don't think of New Orleans as a place that helps

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them."16Weisberg detects the president's lack of political carefor black folk in his delayed and lackluster response to Katrina,while Hurricanes Charley and Frances, which affected the Re-publican stronghold of Florida, prompted the president and thefederal government to greater urgency and generosity.Had the residents ofNew Orleans been white Republicans in a statethat mattered politically, instead ofpoor blacks in a city that didn't,Bush's response surely would have been different. Compare whathappened when hurricanes Charley and Frances hit Florida in 2004.Though the damage from those storms was negligible in relation toKatrina's, the reaction from the White House was instinctive, rapid,and generous to the point of profligacy. Bush visited hurricane vic-tims four times in six weeks and delivered relief checks personally.Michael Brown of FEMA,now widely regarded as an incompetentpolitical hack, was so responsive that local officials praised theagency's performance. The kind of constituency politics that resultsin a big life-preserver for whites in Florida and a tiny one for blacksin Louisiana may not be racist by design or intent. But the in-evitable result is clear racial discrimination.'?

Bush's claim that race played no role in the recovery effortsbetrayed a simplistic understanding of how a complex force likerace operates in the culture. "My attitude is this: The stormdidn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort," Bushsaid. "When those Coast Guard choppers ... were pulling peo-ple off roofs, they didn't check the color of a person's skin. Theywanted to save lives."18Katrina's fury may have been race neu-tral, but not its effect: 80 percent of New Orleans's minorityhouseholds lived in the flooded area, while the samewas true foronly S4 percent of the city's white population. The averagehousehold incomeof those in the flooded area trailed those who

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lived on New Orleans's higher ground by $17,000.19 Concen-:trated poverty rendered poor blacks much more vulnerable to'the effects of natural disaster. Before Katrina, these blacks had,been hit by hurricanes of social and economic devastation. Such'a fact never seems to register with the president. Nor does itprod him into deep reflection about the unintended, but cer-tainly foreseen, racial consequences of catastrophe and mayhem.

The proof of Bush's lack of political care for blacks before Ka-trina is equally distressing: under his presidency black poverty,has increased, black unemployment has risen, and affirmativeaction has been viciously assaulted. The Bush administrationhas disseminated what the Government Accountability Officecalled "covert propaganda" by paying conservative black com-mentator Armstrong Williams to say good things about educa-tional policies that hurt black folk.20 By giving tax breaks to thewealthy, and by freezing the minimum wage at $5.15 an hour,Bush has undermined the fragile prospects of the working poorand the black working class. By seeking to cut the food stampbudget by $1.1 billion over the next decade, Bush will douse ;even further the fortunes of the black poor.Nearly forty years ago, Muhammad Ali's single line captured

the reason for his conscientious objection to the Vietnam Warwhile summing up millions of black people's feelings-'A.in't noViet Cong ever called me 'nigger."'21 Now, Kanye West's simplesentence brilliantly condensed an analysis that millions of otherblacks have made about an uncaring Bush regime. As a publicfigure who is the ultimate representative of the American gov-ernment, George Bush doesn't care about black people-no mat-ter how many black folks like Condoleezza Rice (who defendedthe president against West's charge as well) he puts in vauntedplaces.P He may have promoted some blacks, but as for the restof us, he has left us far behind. Bush's slow response to black

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33O D ES C E O R GE W B U S H C A R E A B O U T B LA C K P EO P L E?suffering by wind and water was but a symptom of a larger,equally dangerous poli tical neglect.Indeed, what Katrina's gale forces have uncovered, yet again,

is the strong disagreement between blacks and whites over therole that race plays in who gets what and when in our society-and what group most often gets left out, and behind, in the so-cial contract. Polls taken immediately after Katrina prove theracial divide. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll found that 60 per-cent of blacks believed that race caused the government's delayin rescuing folk, leaving many of them to starve or drown, whileonly 12 percent of whites agreed.> The racial divide was similarwhen taking class into consideration: 63 percent of blacksblamed poverty for the slow rescue, while 21 percent of whitesheld that view. Until many white and well-off folk feel the fullforce of black pain, and open their eyes to see racial and classsuffering, that divide will only widen. And the black poor willcontinue to be left behind long after Katrina recovery efforts areover .If race played a role in who lived and died, how did it affectthe federal government's response to Katrina? To answer thatquestion, we must understand the federal government's role indisaster relief-v-a prospect that will clarify how incompetenceand antigovernment philosophy, among other factors, made abad situation even worse.