Separate but Equal: Only When Blacks Say It Is

"There's been a lot of telethons," Diddy said, "but this is our telethon. These are our people."

Separate but equal. Separate but MORE equal? Is it more equal because blacks are giving to blacks? Is that to say that blacks will only give to causes that affect blacks? But white people better give too or they're labelled racist?

Would Diddy or P-diddy or WTF-his-name-is-this-week be concerned if it were whites in need? Would he stroke out a big check for white people? Probably not. But does that make him a racist? Not necessarily.

The fact remains that despite the images on TV showing nothing but destitute, inner-city blacks in New Orleans, there are hordes of people, white and black, in the suburbs of New Orleans and over in Mississippi and Alabama that also lost everything. It's not about race. Katrina didn't target blacks.

Whereas Mississippi and Alabama were hit particularly hard by a DIRECT PUNCH by Katrina, New Orleans suffered mostly from the aftermath of the storm surge and the levees failing. The end result is the same. The black people in downtown New Orleans aren't any more dead than the dead white people that we aren't supposed to care about in the other areas.

If those people in downtown New Orleans had got out of town, they would be alive today. Don't have transportation? There were buses available.

It didn't stop the looters that stayed behind for the purpose of picking New Orleans clean and stealing vehicles to get out of town ahead of the rising flood waters. I've seen the "looter staging area" on the highway where the looters dumped the vehicles and loot to swift through to find the best stuff. Those were blacks and they didn't give a rat's ass about the blacks they left behind.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said Friday that it wasn't his fault city school buses weren't mobilized to facilitate the Hurricane Katrina evacuation he ordered.

Appearing on NBC's "Dateline," Nagin was asked:

"What was mobilized? I mean were national guard troops in position. Were helicopters standing by? Were buses ready to take people away?"

Nagin replied

"No. None of that."

And when Nagin was pressed for an explanation of why not, he replied

"I dont know. That is question for somebody else. All I can do is [say] that I was dealing with it as a mayor -- how do I prepare my city for an incredibly powerful storm? So immediately we tried to get as many people out as possible."

Miraculously, this was only the second time Mayor Nagin had been asked about the failure to use his city's school buses, hundreds of which sat 1.2 miles from the Superdome. So, Mayor Nagin, you had the means to evacuate all those people that you herded into the Superdome and Morial Convention Center, but you opted to make them wait it out? And now you want to point fingers at any white man in a position of authority because of a decision that you made?

Are the white people in the other areas of the Gulf Coast pointing fingers at black leaders because the white victims lost everything? This sounds absurd because it is absurd. And blaming the rich or the well-to-do or white people is just as absurd. But unfortunately, because of the nature of our cultural devolution, when a black man is a victim, he is more of a victim than a white man.

This is the definition of separate but equal today. Blacks can say anything racist they want with regard to whites but whites are not allowed to defend themselves or they are labelled racist. When whites lose all of their worldly possessions, possessions, mind you, that were earned, it is considered "justice" in the eyes of black leaders because society is a zero-sum game. If these whites have possessions then they must have denied it to someone else, namely blacks. When poor blacks lose everything (and were so poor that they had nothing to lose), it is a catastrophy of biblical proportions that only the federal government can remedy by throwing more money at the problem.

Separate but equal was struck down because it was wrong back then. It divided us along racial lines and held blacks back from achieving the same goals as whites. It is still wrong today but those that are employing this strategy today are black leaders whose power derives from poor, poverty-stricken blacks. They cannot afford for their power-base to ever get out of their wretched condition because once they do, the downtrodden will no longer need the Jesse Jacksons, Al Sharptons, and Louis Farrakhans of the world for aid and comfort.

It is time for all of us to be Americans first. Diddy, those are my people down there, too. All of them. And when I say that, I mean black and white. And I'm sending help - but I won't "color" code my donations.