I know it's a couple of days old...but I just found the video for it. For those of you who missed the (what I think will become somewhat historic) "George Bush doesn't care about black people" comment by Kanye West during a Live NBC Katrina telethon (next to a horrified Mike Myers)...it's available here, here, or here. Whether his comments hold any truth or not, are obviously for you to decide...but the fact that he spoke what was obviously in his heart, veering away from the sanitised, watered-down, controlled script, is somewhat refreshing...even if it does do nothing to help the poor victims of the disaster.In a related story, Barbara Bush; adding fuel to a fire that unfortunately continues to burn, doesn't seem all that concerned about things...she said in a radio interview
"...many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged
anyway, so this, this is working very well for them."
I'm not even going to touch this one. Listen for yourself
21 comments:
I don't know. This is probably Bush's worst hour IMO but to say he hates blacks is ridiculous. There are a lot of things that can be said about him but one thing no one has ever (seriously) said about George W. is that he is a racist. The situation is horrible enough without injecting this stuff into it.
hmm...I tend to agree Jack...I heard that many people who called in to donate were not able to get through because the phone lines were flooded with calls complaining about Kanye's comments. I personally really dislike Bush...but wouldn't call him a racist either.
love,
elisa
kanye didn't say that george bush hates black people, he said bush doesn't care about black people. the difference is pretty clear i think. and i think kanye is right that bush doesn't care for the black community.
its more concerning that this government would abandon or neglect its poor citizens in their hour of greatest need. katrina really marks the first time in decades that the American third world (which exists simultaneously, but separate from the fully developed America) is being presented to the world as a whole... and its images of american third-worlders being abandoned because of george bush.
georgie porgie could not give a fuck about black people.
i will bet you a king's ransom (how much is that?) that he refers to condoleeza rice as "one of the good ones"
The only sound heard in our house after Kayne's remarks was the click of the TV going off.
yeah...people are saying that it was a promotional stunt on Kanye's part...but I really agree with you Darksin...he was just speaking straight from his heart...bad or good judgement call, you can see real emotion and feeling coming from him...something so rare in the synthetic, false celeb world of today.
love,
elisa
Hmm...a disaster of that magnitude (if it say...hit Sydney) would wipe out around 10% of our population? (the area affected is about the size of the UK)...if that was the case...there would be NO WAY we would have handled it better...we don't really have a national guard so to speak. If it hit a remote part of Australia...then it would probably wouldn't affect us as much...
I might be idealistic here...but as far as I can tell...we don't really have a significant underclass here...I read somewhere that 75% of the kids from the poorest neighbourhoods of New Orleans relied on homeless soup houses for their food.
love,
elisa
I am really not that political and I think we should not get caught up in trying to play the political blame game while thousands of people are suffering. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, and it's easy to say what could have been done better to handle this or prevent this in several different arenas of local, state, and federal government. However, now that help is finally underway, I was really touched by what a local New Orleans resident said yesterday, "I am thankful for every soldier I see coming by. It doesn't do any good to worry about what happened or was not done yesterday. It only matters to think about what is happening today and what needs to be done tomorrow."
Also, on another note, Barbara Bush reminds me of my grandma, who is also about 150 years old. She is as sweet as can be, but just about every word that comes out of her mouth is a direct result of a potent medication/senility cocktail. Fortunately, everything my grandma says is not broadcast for the world to hear.
great post. Just passing through, I'm liking the blog by the way.
Elisa I totally disagree with your comment about the unsercass. Whether or not the children ate from the bottom of the river or the homeless shelter, they still had a home to go to at night. It is not the same senrio
Sorry about the typos. My keep board is not working correctly. so sometimes the letters don't show up. You got the picture Im sure
I am greatful for kanye's remark. I am a black person and I do not think that Bush and many of the media cares about black people. It is true what he said about the looting. Two white people had some food in their hand and they are looking for food. A black man had a bag across his shoulder and he was stealing. After they found the man, they realized that the bag contained the items form his home that he was able to salvage. It is a crying shame that blacks are the people most affected by it, and yet we have more focus on what we are doing while we were stuck in a flooded town for five days as opposed to what they need to do to get us out. I bet there are alot of people thinking why didn't they vote for Kerry now. I wish that we could have til had clinton as the pres. he would have played his sax on the corner for money to help our people
i totally agree with Kanye, if Bush and the Media cared about black people, why did it take 4 days for them to even address the fact that everyone we were seeing TV was black? That part of the country has some of the poorest counties, cities, and neighborhoods in the US and people are too afraid to bring that up. Bush and his admin don't care about black people, just look at their stance with Darfur.
So what about New Orleans BLACK mayor who did nothing to help "his" people out of the city. He DID NOT offer free public transportation to the poorest and he most certainly should have. All he said was get out of the city. Then he took off. Nagin is as much to blame as Blanco, as Brown, as Bush. The difference is this is Nagin's city, Blanco's state. They virtually did nothing until it was too late then blamed everyone else for not caring more than themselves. Kanye West is an idiot. His rant did nothing to help anyone. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking John Kerry or Bill Clinton could have done a better job. Everyone need to stop blaming others and focus the situation at hand and the struggles to come. Casting blame creates negative attitudes. The people who lost EVERYTHING need as much positive stuff as they can get.
First of all, Kanye should know all the facts before saying something stupid. He's a promotional stunt whore, simple to it.
Bush DID do something to help these people BEFORE the hurricane started. He personally called the governor of Louisiana (36 hours before Katrina hit) and told him to evacuate the citizens of New Orleans but the governor didn't listen. Bush called 3 more times telling the governor to evacuate but the governor said Katrina wasn't big enough to worry about & everyone can wait out the storm. So the finger should first be pointed at the governor of LA.
I'm not saying Bush is scott-free from anything and I'm sure his administration is going to be under fire for not getting help soon enough. I think everyone should know that Bush tried to help before Katrina hit, instead of basing their opinions on Kanye's ignorant remark.
I'm also lending my extra bedrooms to the victims, if you want to do the same visit craigslist.org.
Sorry so long. I think people should know.
He didn't said he hated them, he said he didn't care about them. I'll agree with that.
And let me also say, Red Cross was pretty late in their actions as well. They're a HUGE organization, they should have stepped in earlier.
And also, the mayor and others in LA, AL & Miss could have offered free rides to those who couldn't afford it.
So many people to blame here.
Anon 551, I totally agree, you got it right, thankyou, now let's stop blaming and put our money where our mouths are. If our hands and our money work as hard as our mouths, we will have the coast back in shape in no time. THAT'S what this country is all about.
YEAH! lets not talk about the issue, ignore it completely, until it raises its ugly head a couple of years down the line...great way to handle it. I commend you! Politics is just too hard...
Too many mistakes has your President made now. But what you cannot see is not only are you paying for it, but the whole world as well.
Kanye was right.
How is the world paying for it too??
to veggieboo--
you can't blame the Red Cross for not getting there sooner...they wanted to and unfortunately had to wait until FEMA gave them right to go. there are even firefighters now waiting about 70 miles outside of New Orleans wanting to help and can't until FEMA gives them the go ahead too. so...in all honesty...it's FEMAs fault that help didn't get there sooner. they had an incompetent leader who's thankfully fired now but as the saying goes...too little, too late.
also, as for as Kanye West statement goes...i even said on my own blog...it's more of a poor/rich thing than a white/black thing...but i do give him credit for standing up and saying what he feels he has to say instead of what someone tells him to say. there are so many celebs out there who are so afraid of putting themselves out there and acting "real" for even a second. and, as for as Barbara Bush's statements: she's an idiot and i just hope she never goes through a rough time 'cause then she wouldn't be able to tell her a-hole from her elbow.
sorry so long! sylvie
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