Pathetic?

Hmm, let's see... Several levels of government from state to federal are criminally negligent in responding to a natural disaster that disproportionately affects people of color in New Orleans. In the aftermath, these people are left on their own to scavenge food, medicine and dry clothing- the news media reports this natural response as "looting" primarily when it is undertaken by people of color.

City, State, Federal, and Private law enforcement occupy the city, loot local businesses (yeah, I consciously used the word "loot"), and terrorize the remaining local population with impunity (in fact, with the governor's blessing). The media grows tired of the story- normalcy sets in- everyone knows there's no news in cops beating back unruly inner city blacks.

A bunch of cops beats a guy to a pulp on Bourbon street- is it really a coincidence that the cops happened to be white, and that the drunk guy happened to be black? Is it such a coincidence that these cops just as easily and just as savagely would have attacked some white guy? How many police shoot outs end with white kids lying face down in the gutter?

Is it pathetic to point out the obvious, that segments of our society focus on and use race to draw attention away from the brutalizing and painful conflict of class embedded in our society? That the rage and fear that working class whites (like these cops) feel towards blacks is a sublimated hate for the system which they have lived with so long that they no longer notice how dehumanizing it is, while it eats aaway at them every day? Is it pathetic to point to the pain in an attempt to seek a remedy?

The tragedy in New Orleans- before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina, is the fruit of racism, the convenient lie in the back of our minds, making "right" the true injustice of our society: inbalance of power, grossly unequal access to the resources of society.

Is it more pathetic to point out the obvious, or to deny it because of what it says about one's own willinness to face reality?

I've seen the video, and the elderly black man was the one the police picked on. Everyone else in the video was white.

You're pathetic for not considering that these white police are racist scum, bullies like racists are attracted to jobs like this.

They had no reason to arrest the 64 year old, ex school teacher. They were looking for someone to brutalise. They also manhandled an Associated Press producer, because the police didn't like their crime being witnessed.