Kanye West Says it All

Quotes are taken from this story: http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/tv/article.adp?id=20050901235109990011

I don't agree with people who blame everything that happens to African Americans on race.

But part of what this guy said was right.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people" and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

Wait…there's more…

"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."

There were a couple other tidbits, but they're not noteworthy. A better way to put that might be that I think you can get the jist from this.

He definitely is wrong in saying that George Bush doesn't care about black people. That's not true and it's definitely an unfair, inflammatory statement. His statement about America being setup to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible has a ring of truth to it. But what he's missing is that those people also tend to be the ones who have less clues about how to get help and be proactive about their situations. I'm not being nasty…it's just the truth. I've seen it in my own family.

People who are very, very poor feel out of control of their environment and their lives. Things just 'happen' to them. It's the poverty that breeds it…not that those people aren't good people or smart people or anything…it's that their whole life hangs on their next paycheck. They spend their lives waiting for their next check to arrive, and it doesn't matter if it's from the government or if they've worked their butts off for that money. Can you understand what I'm saying here? And believe me, it's applicable equally to blacks, whites, hispanics, it just doesn't matter. And that is an incredibly hard mindset to break out of.

As for the portrayal in the media -- I haven't seen that blacks are any less favorably portrayed than whites during this crisis. It just happens that the looting we've all heard about is going on in New Orleans. And what race do most people in New Orleans happen to be? African American. And what race are most of the people who ended up stuck in that city? African American. So add that up and yes, most of the looters are going to be black…but not because desperate, hungry African Americans are more likely to loot than desperate, hungry white people…but because most of the desperate, hungry people happen to be African American.

When they have shown white people looking for food, it wasn't people in New Orleans…it was people in Mississippi, where most people are white. Most coverage has been of the stuff going on in New Orleans so the perception, if you don't watch and listen closely, could be that African Americans are being portrayed unfairly.

To me, the stories I have read have seemed balanced. Yes, they have covered the looting. But there also have been repeated examples of how the African Americans hate it just as much as anyone else. And there have been examples showing that these people need food and water and there was only one way to get it and that, although they didn't like having to take it, they had to survive somehow.

So on one part, West is right. But as for him saying that it's ENTIRELY about race, I think he's wrong about that one.