There was a plan to evacuate the poor people with out a means of transportation from New Orleans using the city buses (school and mass transit).  However, the major of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana did not act on the plan that was in place.  This was a gross dereliction of their duty to the people of New Orleans.  This is however NOT a race issue.  This is a social-economic issue.  The social-economiclly disadvantaged (poor) people were left in a bad place in a bad way.  If this is a racial issue as is claimed in the article then a black person (the mayor) acted (here by non-action on the city's evacuation plan) to the detriment of the black people of New Orleans and thus what happed was a racial issue, this does not add up.  For racism to happen there must be a person or group of one race that acts to discriminate against another race.  This did not happen here.  The better off black people left.  Did they not?  Were there poor whites, asians, or hispanics that were left behind in New Orleans?  Did these people get a special pass to leave New Orleans that was not given to blacks?  Thus, the actions that led to the dreadful situation was not racism.  It was a discrimination based not on the color of skin rather it was based on the social-economic status.  Yes, the majority of people that were left behind were black, but they were not left behind because they were black.  

Why the majority of the poor people in New Orleans are black is a different issue.  

"Why the majority of the poor people in New Orleans are black is a different issue."

Um, no, it's not a different issue.  It's called racism.  If racism is the reason why the majority of New Orleans' poor are black, then the inconceivable way this catastrophe was handled has everything to do with classism AND racism.  Countless, avoidable deaths and suffering befell one of our most vulnerable groups, making it not only a national tragedy, but a national shame.  From the way Katrina was (mis)handled the message is clear how our administration feels: "we do not value the lives of poor, black people."

I must apologize about not making my closing statement adequately clear.  I did not mean to imply that racism does not play a part as to why so many of the poor people in New Orleans are black.  By "a different issue", I wanted to differentiate between the reasons behind the demographics of the poor people in New Orleans and the response in the wake of Katrina.  As my comments were about the events around Katrina, I did not wish to delve into the reasons that so many of the poor in New Orleans are black.  There are numerous reasons, racism being one of many.  

I must agree with you on one point that the administrations of New Orleans and Louisiana did not care about the poor people in New Orleans.  Their actions speak for themselves: Leaving the poor to fend for themselves, Not following the evacuation plan which called for the use of city buses to evacuate the cities' poor, Not having a place of refuge that was adequately stocked, The governor waiting for three days before asking for federal help, The fact that President Bush had to plead with the governor and the mayor to issue an evacuation order, and Not fighting to have levee system strengthened to handle a Category 5 hurricane.  On the last item, I must note that there have been several plans to strengthen the levee system; however, the plans were shot down multiple times or under funded to the point of inaction.  

I went to college late, in my fourties, and perhaps had more life view than some of the other students.  I took sociology and particularly felt the events of the time.  I did understand that racism, an an overt practice, is hardly ever seen.  What is seen, if one looks, is institutionalized racism; racism made a part of the existing social structure whithout any laws to keep the restrictions in place.  Surely you cannot be so uninformed as to believe that this insidious form of racism does not exist: it does and is completely upheld by society and demonstrated by the examples you set forth in your statement.

I understand you will probably attack me for this reply, but I have become convince that evil in this world is accomplished by the permissiveness of good people who allow harm by their reluctance to speak out.  

In my first posting, I offered a statement that the preparation and response to Katrina in New Orleans was not racist rather it was economic discrimination against the poor.  I did not want to get to why so many of the poor in New Orleans are black that is a different issue from the preparation and response to Katrina in New Orleans.

Now I am being called uniformed, and accused of being willing to engage in personnel attacks in a discussion forum.  That is what is in the posting by Katesisco.  Quote, "you cannot be so uninformed" and "you will probably attack me."  Those are Katesisco words not mine.  

No, I am not uniformed about racism.  I have seen it when I was living in Singapore, in Vicksburg, and in Houston different in each of the places but it is there.  Does racism play into the fabric of New Orleans?  Yes, it does as it plays into every place I have been in the US and outside the US.  

I do not believe that I have attacked any body in any of my postings.  I do not consider holding a different opinion on an issue an attack.  If I have offended anyone by my opinions, I am sorry.

I think everyone here recognizes the insidious intertwining of racism and classism.  I'd like to turn the conversation if nobody minds.  This article mentions the

"fear that the city could be rebuilt as a massive gentrification project, one with no room for Katrina's displaced. Of course, that would present a problem for the elites: in a New Orleans 'cleansed' of poor people and blacks, where would all the petrochemical waste be dumped? Who would live on top of the leaky, carcinogenic landfills? And who would bear the brunt of the next Katrina?"

The rhetorical questions offer a neat closing for the article, but such issues have never been a problem for the elites in other gentrified areas.  There is always someplace else to despoil and someone else to dump on in the search for comfort or profit.  For some local garbage and pollution, that place will be a couple towns over.  For other fallout, environmental and economic, the world is our stage.  Or dumping ground.