Race Card

Two events happened in the last week that brought up a subject that should be long dead by now; the subject of race.

The big event of the last week was the hurricane in New Orleans and surrounding area. It was a NATURAL event that I'm told occurs about every 30-40 years down there. It was originally a much lower level hurricane, but just a few hours before it hit mainland it was upgraded to a Category 5.5. That's a huge hurricane with a lot of destructive force. The levees that were in the area were apparently built to withstand a Category 3. The place is flooded and there were many lives lost in this tragic event. Thankfully, we have our military and the many great charities helping as best as possible to take care of the people who have suffered because of this NATURAL disaster.

Why do I keep capitalizing the word NATURAL? It seems that there are many who forget that this was not manmade. There are some calling it a holocaust, which is manmade. There are also those that believe that the NATURAL event caused suffering only for the poor who lived there and for those with dark skin. In actuality, this occurrence devastated many people, rich and poor, black and white, people of faith and those without, and their families who may not even live in the area, but suffered loss. Why would anyone think that a NATURAL occurrence singled out any one type of person? What does the color of a person's skin or the size of their wallet have to do with a hurricane? Some idiots say that the rich had means to leave and the poor didn't. They imply that the "rich white man" was able to leave and the "poor black man" wasn't. What they don't tell you is that 67% of New Orleans is made up of Americans who have dark skin. (I refuse to use the term African-American for those that are Americans and have no citizenship in Africa.) The mayor of New Orleans is a man of color. Is this all his fault? Is it the fault of a white President who is miles away when this NATURAL event occurs? Why then would anyone blame race for the NATURAL disaster's effect on the area? It was a NATURAL disaster that affected people. That's it. Race has nothing to do with it. There are people suffering and people assisting those that are.

The other event of last week was greatly overshadowed in the news because of Hurricane Katrina. Did you see Rock Star: INXS? They started out with 6 singers on Wednesday night and pared it down to 5 at the end of the show. The remaining 6 were MiG (an Australian who could win this), Jordess (a beautiful vocalist and music arranger), Marty (has the look and attitude, but not the steady voice), JD (great voice and presence with some immaturity), Susie (she's a great performer, but not quite INXS material), and Ty (a phenomenal singer who is best at soul and gospel). At the end of the night, Marty, JD, and Ty were in the bottom 3. Ty was the one eliminated. Ty is a great singer and I can't wait to see what he does on his own, but INXS music is not quite playing to his strengths. When they asked for word from Ty after the elimination, Ty went on briefly stating that he knew what he had done the last 3 weeks and that the world kept voting against him because he is a black man. My jaw hit the floor upon hearing this. It was the stupidest thing I have heard out of the mouth of any of these contestants and JD has said some pretty stupid things!

Ty, you are just not right for the band...INXS. You are a great singer with a ton of talent and I love the song you co-wrote earlier in the show with another contestant. The song you wrote to INXS material, though, was sorely lacking. Also, while your performances were awe inspiring, they aren't what I would consider putting in front of INXS. INXS is looking for a singer to carry on their wonderful music and to forge into the future. Neither of which you will be able to assist them in doing. Your best bet is to pursue a solo career and I will be one of your fans buying your music. This has nothing to do with your skin color and everything about finding someone right for INXS. This has happened with other bands and will continue to happen. Bands look for chemistry and I'm sure you will find that in your career. You are a great singer so please keep doing what you do.

This is the year 2005. Race isn't the card you play for NATURAL events or for TV reality shows. Issues today revolve around ideology. There are those who believe you can solve most of society's problems by opening markets, utilizing entrepreneurial capitalism, and making sure everyone has equal opportunity. There are those on the other side who believe in a welfare state. Liberals define compassion by how many people are on the welfare roles. Conservatives define compassion by the number of people no longer in those circumstances. There are those who believe in a community where everyone makes the same amount of money and has the same things regardless of their contributions to the community and those who believe in the freedom of the individual to determine what they contribute and what they have. It's ideology, not race.

Next time you want to use someone's race as an explanation for some perceived bias, maybe you should ask why you noticed the color of their skin to begin with.