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22 September 2005

Does George W. Bush Care about Black People?

Anyone watching the east coast broadcast of the NBC telethon to benefit Hurricane Katrina’s victims witnessed Kanye West’s seemingly off-the-cuff remark that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.� Apparently, West was not the only black person deeply disturbed by the images of the screaming, dying legions of black people trapped in New Orleans shelters for days after the storm. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released last week revealed that 60 percent of blacks believe that race played a role in the federal response to Katrina; only 21 percent of blacks believe that President Bush cares about black people. Whites largely disagreed with the sentiment that race kept the federal government from acting decisively to rescue the people of New Orleans.

Perhaps this debate about whether or not President Bush cares about black people is a bit misplaced. After all, “caring� in this context can have many different meanings. For instance, most of the people who agreed with West probably do not think that the President is a flaming racist—in fact, they would concede that Bush probably has nothing against black people generally and even wholeheartedly likes a good number of black people in particular. However, the fact remains that this administration had few political reasons to attend to the needs and preferences of poor black communities before Katrina. Blacks voted overwhelmingly for Gore and Kerry in the last two elections and Republican attempts to court black voters are unlikely to pay off significantly in the future. Moreover, the economically liberal policies preferred by most blacks directly contend with the supply-side economic policies favored by many of Bush’s core supporters. Each of these factors combined to push issues such as the intersection of crushing poverty with race off the national political agenda. One can only hope that the increased international attention brought by this disaster will focus our attention once again on the problems faced by the poor in our society.

For a transcript of Kanye West’s comments: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300165.html

For the CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll Results:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/12/katrina.race.poll/


Posted by Traci Burch at September 22, 2005 9:01 AM