Africa says slow Bush response to Hurricane Katrina was 'racist' [View All]

http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=africa&item=050906133815.8aeatctl.php

Africa says slow Bush response to Hurricane Katrina was 'racist'

Africa has slammed the Bush administration's slow response to the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans, a poor and mainly black area, saying it revealed the "racist" character of American society.

"Washington, in a bizarre display of uncaring aloofness in their hour of need, appeared unable to respond to the crisis until days later," the Johannesburg-based The Star newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday.

"The disaster also revealed the racial fissures in American society. Most of the hapless survivors who filled New Orlean's Superdome were black, with the more affluent white residents able to flee in their SUVs (sports utility vehicles) before Katrina brought her misery," it added.

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"The fact that New Orleans is a southern town predominantly populated by African-Americans... explains why President George W. Bush did not see the need to cut short his holiday... being in America does not make a black man an American," Zimbabwe's state-run Herald daily wrote.