Look At It This Way…
Silver Lining
by Mauka
I have friends
who tell me to “keep looking for the silver lining”
with Hurricane Katrina, so here we go. We might be looking at
all of this the wrong way. There are some positives in this Hurricane
Katrina thing that are definitely being overlooked. For instance,
I saw on television just the other day many, many buses all lined
up, scores of them, to cart the hurricane ravaged, mainly Black,
people away. Away to far flung destinations.
More on that later. Here’s the thing – less than 50
years ago in this very country, especially in the Deep South,
Black people could not even step onto a bus without trepidation
(fancy word for fear, but we are talking New Orleans here where
fancy words are very welcome, pralines for instance and beignets
are everyday common food words in New Orleans). Those buses I
saw lined up to the horizon, outside the stinking Superdome for
instance, were shiny and brand new. Nothing like those rickety
things from Alabama, (another of the states Katrina smacked) that
Mrs. Rosa Parks and friends risked their lives to fight for a
seat on. These shiny new buses presumably have a toilet way in
back with no sign on the door saying “White” or “Colored.”
And furthermore, no curtain separating the White from the Colored,
like in the old days, to protect the “decent folks”
from the presumed workaday stench of those seated in the back.
Another part of the "silver lining" we can appreciate
is that no one was being told where to sit. And those shiny new
buses were almost completely “integrated.” There were
not many White people on board, but look how much things have
changed. Whites could pick a seat anywhere they wanted without
being hassled, or for that matter, without really being noticed.
One has to wonder if the political powers that be in Washington
and even Baton Rouge were completely unconscious of the very powerful
political icon that buses are in America.
Say “busing” and what comes to mind? You got it. Big
orange-yellow school buses, many of which were also commandeered
and lined up to move the inner city people to far flung suburbs
around the country. But some people still have not gotten the
message that things have changed. For instance, take the story,
related by New Orleans police officer Joe Dupree that there were
people within New Orleans seeking to avoid the helicopters that
were urgently searching for people exactly like themselves. Why?
They were afraid that they would not be able to afford the airfare.
That’s right.
These folk are accustomed to how things really are in America.
Though apparently quite illiterate, they knew enough to be sure
that things cost money and there is no way that a big bird like
that with professional helpers aboard was going to give them a
free ride.
As for the far flung places the hundreds and thousands of Black
people (let’s face it, they were mainly of darker color,
never mind the French and other wonderful ethnic influences in
the region) are going to be taken to, it is wonderful to note
(silver lining again) that nobody over there at the destinations
seems at all concerned about the consequences of letting that
many presumed Democrats into a new area, where they may eventually
begin to vote.
I am sure that the conclusion is that everybody knows Black people
don't vote anyway. So there’s nothing to worry about. Many
of them, in fact, would have no idea at all what “hanging
chad” was. Nor what such hanging chad might eventually translate
to mean.
There are even some out there who are making remarks that the
same group of uprooted Black people are probably better off now,
living as a carefully herded group inside the perimeter of football
stadiums. That, when they were back home, they were “under-privileged”
anyway.
That comment might have lots of merit. Depends on what parameters
for "better off" you choose to use.
But back again to the main point. Nobody at all was upset about
massive forced busing being used in this case. And I have certainly
not heard anyone else take public notice that nowadays one can
sit anywhere one wants on the bus. Even if you happen to be one
of the few Whites sprinkled among the "refugees" on
board.
