1542 Does USAToday hate black people?

If today's cover story had appeared at an RNC or administration web site, all hell would break loose. I don't think the paper's writers deliberately put a negative spin on blacks waiting at an evacuation center, but it couldn't sound worse if that had been the intention.

First, the photos. Five photos of people waiting--all evacuees, all had had jobs and homes in New Orleans. The only white person in the five photos is shown looking for jobs in the want ads of a newspaper while eleven African American women and men sit in the background staring into space.

Second, the human interest stories. One evacuee, Wayne Scardino (who I assume is white from his surname), had a successful lawn care business before Katrina destroyed his house and business, and he was planning to relocate to another city and take advantage of small business loans from the government to get started again. He had taken the initiative and responded to a flier posted at the center. The other stories, mostly about unmarried couples with children, reported how they'd refused offers from churches and relatives to relocate to different states. One woman had refused to move to a trailer. They are waiting for FEMA to "do something" and the woman whose rented duplex had been destroyed complained about the lack of privacy at the center, but said, "We could do better," than taking those other housing options. One black man who had been employed in a hotel chain is reported as saying, "It's like a vacation," and he is satisfied to just wait for the government to do something.

Also, this article quoted some Louisiana officials saying some unsavory things (to this tax payer's ear), like Blanco wants FEMA to put people up in hotels rather than trailers. So that's apparently why only 99 trailers for evacuees have been set up in LA, but 2,325 trailers have already been occupied in Mississippi and Alabama. Do you suppose FEMA will be blamed for this "slow response" to housing needs in LA?

Also, according to Kim Hunter Reed, the state policy and planning director, who is quoted in the article, New Orleans had a severe housing shortage before Katrina! There are two things that cause housing shortages: rent control and new construction red tape, including environmental hoops to jump through to get permits. Government interference in the market causes housing shortages. It happened after WWII, and continues in cities like New York which have rent control. I don't mind helping people when they are down, but New Orleans was by any reasonable woman's standard a mess before Katrina.