Thank You For Weighing In, Mayor Nagin

Instapundit is right -- the first time I saw this quote from Ray Nagin, I thought of Pat Robertson...

Mayor Ray Nagin suggested Monday that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country," Nagin, who is black, said as he and other city leaders marked Martin Luther King Day.

"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

Nagin also promised that New Orleans will be a "chocolate" city again. Many of the city's black neighborhoods were heavily damaged by Katrina.

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Nagin described an imaginary conversation with King, the late civil rights leader.

"I said, `What is it going to take for us to move on and live your dream and make it a reality?' He said, `I don't think that we need to pay attention any more as much about other folks and racists on the other side.' He said, `The thing we need to focus on as a community - black folks I'm talking about - is ourselves.'"

Nagin said he also asked: "Why is black-on-black crime such an issue? Why do our young men hate each other so much that they look their brother in the face and they will take a gun and kill him in cold blood?"

The reply, Nagin said, was: "We as a people need to fix ourselves first."

There's a mixture of smart stuff and crap in these statements, but it's mostly crap. The shame is that most people will focus on the idiotic comments about God intending New Orleans to be African-American and punishing America for goign to war in Iraq by sending us hurricanes. Nagin and the rest of Louisiana's leadership has been shameful in the aftermath of Katrina, particularly in their inflated demands for money, and this just serves to squander more goodwill. As for making the town "chocolate" again, unless he's trying to get Hershey Foods to move there, that's the sort of statement that can be construed as hideously racist. Imagine if a white mayor said he wanted to make his town "vanilla" again, as God intended.

I don't disagree with Nagin on the point that African-Americans need to work together to stop problems in their neighborhoods; when he notes the issue of black-on-black violence, he's absolutely right that there is more that can be done within the community to stop these problems. Too bad Nagin didn't expound on this issue -- perhaps he might have talked about improving educational choice and continuing to reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births. He's wrong in saying that Dr. King would tell people not to engage with the other side, but that may just be my interpretation -- I'd expect King to reach out to those on the other side, and urging all Americans, of all colors, to work together and improve their communities.

Finally, if God is mad at America, he must be really ticked off at France. Not that I blame him.