[extropy-chat] Getting AId to people in need

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Olga Bourlin
...
> By Jack Shafer
> Posted Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005, at 4:22 PM PT
> 
> 
> Nearly every rescued person, temporary resident of the Superdome, looter,
> or loiterer on the high ground of the freeway I saw on TV was African-
> American...

If an African-American is born in America, both her parents are
born in America, all her grandparents, great grandparents, and 
their parents were born in America, at what point is it no longer 
legitimate that she call herself African American?  When does she 
become, like me, a native American?  I have an ancestor who was 
born in Pretoria South Africa.  May I call myself African 
American?  Will all my descendants, for all eternity, be able 
to call themselves African American?

I suspect that only a very small percentage of the population 
of New Orleans are real African Americans or have ever even 
been to Africa. 

Jack Shafer should let it go, be color blind and repent of
comments like this one:

>This sort of latent racism (or something more potent) may lurk in the
>hearts of many white people who end up on TV, as it does in the hearts of
>many who watch...

Guilty until proven innocent.  Of course, it is impossible to 
prove innocence of latent racism.  This comment is *overt*
racism, blatant and shameful as all hell.

OK now I have said my piece on this, recall a suggestion
I made a couple years ago about setting up a number of
webcams that would not be controlled by any news agency
but rather would give an unbiased unblinking random survey
of a disaster area.  The cams could be sampled by a web
surfer without artificially concentrating on the worst
places or seeking out any particular group of looters.  Those
would tell the real story, would they not?

spike