Racism at Work

We've just seen two segments on Countdown dealing with hurricane survivors. The first segment showed 15,000 - 20,000 people, mostly African American, at the convention center with no water, no food and no working toilets, begging for help. Photojournalist Tony Zumbado said of the scene, "What I've seen I've never seen in this country."

The second segment showed suburban families at a local Lowe's store, telling their family and friends they were OK. They said things like, "we're fine! We have to wait in line for everything, but things are ust terrific otherwise. We'll call you when the phones come back on!"

I don't even want to try to explain how egregious a failure this is on the part of our government and how obviously and disgustingly racist and classist its inaction.