Who Belied
Who Belied
Townhack Linda Chavez writes "They're At It Again", claiming Jackson, Sharpton, and Waters, the "race men" are "are at it again, turning the tragedy of New Orleans into a morality tale about racism in America."
Chavez states : "Even the pictures that emerged as victims were being rescued belied any hint of racism. Most of the National Guardsmen and other military personnel saving lives were white, while most of those being saved were black, not surprising given the demographics of the respective groups. Blacks made up 68 percent of New Orleans' population, but only about 20 percent of all military personnel and an even smaller proportion of National Guard troops."
Well, math was never my favorite subject but I get bent out of shape when airheads blow percentages from a rickety soapbox. It seems to me Chavez is implying Blacks aren't serving in the military in all that great a number, "only about 20 percent of all military" are Black. But "most ... military personnel saving lives were white" while those being saved were Black. Apparently sufficient duh proof for Ms. Chavez that there is no racism in America.
Let me see ... there are aproximately 1.2 million US troops ... if 20 percent are Black that's roughly 240,000 Black troops ... and that would be about 0.8 percent of the total Black American population in uniform, given there are 32 million Black Americans. Assuming the remaining 960,000 troops are white and America's white population is 218,000,000 (minus Hispanics, Asians, others) then "only about" 0.4 percent of the white population is in uniform (deducting 100,000 or so of our fair-skinned brothers of non-white others in uniform).
So 0.8 percent of Black Americans are serving in uniform and 0.4 percent of white Americans are military. Is that right? Math never was my best subject.
2 comments:
Hi Kate,
Linda Chavez clearly has her head up her ass. That may be where she got her numbers!
"To date, ...the federal government has committed an additional $60 billion to the victims, the most visible of whom were the mostly black residents stranded in New Orleans. "
That $60B will not go to the victims, not even close. But --and I won't emulate Chavez by pulling numbers out of thin air or my butt -- MOST of that money will definitely go to "reconstruction" firms such as the infamous Halliburton, Bechtel, Fluor, et al... You know those lovely firms who also received no-bid contracts for "rebuilding" Iraq.
See this article for more facts, not conjecture, on the subject:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0914-25.htm
On September 12, 2005, the Wall Street Journal reported, "FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers have awarded six contracts, most for as much as $100 million, for recovery and rebuilding work." It should be of little surprise that the Shaw Group landed two of these $100 million deals (a FEMA contract to refurbish existing buildings and for other emergency housing tasks as well as an Army Corps of Engineers contract to aid recovery efforts, including pumping water from New Orleans). Others on the list included a who's who of favorite Bush administration contractors from Iraq: Bechtel, Fluor, and CH2M Hill (all signed on to construct temporary housing). In fact, of the companies on the Journal's list, only one (Dewberry, LLC) was not, apparently, involved in Iraq. Halliburton was, of course, not left out in the cold. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, its KBR subsidiary reaped "$29.8 million in Pentagon contracts to begin rebuilding Navy bases in Louisiana and Mississippi."
annemarie j
toronto
Hi,
Awful, I stated somewhere below last week "Lets not think about Halliburton getting NOLA reconstruction contracts even before the bodies began to pop up like corks in the toxic waters."
It appears Dewberry has been getting it's pork at home and from FEMA since the 1970s.
In 1974, the firm was awarded a technical assistance contract for FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Project. Dewberry continues this and other work for FEMA today.
Beginning in 1981, consulting services to FEMA were expanded to include nationwide response to Presidentially-declared disasters.
In the 1990s the firm continued to diversify and expand, with new regional offices and services. Projects included rehabilitation of New York City’s Riverside Drive Viaduct; the Lansdowne Executive Conference Resort in Loudoun County, VA; George Mason University’s Prince William Institute in Prince William County; VA; several industrial projects throughout the southeast; new educational facilities; pier restoration projects in New York Harbor; and expanded work in mapping, disaster response, and emergency management for FEMA.
And in 2000s the firm continues to engineer many landmark infrastructure projects, including the SR 288 extension in Richmond; numerous projects for DOTs in the mid-Atlantic and the northeast; design-build projects at the Pentagon; major airport and transit improvements; as well as program management initiatives for FEMA and the US Department of Labor.
Billions and we all know the Katrina victims will see little more than a tinny trailer and food stamps for a few months, if that.
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