Segregation's Legacy and the Katrina Disaster

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2008/02/07/Richard_Thompson_Ford_Race_Card

Stanford Law Professor Richard Thompson Ford examines America's legacy of racial segregation and its impact on the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

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Richard Thompson Ford considers "The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse."

The George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, Richard Thompson Ford has published regularly on civil rights, constitutional law, race relations, and antidiscrimination law. In his new book, he asks what Katrina victims waiting for federal disaster relief, millionaire rappers buying vintage champagne, Ivy League professors waiting for taxis, and ghetto hustlers trying to find steady work have in common, and answers that all have claimed to be victims of racism.

Few people these days express openly racist beliefs or defend bigoted motives. So lots of people are victims of bigotry, but no one's a bigot? Ford considers whether a lot of people are lying about their true beliefs and motivations, or if a lot of people are jumping to unwarranted conclusions or just playing the race card.

Ford brings sophisticated legal analysis, lively and eye-popping anecdotes, and plain old common sense to this heated topic, offering ways to separate valid claims from bellyaching, and calling for us to treat racism as a social problem that must be objectively understood and honestly evaluated - Cody's Books

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[whitecarolina]

real estate values are lowest in the areas most likely to flood, nobody forced blacks to stay in the lowest values part of new orleans. but thye were told to leave, but ray nagin said it would be ok. maybe this guy should talk about the post katrina violence and the number of white corpeses that were found raped to death or beaten to death. thats the racial injustice nobody talks about racism against whites

[GustavusAdolphus1]

If that's what he's saying, ok. I wish he had stated it "that way" in this clip. Ultimately, Nagin's part was also critical, and he failed.

[j53iliff]

I am reading the book right now and I don't get the impression that he is passing the blame. In the book, and somewhat in this talk, he explains that the legacy of segregated cities is largely due to a racist history, which I think is obvious, but that hurricane Katrina and the response to hurricane Katrina were not racist but random (hurricane) and bureaucratic ineptitude (FEMA) which could have effected any community white or black.

[GustavusAdolphus1]

Mr. Ford has either never lived in an American city, or has never lived in one and considered it honestly. Living in the Mississippi Delta is foolish to begin with, but I do agree racism had a part to play. Nagin, not unlike many mayors in many American cities, was elected, in part, for his skin tone. Nagin's handling of the situation was abysmal. And men like Ford who further pass the blame are as responsible for the horrors as anyone else.