That last statement of yours is so true, racism is rife particularly in the Southern USA, everyone knows it, it'll always be there - the whites hate the blacks and think they should be lesser people. And from the documentaries I've seen, the more "christian" you are, the worse you become. Thats why New Orleans is still in ruins - the whites with the money don't give a toss about the blacks down there.
from Colin
There you go being ignorant again.
First, racism concentrated in the USA Deep South is a stereotype that has long been disproven. Racism has no preferred region. It operates everywhere. Detroit (certainly not deep south), Boston (not deep south last I looked), and Los Angeles (south but not the "deep south" implied in the reference) have all had race riots long after integration was imposed on the southern states. As an issue of fairness, it SHOULD have been imposed but there was too much social inertia. But that was 50 years ago. (51, actually).
I've seen reports about Haitian and other black immigrants to England who don't find it to be the land of milk and honey, either. The problem is, of course, that news media seek HEADLINES, not ho-hum news. The really good things that happen usually get buried in the back sections of the newspaper because, in most cases, GOOD NEWS DOESN'T SELL. So when you hear all sorts of reports about racism from the USA, remember that it is not within the vested interests of newspapers to leave well enough alone.
Then there was that crack about why New Orleans is so slow to rebuild. And you attribute this to race? bzzzzzz Wrong answer. It is that most basic of evils, love of money. The insurance companies are withholding money from ALL persons equally. They are not locally managed, so OF COURSE they have no care about the area. But it ain't racially motivated. They are lining their pockets. I have to be careful here because my blood pressure rises just thinking about those bastards.
You might have heard someone from Louisiana's recovery board in a recent news conference making ignorant statements about racial divides and such. The raw truth is that the person making the statement is desperately playing the race card because no other card is working to disgorge money from the insurance robbers - I mean... companies.
I live in New Orleans, Col, so don't tell ME what is the holdup in our rebuilding process. Pure, plain, and simple, it is the pissing match as everyone tries to point to someone else as being the one to make the big payout. Nobody wants to pay out the amount of money implied by their policies. NONE of the big insurance carriers are honoring their moral obligations, and they mealy-mouth their way around legal obligations with bizarre interpretations of English or outright lies.
Look at the lawsuits in Mississippi (Gulf Coast region) where - as an isolated example that is actually not so isolated - one damage report for a given house says wind caused the house to be blown off its foundations. But then Allstate had someone rewrite the report to say the damage was due to storm surge, which is rising water, which is someone else's policy. Even though the person who wrote the report had NEVER VISITED THE SITE! Allstate doesn't want to pay the wind damage so they materially altered the report to say the problem was something they don't cover. That point is being brought out in trial now. The report of the trial was issued by the Associated Press in today's N'Awlins newspaper. I'm not making it up.
Now if you want to bash the radical Christians... I'm with you. They are very insular. They don't like blacks. Don't like gays. Don't like Moslems. Don't like Jews. Probably don't like foreigners either - like the cheeky UK buggers such as you, Col. But most USA people who are passively Christian or are at worst moderate Christians aren't particularly racist. And radical ANYTHING is probably not good. Like, ... radical Islamic, radical Jewish, radical Catholic, radical Zoroastrian, radical Buddhist (can there be such a thing?), etc. Moderation in all things is the best approach.
