Race and response

Interesting post at Slate about race and the president's response to Katrina. Excerpt: At the heart of the matter is the racial pattern of American constituency politics. I don't think Kanye West can support his view that George W. Bush just doesn't care about black people. But it's a demonstrable matter of fact that Bush doesn't care much about black votes. And that, in the end, may amount to the same thing. I had been saying that I'm not so sure it's a race thing so much as an economic thing -- they (and sometimes "we," meaning we liberal-minded priveleged types) don't seem to care enough about poor folks to actually take action on a personal level beyond platitudes. Perhaps they make us uncomfortable. We feel guilty. Whatever excuse you can name. But the political pragmatism card is an interesting slant -- Bush doesn't care about black people because he doesn't have to. They aren't his constituents, and he's won without them. Hmmm. Things to ponder.