Blog of the Week XXVII celebrations continue below, and will resume tomorrow, but now we interrupt to bring you this headline, ripped from this morning's Times-Picayune.... :wakeup2:

Nagin calls diaspora racial plot

City's makeup altered intentionally, he says

Monday, March 19, 2007

By Dennis Persica

 

The slow pace of New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery is part of a plan to change the city's racial makeup, Mayor Ray Nagin told a national newspaper publishers' group last week.

 

According to The Washington Post, Nagin made those remarks at a dinner meeting Thursday of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a trade group for newspapers that target black readers. He told editors and publishers that the slow recovery is part of a plan to change the racial makeup, and hence the political leadership, of the city.

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, what happened in New Orleans could happen anywhere," Nagin told the association. "They are studying this model of natural disasters, dispersing the community and changing the electoral process in that community."

 

City Council President Oliver Thomas and businessman Rob Couhig, a onetime mayoral candidate, both disagreed with the mayor Sunday.

 

According to the Post, Nagin referred to Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, his opponent in last year's mayor's race, as "the golden boy," and said Landrieu's chances in the election seemed good because "they dispersed all of our people across 44 states with one-way tickets."

 

"They thought they were talking about a different kind of New Orleans," Nagin said. "They didn't realize that folks were awake, that they were paying attention." Landrieu did not return a call for comment.

 

Recurring theme

 

Nagin's comments were reminiscent of those he made in 2006, less than six months after Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans, when he said that New Orleans would once again become a "chocolate city." At Thursday night's dinner, Nagin suggested that those comments, made at a Martin Luther King Day event, made him a political target.

 

"Everybody in America started to wake up and say: 'Wait a minute. What is he doing? What is he saying? We have to make sure that this man doesn't go any further,' " Nagin told the group, according to the Post. The association was holding its NNPA Foundation Black Press Week through Friday at the Capital Hilton Hotel.

 

Although the number of African-American people in New Orleans has decreased since Hurricane Katrina, African-Americans are still a majority.

 

In August 2006, about a week shy of the one-year anniversary of Katrina's landing, Nagin stirred up controversy again, this time before another predominantly black group of journalists. He told the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Indianapolis that race played a role in the government's slow response to helping those most affected by the storm.

 

"I, to this day, believe if it happened in Orange County, Calif., or South Beach, Fla., it wouldn't have happened," Nagin said, referring to the stranding of thousands of people in New Orleans without food, water and other relief supplies.

 

'Looking for excuses'

 

Couhig, a foe of Nagin's in the mayoral primary who endorsed him in the runoff against Landrieu, disagreed with the mayor's remarks to the publishers last week.

 

"I don't think anybody could plan that well," Couhig said of the supposed plan by an unnamed "they" to change the city's racial makeup. He added that when he hears comments like that, "I always ask, 'Who is the conspirator?' and I don't see anyone competent enough to pull it off."

 

Couhig, who was appointed by Nagin to the board of directors of the city's recovery agency, has himself expressed frustration with the slow pace of reconstruction. At a meeting of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority's board in February, Couhig said NORA needs to do something tangible soon to convince the public it will be the engine of recovery.

 

But Couhig said Sunday that it's wrong to blame the slow recovery on a conspiracy.

 

"I'm just tired of people looking for excuses," he said. "Everybody's got some responsibility: the city government, the state government, the federal government, The Times-Picayune, the business community.

 

"If it wasn't tragic, it would be silly," Couhig said.

 

Thomas, meanwhile, said the slow return of the New Orleans citizenry definitely has an impact on local politics.

 

"There's no question about it," Thomas said. "Does it have political ramifications? Of course."

 

But he added that he does not see that as an intentional plan targeting any group.

 

Thomas added that there are many Democratic members of Congress who don't want to be named who "say the same thing he (Nagin) says. They say it's part of a grand scheme.

 

"I personally haven't seen it," he added.

 

"Sometimes, incompetence and lack of coordination can look racial," Thomas said. "But this thing is so bad, you could say the Martians are conspiring. Any conspiracy theory would do."

 

. . . . . . .

 

Dennis Persica can be reached at dpersica@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3783.

Again, while this might do more harm than good, what's Louisiana politics without a good conspiracy theory or five?

-KIE, whose bracket would still be intact were it not for Louisville choking on Aggie crunch.