Close friend and VatulBlog reader, Joel, remarks: “Your mayor claims that soon New Orleans will be ‘a chocolate city’ again. Don’t get me wrong; that sounds delicious, but from a political standpoint, should he really be spouting so graphically and metaphorically to the national press, representing humans with flavors? Seems a bit odd to me.”
Some thoughts:
a) Well, I did ask yesterday if that makes me a certain mixture of chocolate, coffee and cream,
b) So, is that all non-white people bring to a city – color?,
c) Technically, white, milk and dark are three different varieties of chocolate, and he didn’t specify which,
d) This is the man who told the federal government to “get off your asses” after Katrina hit and, right before Ivan last year, advised us to keep our Benjamins handy just in case we needed to “conduct business” (I’m voting for him based on those statements alone)
e) he suffers from PTPRWEDIDSD – Post Traumatic, Pre Reelection, What Else Do I Do Stress Disorder, and
f) more than likely, he is extremely busy and someone else wrote the speech for him (which explains the “odd” aspect of it).
For the record, I have NO IDEA where the God Smote New Orleans stuff came from – still thinking about the angle or pathology (or Americans’ use of the Old Testament when convenient) on that one.
As for “chocolate,” New Orleans is a predominantly black city and this was his attempt to reach out to the majority of his displaced populace. Although I understand that a word with which he chose to do it irritates some people of color, the mayor was just trying to keep it real while under a lot of stress. I’m more interested in exploring his Sodom & Gomorrah reference, which, if you look closely, isn’t really right-wingnutty but more Christian leftish.
The bottom line is that it is still too early for lots of New Orleanians residents to make firm decisions about their return, and to tell what kind of a city this is going to be in six months, two years or a decade. It is still way too early for Nagin to declare his still-evacuated citizens a lost cause or to say they’re coming back. Even if a diaspora, they are still his people and still need some sort of guidance. It is his job to keep them from feeling alienated.
Let’s make a deal – I’ll ask Nagin to stop referring to his people as foodstuff if the rest of the nation stops calling us a “veritable gumbo” of this, that or the other.
If Nagin’s going bananas, we must consider replacing him, but I am not one for changing my plate midmeal. On the other hand, if he was simply abusing metaphors, the man needs a new speechwriter, and not tomatoes, thrown at him.
There’s nothing wrong with food references if used clearly, you see.
Speaking of Benjamins, Happy 300th Birthday, Mr. Franklin!
a) Well, I did ask yesterday if that makes me a certain mixture of chocolate, coffee and cream,
Nope.
It just makes you invisible.
As in Indian people don’t matter to the overall cultural makeup of New Orleans?
Edit: Yeah, well, our Indian community is only large enough to rival that of, say, a small town in Kansas.
Dude, I guess I don’t see why people jumped down his throat. It’s like people live in this shadow of how racism doesn’t exist anymore and that we can’t talk about race in terms of desserts. WHAT?! As we all level-headed people know that ain’t true. Go to any makeup counter and they will say, “hmm, your skin is a mocha,” and then pull out a foundation named “mocha” or “cafe” or “coffee.” Nagin is keeping it real and I just don’t get the hoopla.
Thats my rant.
I, for one, don’t think he was alienating white people or those of other skin tones, but assuring black people that they will not be left out in the new New Orleans. That there shouldn’t be a fear of an all-white NO. My only problem with it is the entire assumption that color, any color, implies value of some kind, when all we need right now are humans who will help NO recover and grow.
Yeah, I don’t see these women get all riled up when Ricky Martin or a rap star refers to their skin color in terms of foodstuff.
So you are telling me that when Nagin said what he did, the subtext was *not* an offer to build a Lebensraum … ?
Ricky Martin is an entertainer, a sophist. It is his *job* to pay compliments and make a listener feel good about themselves. One does not expect that he will have influence in apportioning public goods.
Ray Nagin, as a “leader”, is expected to have inordinate influence on civic life. He was sending the clear message of how patronage would flow from his hands..
That’s why you’re invisible.
New Orleans doesn’t have enough viable space for a Lebensraum, dear Anon. ;-) And Nagin has been pretty contradictory about how the patronage will leave his office – traditionally, the business and growth needs have been in opposition to the needs of the poor, often black, of New Orleans, and he is deeply involved in both the economic and community rebuilds of the city.
Another thing about the south that may not be very obvious to those from the American north: it’s very community- and religion-oriented down here. Politics, entertainment, counseling, caretaking, education, family and various other modes of living converge and overlap quite a bit. I really think it was Nagin’s attempt to say something visionary and invigorating to a largely black gathering on MLK, Jr. day and it backfired.
Hello, I’m doing research on Nagin’s history and campaign and am looking for a reference of Nagin’s “benajamin’s” statement. Do you recall where you heard that?
thanks!
Yes, I heard it in one of his pressers that declared mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004. I think it was on the local Fox affiliate.