A part of me doesn’t want to promote this as there are far more important issues facing New Orleans besides Nagin’s misguided dessert references, but the graphic (and message) involved is too priceless to pass up:
Now, will everyone stop talking about chocolate before I’m forced to make a Chocolate Bar run?
More: I’m watching the news on the local NBC affiliate and a Katrina evacuee, interviewed on Nagin’s cocoa-licious speech and his recent apology, just said, “I don’t care who’s in New Orleans right now. I don’t care if it’s chocolate right now – it should be white and black, you know, it should be Oreo …” Ok, you’re offended but have now distilled it down from generic chocolate to a Nabisco product. How? Wha …? Wh..? Nevermind.
This is it. That’s all I’m going to say about this.
From Ann Arbor, I had no idea what was going on in local politics. This kurfuffle drew me back into local politics, and that’s a good thing. People have been taking about Nagin’s comments, but also about the Levee Board, and the coming elections. I’m picking up on quite a bit of the recent politicing.
I’m pretty sure that Nagin didn’t think it through, speaking only to the audince before him, and neglecting to remember the national cameras.
Food as an analogy for race? I’m actually starting to enjoy the dialog and humor. Oreo’s, and the milk in milk chocolate, mochas as you noted…
…and olives. Wait till the summer sun hits me. I’ll look Mediterranian, I swear.
Colbert tore Nagin a new one last night- didja see it?
No, I’m a Stewart head and haven’t eased into the next segment as easily as I thought I would. What did he say/do?
Well, it’s true vanilla and chocolate taste great together. Maybe this has the makings for one of those ridiculous web quizlets; you know, “Which food item am I?”
He took Nagin & Robertson to task about all this God Smote business, in his typical Swift-ian manner, proposing that Jesus was soft on crime and that what we need now is a more “Old-School” Noah’s ark, end-of-the-world-esque God. He definitely skewered Robertson moreso, but there was a healthy slap in Nagin’s direction as well.
Sigh. It’s hard to explain, since Colbert’s entire schtick is to pretend to be a complete a$$hat and mimic O’Reilly-ish nonsense when he’s speaking. It should be on the Comedy Central web page!
Wow, so far I have received quite a few emails, text messages and comments about this. Nagin’s statements seem to have struck a national nerve more so than his rebuilding commission. And I can’t stand how everyone equates Borrowing From Evangelism with Being Right Wing. The religion doesn’t belong to Republican fundamentalists.
this has the makings for one of those ridiculous web quizlets; you know, “Which food item am I?â€
Oh, hell no. We’re done with these shenanigans. For the love of progress.
Just so. It was a silly suggestion regarding a rather silly topic.
The “God is punishing us” argument, whether invoked by political lefties or righties, seems to me to display a basic ignorance of the Christian religion. But then, politicians are just as full of crap on the subject of religion as they are on every other subject, so I suppose it’s not surprising.
New Orleans does indeed need *people*, and those who most care about it.
Maitri
It seems that people I know personally are more flummoxed by the references to God than the chocolate city statement. I’m glad to hear that you feel it’s a pretty weak equivalence, Pat Robertson and Ray Nagin. The reaction strikes me as being knee jerk.
Wish Nagin didn’t have an election coming up.
It’s got to be hard on him. He’s not a politician, really. I can imagine that he’s getting burned out with the politics, wants simple to execute on the rebuild. He’s a business man after all.
We need a fellow with a future outside of politics, because the Mayor or New Orleans must make decisions, and those decisions will necessarily go against the interests of one or another group of citizens. This is position that ends a political career.
I’m leery of anyone who wants to take over now.
They will ally them selves with a particular group of citizens, whichever, and play the divissive politics that we are so familiar with at the national level.
New Orleans needs a Mayor that is concerned about its people regardless of who they are. But Mayor Willie Nagin there is also white chocolate!! Which you may not be seeing much of in the future…………
Found this interesting website http://www.whitechocolatecity.com Martin Luther King talks about the day people will not be judged by color, and Willie Nagin talks about the day when everyone will be “chocolate”. And he has talked to MLK? http://www.whitechocolatecity.com
People in New Orleans are judged by their color. It’s not a good reality, not one that I would like to offer Dr. King, but it is one.