Evoking King, Nagin calls N.O. ‘chocolate’ city: Speech addresses fear of losing black culture
I should begin by stating for the record that I admire Ray Nagin. The man has done a helluva job holding together a major American city that was almost wiped off the map by Hurricane Katrina. He has worked tirelessly to rebuild the city he loves, and it’s not as if he’s received much in the way of assistance from the federal or state governments. Nagin no doubt has been under a tremendous amout of strain and political pressure, and I wonder if and/or how any of us would be able to hold up under similar conditions?
Now that I’ve gotten the disclaimer out of the way, I’ve got to wonder what in the HELL Nagin was thinking during his speech on Martin Luther King Day? Anyone with half a brain understands that the issue of race is a no-win situation. You bring it up at your own peril, and unless you treat the subject with kid gloves, it’s likely to blow up in your face. Nagin jumped in with both feet, and while I understand the poiint he was (clumsily) trying to make, and while I also don’t necessarily disagree with it, he came off looking like a complete DUMB@$$.
And what in the HELL was he doing channelling Pat Robertson??
Speaking to a fraction of the crowd typically drawn to a holiday parade honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Monday predicted that displaced African-American residents will return to the rebuilt city and it “will be chocolate at the end of the day.”
“This city will be a majority African-American city. It’s the way God wants it to be,” Nagin said. “You can’t have it no other way. It wouldn’t be New Orleans.”
Well, OK…there’s nothing terribly controversial about what Nagin said to this point, but you just have to know that the worst is yet to come. Wait for it….
Speaking in rolling cadences like a preacher addressing his congregation, Nagin called on the small, interracial crowd to rebuild a majority-black city. The group of about 60 people was preparing to march down to the South Claiborne Avenue statue of King.
“We ask black people….It’s time for us to come together,” said the mayor, who is black.
“It’s time for us to rebuild a New Orleans, the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans,” he said. “And I don’t care what people are saying in Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day.”
Nagin also said that last year’s devastating hurricanes were signs of God’s wrath.
“Surely God is mad at America,” he said.
OK; now Nagin is channelling Pat Robertson, and anyone with a functional intellect knows that we have a Category 5 DUMB@$$ on our hands. Fire up the apologists and let the spin commence:
Late in the day, Nagin’s spokeswoman Tami Frazier said the mayor’s comments were not meant to be divisive.
“The mayor’s comments were in reference to the fact that … there has been talk that the diversity of New Orleans is not what it was,” she said. “New Orleans has been a predominantly African-American city for quite some time now. His comments were not meant to exclude anyone. He was just saying that as we rebuild the new New Orleans, we will still retain our diverse culture and everything that has made New Orleans what it is, together, both black and white.”
OK, fair enough. No reasonable person would argue with those sentiments- except for the fact that Frazier’s spin does not reflect what Nagin actually said. Taken point by point, Nagin did have some interesting and accurate things to say, and again, I don’t necessarily disagree with his speech. What I object to is the overtly and aggressively racial tone of the speech, which create exactly the wrong impression. Ray Nagin is an intelligent, thoughtful person, but you’d never know it from this speech. It was if he was channelling both Bill Cosby and Pat Robertson simultaneously, and a speech on MLK Day was exactly the wrong place for such a divisive diatribe.
The remarks, which prompted a storm of angry callers when Garland Robinette played them repeatedly on his talk show on WWL-AM, also drew fire from some black leaders.
“Everybody’s jaws are dropping right now,” said City Councilman Oliver Thomas, who is black. “Even if you believe some of that crazy stuff, that is not the type of image we need to present to the nation.”
Thomas, who has been friendly to the Nagin administration but is now viewed as a potential mayoral contender, said the mayor was indulging in “equal-opportunity slamming.”
Instead of the city being chocolate, Thomas said, “we ought to be Neapolitan, fudge ripple, all the flavors together. Who really cares what the racial makeup of the city is as long as it works for everybody?”
Political analyst Silas Lee said the anger Nagin’s speech provoked probably was intensified by the environment in which he delivered it: a city where nerves are raw and whatever sense of security people had was blown away in Katrina’s gale.
“That makes it much more fragile and might make people more sensitive, more emotional,” Lee said. “Therefore, every word any elected official may say can be misinterpreted very easily. In his speech, it sounded like he was venting a lot of feelings and pent-up frustration. However, how it came out and how it was interpreted is very subjective. Once you say things, you can’t retract them.”
Indeed. In another time and place, and before a different audience, Nagin’s speech might have been the right thing to do. New Orleans, at this point in time, is such a collection of raw nerves that anything that even smacks of controversy will be blown out of proportion. Nagin should have understood and respected this. Instead, he came off as a cross between Louis Farrakhan, Bill Cosby, and Pat Roberston…and in the end just looked like a DUMB@$$. Ray Nagin knows better; it would have been nice to see him demonstrate it.
