New Orleans: Get Off Your Fat Asses

In what has to be one of the worse cases of kicking people when their down, Neal Boortz, the right-wing talk show host has stooped to a new low. This so-called Libertarian makes Rush Limbaugh seem like a true humanitarian with his rants concerning the Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans. While I support the First Amendment and everyone’s right to speak their minds some of this crap is just beyond the scope of dignity and is downright disrespectful. As if these people have not suffered enough with the trauma of going through a hurricane, being deserted by their government, unable to return home, and being labeled criminals by their relocated communities. Now they turn on the radio and hear this clown spewing his racist’s hate speak.

BOORTZ: I like this: "Edwards' campaign will end the way it began 13 months ago, with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden." Cries of the downtrodden, my left butt cheek. That wasn't the cries of the downtrodden; that's the cries of the useless, the worthless. New Orleans was a welfare city, a city of parasites, a city of people who could not and had no desire to fend for themselves. You have a hurricane descending on them and they sit on their fat asses and wait for somebody else to come rescue them. "It's somebody else's job to get me out of here. It's somebody else's job to save my life. Not mine. Send me a bus, send me a limo, send me a boat, send me a helicopter, send me a taxi, send me something. But you certainly don't expect me to actually work to get myself out of this situation, do you?[1]

The unfortunate part about this is that it isn’t the first time Mr. Boortz has denigrated the Katrina survivors, he has on numerous occasions attempted to find humor in their despair. As I stated with the Imus affair I understand these people are so-called entertainers and their goal is to create controversy to increase their audiences, but too often under the guise of entertainment they appeal to the worse and most basest instinct in others. Whether these people actually believe the crap they spew is irrelevant, what is relevant is that there are those who listen to these clowns who do, thus they provide cover for the real bigots that they pander to. Mr. Boortz show is listened to by 3.75 million listeners weekly, that is a lot of people who subscribe to these racist views. Mr. Boortz couches his racist speak in code words that would have one believe that it is about class and not race, but anyone familiar with his type of humor quickly realizes that it isn’t about class.

One of the caller’s from his show demonstrates how this show and others like it plays to the racist audiences and once you open that door, there is no closing it.

CALLER: I used to walk for the post office. The people in New Orleans were waiting on their government checks. They weren't moving until they got them. That's what they were waiting on. You know, not only for somebody to do something for them, because they certainly weren't gonna do it for themselves; they were waiting on their checks. One other thing: I have a sister-in-law in Newport, Rhode Island.

CALLER: Yes, do that. They got 100 of the Katrina refugees in Newport. So the whole town goes crazy, oh, we've gotta help these people, we've gotta get jobs for them, we have to get them a place, we have to do this. So they put on a job fair. Do you want to take one guess how many showed up?

BOORTZ: I'll say two.
CALLER: Zero.
BOORTZ: Zero?[2]

Mr. Boortz is no stranger to controversy. On his shows he has referred to ex-Representative Cynthia McKinney as “looking like a ghetto slut”, he has referred to ex-Senator Max Cleland as a prostitute for John Kerry, and many other notable quotes concerning black leaders. Let’s face it Mr. Boortz is a racist hiding behind the façade of an entertainer. The thing that bothers me the most is not one little man trying to stand taller by stepping on other people who are down, it is that the size of his audience demonstrates the depth of racism in this country. I know that the race card gets played all too often in America and often times for political or other social gain, but that does not negate the fact that it does exist in the minds and hearts of many. Mr. Boortz panders to that segment of society and it is disgusting.

According to Mr. Boortz the relocation of the New Orleans evacuees was “a glorified putting out the garbage”. Unfortunately Mr. Boortz not all the garbage was taken out, it appears that you were missed in the collection process. It is a shame that once again it is a case of blame the victim. Using Mr. Boortz logic I guess if he were to arrive at a house fire and find out that one of the relatives was killed by the fire he would state that they should have moved their fat ass or blame the victims of a tornado. While there may be instances of people not taking responsibility for their actions, blaming hurricane victims I don’t think qualifies. I just hope that Mr. Boortz or any of his family members are never in the path of a natural disaster, of course maybe that would teach him some humility.

[1] http://mediamatters.org/items/200802010015
[2] http://mediamatters.org/items/200802010015