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In
journalism as in academia, the most important questions one has to learn
are those which one may not ask. For instance, back in April on Bob Costas’
HBO sports show, football announcer Chris Collinsworth, a white, retired
Cincinnati Bengal wide receiver, stuttered and stammered as he tried to say
that he is so nervous about touching professionally on race in any way, because
it could instantly end his announcing career, that he is afraid to ask any
race-related questions.
In grad school, I always marveled at how some of my classmates knew exactly
what questions not to ask. One contemporary academic non-question is, “Why,
if black IQs are on average 15 points lower than white IQs, and the Constitution
forbids unequal treatment under the law, would the government routinely hire
people based on their being black, rather than based on their qualifications?”
It’s a non-question; no one may ask it. Forget that you even read it here.
In that spirit, I have a compiled a series of “non-questions” regarding New
Orleans. They only appear to be questions, but aren’t because I am not asking
them, thus no answer is expected. I am just listing them so that it is clear
that they may not be asked.
1. Why were New Orleans residents shooting at rescue workers in helicopters
and boats, and firing on the contractors who were trying to fix the levee?
2. Why were so many thugs shooting and looting and raping and murdering on
the streets of New Orleans and at the Superdome when a natural disaster hit
town?
3. Is it true that the thugs who were shooting and looting and raping and
murdering on the streets of New Orleans and at the Superdome were just doing
what they do all time?
4. Why were virtually all of the looters and murderers and rapists and carjackers black?
5. Since it is a well-known fact that blacks can only be the victims, but
never the perpetrators of racism, should we damn as racists the white and
Asian foreign tourists who said they were being terrorized in the Superdome
and on the streets of New Orleans based on the color of their skin, ignore
their complaints, “disappear” alleged black-on-white and black-on-Asian crimes
committed in the aftermath of Katrina, and arrest the tourists for racial
insensitivity and hate crimes?
6. Why didn’t New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin use the 500 buses he had at his
disposal to evacuate New Orleans residents before Katrina hit town?
7. Is President Bush getting so roundly criticized by the media and black
political activists for not taking over rescue efforts sooner, because he
is a white, heterosexual, Republican male, whereas Mayor Nagin is a black
Democrat and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco is a female Democrat?
8. Although thousands of National Guard troops have been in New Orleans for
several days, how come we have not heard of any of them shooting looters
or violent criminals?
9. Why have we heard instead of New Orleans thugs beating National Guardspersons
over the heads with pipes, shooting said National Guardspersons, and said
National Guardspersons running away from said attackers?
10. Are the National Guardspersons’ rifles loaded with live ammunition?
11. Is it possible that, as with during and following the 1992 Los Angeles
race riots, thousands of National Guardspersons are marching around New Orleans
with unloaded weapons?
12. Had Pres. Bush, in the face of Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco’s incompetence,
taken over rescue efforts days ago, would the President now be enduring the
same criticisms he is now receiving, or worse criticisms?
13. How can federal authorities such as FEMA take over the role of first-responders,
as the attacks on the feds have implied they should have, if the police and
fire persons are all locals, and it takes days for FEMA to arrive on the
scene?
14. If everything to do with New Orleans’ troubles is a federal affair, should
not the federal government put the city in federal receivership, and render
Mayor Nagin and Gov. Blanco powerless, regarding the city’s management?
15. Should we ignore the New York Times’ years-long, successful opposition
(including just last spring) to the feds spending billions of taxpayer dollars
to fix New Orleans’ levees, in light of the newspaper’s current charges of
federal malfeasance for not having fixed the levees?
As I said at the outset, the above sentences are non-questions. They are
not to be asked, let alone answered, least of all by yours truly. They are
all off-limits -- if you know what’s good for you! Forget you ever read this
column.
New York-based freelancer Nicholas Stix has written for Toogood Reports, Middle American News, the New York Post, Daily News, American Enterprise, Insight, Chronicles, Newsday and many other publications. His recent work is collected at The Critical Critic.
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