Katrina's aftermath

University of Pennsylvania professor Michael Eric Dyson has written a scathing analysis of Katrina, Come Hell or High Water (great title; wish I'd written it), concentrating on the issues of race revealed by the aftermath of the hurricane, especially the total loss of the Lower Ninth Ward and many of its inhabitants.

While the professor's views on racism in America are learned and cogent, there are issues of class at work in New Orleans as well, as expressed so clearly by my embedded reporter from New Orleans, commenting about television interviews with Professor Dyson:
"The most egregious of the sound bite providers was Mr. Dyson, a renowned professor of black studies at PYU (Prestigious Yankee University). He spoke about a culture lost, the rhythms, music, and patois of the fine folk of the Lower Ninth Ward. He went on and on about the class distinction between the Lower Ninth and the rest of New Orleans. He has obviously never been there and, if he had gone there before the storm, he would have been mugged faster than a frog snatches a fly by the gangstas who 'owned' the Lower Ninth. Even though black, he would have been seen as 'white' (and thus a target), due to his higher social standing and Yankee education..."