Huh? You Mean Somebody's Lying?

From the Associated Press:

Katrina Survivors Say Racism Slowed Aid
BET.com News and Wire Reports

Posted Dec. 7, 2005 – President Bush and members of his administration met Wednesday with several black leaders, a day after angry survivors of Hurricane Katrina told Congress that the government was in no rush to save their lives because they are black.

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"We were abandoned. City officials did nothing to protect us,” Patricia Thompson, a New Orleans evacuee said.

“We saw buses, helicopters and FEMA trucks, but no one stopped to help us. We never felt so cut off in all our lives. "No one is going to tell me it wasn't a race issue," she told Congress.

Community activist Leah Hodges said, with tears in her eyes, that black residents “died from neglect.”

At times during the hearing, the survivors even compared themselves to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.

But, of the 883 bodies processed so far by medical examiners at St. Gabriel (the primary facility handling the bodies of Katrina deceased), 562 have been identified by race. Slightly less than half that number - 48% - are African-American. 41% are white, 8% unknown, and 2% Hispanic.

The surprisingly low death rate for black Katrina victims comes despite the fact that New Orleans itself was more than 2/3 black [67%] when the storm hit. White residents made up less than a third [28%] of the city's population, according to U.S. Census bureau numbers.

So, so far, once you see the actual death data, and compare it to the Census data, it would seem that whites had a disproportionate death rate. There was no race issue. There was no neglect based on race.

There was no Holocaust.

As Michelle Malkin says, "All of these deaths were tragic, no matter the skin color of the victims. It would be nice to hear black leaders say so."

Why is it that so many sane people revert to cries of racism every time there are life and death issues like this hurricane? Why is it that sane people distort facts to start strife in a community?