God, George Wallace And The Chocolate Factory

I swear, everytime I try to defend New Orleans May Ray Nagin, he goes and says something so utterly stupid. Late last week, I was this <---> close to convincing a friend that Mayor Nagin was dealing with the sewer that is New Orleans politics the best anyone could.

With King Day approaching, I knew the Old Ray would show up -- the commonsense businessman (with an MBA) who fell into the mayor's race four years ago only to become the first New Orleans mayor to win a majority of both the black and white vote. Yesterday was certainly an opportunity for the mayor to lead his city, to attempt to unite a New Orleans frayed by Hurricane Katrina both physically and emotionally.

Instead, Ray Nagin seemed to be possessed by the political phoniness of George Wallace and the whacked-out religious philosopy of 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."

Nagin's remarks were tucked into a wide-ranging speech, delivered on the steps of the federal courthouse, in which the mayor related a dream conversation he had with the slain civil rights leader.

In addition to discussing New Orleans' reconstruction, unity and numerous issues in the black community, in his speech Nagin attributed the recent hurricanes striking the United States to a God who is "mad at America" for waging a war in Iraq based on false pretenses. Nagin said God also is upset at the black community for not taking better care of its people.

The Pat Robertson reference above is obvious. By why George Wallace? Because I do not believe in any way that Ray Nagin believes a word he said. Like Wallace, his early political and social stances tell a completely opposite story. Only when faced with mounting public opposition did Wallace play the races against each other -- or more accurately, did he cater to white racism and fear despite his previous alliance with progressive Gov. "Big" Jim Folsom. And it appears Nagin is now catering to black anger over proposals his own rebuilding commission have made -- proposals which make sense. Rebuild on the higher ground; let the rest return to swampland. (The sensitive part here is that many of the lower-lying areas of the city were populated by blacks, although Lakeview certainly doesn't qualify. The rich whites and the queers have most of the older parts of town -- the high ground.)

"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."

Was this the mayor's Sister Soulja moment? The Morial Machine has consistently tagged Nagin with the "Uncle Tom" label because he was a Republican before deciding to run for mayor and, once he announced, received overwhelming business (re: white) support. By specifically saying Uptown -- the rich whites -- Nagin was targeting those who strongly supported him four years ago.

Mayor Nagin has since apologized (well, you know that apology "that *if* I offended anyone kind of apology from people who aren't really sorry). But the damage is done -- locally and nationally. People who do not trust sending billions and billions of federal dollars to the Crescent City now have more ammunition than they need to stop the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Instead of leading his people to progress, Mayor Nagin has dragged the city's image back 20 years. Just like George Wallace did to the state of Alabama. Wallace later redeemed himself, apologizing to blacks (albeit too late) and eventually winning a majority of the black vote in his last run for governor. Can Ray Nagin perform the same feat? He certainly has shown no signs of that capability.

The worst part is, he's probably the best New Orleans has to offer.

SIDENOTE: This parody of C. Ray's Chocolate City (C stands for Clarence, the mayor's first name) is pretty damned funny considering the circumstances.