FEMA and Red Cross "Too White"

So says Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam in his September 8th comments on Hurricane Katrina disaster relief.

Said Farrakhan: "FEMA is too white to represent us, and so is the Red Cross". Not surprisingly, Farrakhan's comments are buried on page 12 of today's Houston Chronicle. There is no mention of Farrakhan's racist comments in the headline, and few other news outlets have picked up the comments (if Google News is any indicator).

Last I checked, there were hundreds of thousands of US citizens in dire need of help in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. And color-blind FEMA and the Red Cross are busy distributing hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of man-hours in aid to storm victims. But Farrakhan feels called to view the tragedy in the only lens he knows: black and white.

I called the Nation of Islam for a comment, and the woman with whom I spoke was unaware of Farrakhan's comments. She stated the comments were not racist in nature, but when I asked her what would she think if somebody said the Nation of Islam is "too black", she hung up on me. It sounds like she's been sheep-dipped in race-baiting 101, where every question is left unanswered.

So my question for Farrakhan is would he prefer I stay home the next time I'm headed to the George R. Brown Convention Center to help, because I'm "too white"? Even though my money is green, should I keep it in my own bank account because I'm "too white"? My prayer is that blacks and whites alike ignore this fool, and do what ever they can to help out. As for me, it's lunch time, and I'm off to the convention center to help.