Yes, but it's so open ended. Someone remarked that New Orleans was a great city in which to be black. I don't know if I can clearly articulate this distinction that I'm trying to make now, it'll take some pondering. Are we presuming that all of the people left behind are poor? White and black? In the U.S. there are more poor white people than poor black people because overall there are more white people. In New Orleans the figures are different. If the journalists covering this were representative of New Orleans' population, would they be calling the white folk looters and the black folk finders? Or would they be calling anybody anything? Hard to guess.

The problem is that the reporting is being done by outsiders. The gaze of the world (in the "judgmental" meaning of the word "gaze") is being turned on New Orleans but with imperfect understanding of American Culture, of Louisiana Culture, and of New Orleans culture.

I'm certainly open to suggestions. But in a city with the population characteristics of New Orleans, is it more of a rich/poor or educated/uneducated question when considering who left in time, or perhaps one of privilege, tied to degrees of blackness? Will it be revealed that all "high yellow" citizens escaped, but others didn't? Time to be quiet for a while and watch and read and think.

SRS