While I lump Farrakhan with the worst of the rabble rousing scum that this nation has produced of late (Robertson and Falwell are right down there with 'im, by the way), if you've read about the "The Great Flood" Mississippi 1927, such disgusting behavior did occur as New Orleans bigshots opened levees downriver to provide a flood relief margin to the city. According to the author of the book, who was broadcast on NPR, this resulted in many black and white folk stranded on top of levees. The authorites (not the feds, who didn't take part in either the levee breaking or paying for the relief effort), allowed whites to be rescued, but not blacks, for fear that the tenant farmers would never come back, so it was an act of 'labor control'.

Anyhow, there is in fact historical precedent, but in the case of Farrakhan, it is being manipulated as histerical precedent.