Yes, I did mean to use the word classes, eventhough those two groups overlap quite a bit. I don't understand why it's considered racist in the US these days to state facts like the majority of prison inmates are black, or the majority of black neighborhoods are poor, or that most of the refugees are black. Racism is a feeling of hatred, but these are facts. I don't hate black people - in fact I've had several very good black friends - but I'm honest enough with myself to observe that there's something wrong in the black community. Personally, I think it's their lack of family structures and their thug-like role models.

I don't think this would have happened in a white community. Perhaps it's because whites are on average wealthier than blacks in the US, so they don't see the need to steal a new TV, but who knows. People in europe seem less hesitant to point out racial differences than people in the US, but you're only fooling yourself if you think race hasn't played a role in NO in the last week. You have mostly white national guard units and most white (you call them rednecks) hunters and fishermen conducting the rescue effort, and mostly black refugees mixed in with mostly black criminals. The state of LA isn't like the city LA where people of every race live next to eachother in posh apartments. These black people in NO have lived only among other blacks for probably generations, and have a strong distrust of whitey, and then you have white people who have a strong distaste of blacks going back generations. It's two completely different cultures living side by side. It's no wonder that they're clashing in this situation.