Someone somewhere on the internet is going to make this argument, if they haven't already. If you find it before me, link to it here.
Yeah, you're one to talk about patronization, man.
This essay says it's not a black vs white thing, but a pink vs gray thing. What color are you?
http://www.ejectejecteject.com/archives/000129.html
> Only a few minutes ago, I had the delightful opportunity to read the comment of a fellow who said he wished that white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself could have been herded into the Superdome Concentration Camp to see how much we like it. Absent, of course, was the fundamental truth of what he plainly does not have the eyes or the imagination to see, namely, that if the Superdome had been filled with white, middle-class, racist, conservative cocksuckers like myself, it would not have been a refinery of horror, but rather a citadel of hope and order and restraint and compassion.
> That has nothing to do with me being white. If the blacks and Hispanics and Jews and gays that I work with and associate with were there with me, it would have been that much better. That’s because the people I associate with – my Tribe – consists not of blacks and whites and gays and Hispanics and Asians, but of individuals who do not rape, murder, or steal.
And so on for several more paragraphs of patting yourself on the back. I can't help but notice that the people he denounces have been in that situation, and his "tribe" hasn't. It's easy to act morally superior in a situation that only exists in your mind.
He may or may not be correct, but what he does not have is any arguments for it, beyond a horribly overinflated sense of self-righteousness. I think I'd behave well in a crisis situation too, but I don't believe that makes me special, and I don't think I need to write long articles about how well I'd behave in some hypothetical crisis I have no experience with. And I keep in mind the possibility that I might be wrong about myself.
I also have some trouble accepting talk about compassion from someone so quick to condemn people as groups.
And of course, there's this:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1563532,00.html