Friday, January 20, 2006

Chocolate City

"A wretched soul, bruised with adversity,
We bid be quiet when we hear it cry;
But were we burdened with like weight of pain,
As much or more we should ourselves complain."
~ William Shakespeare

I am laughing today as I sit here and type this, at the outrage expressed by people over the remarks of New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin when he used the words, "chocolate city" to describe New Orleans.

When I heard that the first time, I thought, "That's a pretty clever analogy". And that's exactly what it was, folks. An analogy. An analogy is kind of like a comparison. And whatever the reason, it was clever.

New Orleans was 70% black before the hurricanes. Mayor Nagin was attempting to re-assure his constituents, who had raised concerns that black people would be excluded from the "new" New Orleans, that he intends to rebuild the city the way it was.

As Nagin said, when dark chocolate and milk are blended together they create a delicious taste treat. I think the choice of the word "drink" was unfortunate and unnecessary. Milk chocolate candy is made with dark chocolate, milk and sugar. So, a city that is a mix of dark and light races would resemble a melting pot containing milk chocolate. That isn't racist. That describes inclusiveness and harmony between the races.

Now, what is racist is in the continuation of his statement, "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be".

I know I get in trouble whenever I mention anything "religious" in my posts, but let me say this:

The Bible says, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them".

In no place in the Bible is there a time when God made a distinction between the races. He created all people equal. God would never intend for New Orleans to be a "Majority African-American" city.

So, the analogy of a "chocolate city" is an appropriate one in the sense that two or more races coming together in harmony creates something beautiful.

Now. That said, Hillary's remarks about Congress being a plantation were just stupid. And anyone that believes that drivel is just as misguided as she. I have tried to find something, anything, that can be construed as plantation-like in the House of Representatives, but I can't see the analogy. It simply doesn't fit.

Hillary should leave the analogies to Mayor Nagin.

14 comments:

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

I neither thought the chocolate analogy was clever nor a big deal. I also am not in a huff over Hillary's plantation remark. Silly on her part, (I chuckle when I hear the 2nd part, where she says, "and you know what I'm talking about"), but I'll leave it up to others to decide whether it was offensive or not.

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

Aargh! Not this again! What happened?!

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

The moderation enabling, I mean.


Nevermind. I found the answer in the last post.

Mark said...

What happened? Well, someone who calls himself Kevron has been coming in here and making obscene hateful comments so I had to re-enable comment moderation. Sorry. I hate it as bad as you. Blame Kevron

The WordSmith from Nantucket said...

Too bad.

What was with the redundancy in signing his name at the end of his comments, all the time? That was about as pointless as anything.

Xena said...

Mark, you gave me a completely new perspective on this statement. At first, I really thought he was trying to say that white people really weren't welcome (especially taken in context with his other statements) but this really is a pretty good analogy. I hope for everyone's sake that that is what he really meant and he wasn't being a racist.

Hillary's statement seemed like more of the same to me. The woman is completely insane and I think maybe a little bit evil, so nothing she says surprises me anymore. I will say this for her, her deep-down hatred of all things conservative stays pretty consistent and comes through in everything she says.

Erudite Redneck said...

It wasn't "chocolate" that hacked me off. It was 1., the idea that God was "mad" and so sent Katrina, and 2., that God "wants" New Orleans to be a "black" city, when, while blacks are the majority, there's a bunch of Creoles, Cajuns, American Indians and whites who call the joint home, too.

Anonymous said...

Mark, I too am not moved one way or another about Mayor Nagin's chocolate comment and could care less about anything sHilliary says.

However, how would the PC party reacted if a white GOP mayor had made a comment about rebuilding a "vanilla" city. (Remember, to start with vanilla is a very dark brown color.)

Gayle said...

I think it's great they make these stupid statements. I'm not offended at all! As long as they keep talking they show everyone exactly who they are. May they keep on talking and saying the things they say... it's gonna be the end of them.

Poison Pero said...

Nagin said what he meant.....Then bailed on meaning what he said.

He meant he wanted a DARK CHOCOLATE city........With no white milk.

But he crapped his pants and decided to make up a clever analogy.

KEvron said...

"He meant he wanted a DARK CHOCOLATE city........With no white milk."

you and jesus; the only two people i know who can look into a man's heart....

KEvron

The Game said...

SNL opening skit made fun of Hilary, Nagin, Gore and Kerry.

Nagin meant that New Orleans is to be a delicious city.

Hilary said what she said because she was in a black church and wanted to remind black people that Republicans were racist. (it was very funny, they had her not spin at all, they just had her say what she really thinks, which is hilarious).

Kerry and Gore whined about how Bush cheated and that they should be President.

It is so easy to make fun of the Left...just have them talk.

KEvron said...

"It is so easy to make fun of the Left...just have them talk."

don't misunderestimate our stategery....

KEvron

Daffy76 said...

Mmmmmmmm! Chocolate! A delicious analogy. However, I think Hershey, PA already has that distinction.