Actors, Singers, and Musicians Express Outrage Over New Orleans

Revolution #014, September 18, 2005, posted at revcom.us

After Hurricane Katrina, numerous actors, musicians, and singers have expressed their outrage and horror over the way the people have been treated..

At a benefit relief concert on NBC (Sept. 2), Kanye West went off-script with a blunt statement that made headlines: “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people!

West also said:

“ I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a Black family, it says, ’They’re looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ’They’re looking for food.’ And, you know, it’s been five days because most of the people are black... We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way—and they’ve given them permission to go down and shoot us!”

NBC censored West’s remark about Bush and issued a statement distancing itself from him. Meanwhile, he received support from many people, including Jay-Z, Diddy, and Matt Damon (who said he cheered when he heard West’s statement).

Singer Celine Dion spoke with passionate anger and sorrow on CNN’s Larry King:

“You know, some people are stealing. And they’re making a big deal out of it... Oh, they’re stealing 20 pair of jeans or they’re stealing television sets. Who cares?!They’re not going to go too far with it. Maybe some of the people who do that they’re so poor they’ve never touched anything in their lives. Let them touch those things for once!”

Through tears she continued,

“How come it’s so easy to send planes in another country to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives? I open the television, there’s people still there waiting to be rescued and for me it’s not acceptable.”

Irish actor Colin Farrell was quoted in the British Daily Mirror:

“If this had been a bunch of white people on the roofs of their houses I don’t have any fucking doubt there would have been every single helicopter, plane and means that the government has trying to help.”

Actor Pierce Brosnan (whose roles include James Bond) said, also in the Daily Mirror:

“This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for. I don’t know if he is really taking care of America. This government has been shameful.”

Wynton Marsalis,renowned jazz muscian and composer, said on Larry King Live:

“I want to say to the American people: It’s important to understand that this is a very profound moment in our history and it’s important for us to realize that our political leadership is not reflecting the will and the feelings of the American people.”

“[T]he whole history and legacy we had for polarization, using race and other issues, pointing fingers at each other, this was at the root of slavery, it was argued when the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence was being established, the Civil War, it was at the center of that, the Civil Rights movement. We’ve had a whole legacy of these things.”

At the September 2 concert, singer Aaron Neville sang a powerful rendition of “Louisiana 1927,” Randy Newman’s song about an earlier flood. Newman sang the same song in a telethon a week later, with its sharp and accusing chorus:

"Louisiana, Louisiana,
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
They’re tryin’ to wash us away."