Friday, December 04, 2009

edits

I've watched this story about 7 times now and I'm still curious if Dr. Vera Triplet actually "agreed" with anything Ray Nagin said:



The dangling Nagin quote was, "I just think having...the number of candidates in the race...is gonna split the vote...whether you're talking white, black, hispanic, whatever....and we as a community need to consolidate around one candidate."

The reporter says Dr. Triplet agrees and supports Nagin because of this off camera sentiment : "The mayor's words make sense, as long as they have nothing to do with race."

It seems to me she deflected, not agreed.

So the question becomes what did Nagin mean by, "we as a community."

Why did he feel the need to inject race in the discussion to begin with, and what does he mean by "we as a community" ?

I don't know the answer, but I would love to see the unedited interview with Dr. Triplet.

I'd actually like to see hours of unedited interviews with Dr. Triplet cause I really dig her perspective.

13 comments:

bruthaman1 said...

unfortunately for our nation as a whole race will more than likely always be some sort of factor one way or another. one of the biggest myth's i've heard in the time i've spent in new orleans is that atlanta passed up new orleans because they got over race in the 70's. nothing could be further from the truth. just look at their mayoral election this past week. people voted along racial lines. also a lot of corupption in atlanta politics just like everywhere else. race maybe more complex in new orleans than most other places because of the light skinned-dark skinned animosity that was prevalent here. but the biggest reason in my opinion new orleans has not advanced is so many of its residents expect new orleans to fail and some even get enjoyment when things do go wrong here.

Anonymous said...

This is simple:

WBOk and people who appear on WBOK think only "the community" is listening.

WBOK is run by Vincent Sylvain (why does this name not get raised more? and people behind the machine behind Nagin. Read the New Orleans Agenda some time, it's all there. CWL has allowed the use of city council chambers for these people before. Sylvain's relative [sister?] works as No. 2 CAO or something similar to Nagin.

Sylvain has been holding "roundtables" for months saying just what Nagin said here - no suprise to me that Nagin just said the same thing. They've also said that "shrinking the footprint" and loss of governmental power are basically the only polling issues that generate any interest whatsoever and that those are the wedge issues that will get "the community" to the polls.

One more time for the bloggers out there: WHO is the nagin stand-in in this race? Yes, there may be more than one.

Anonymous said...

Right now, at this moment, WBOK has a guest that sounds like one of the garbage vendors, railing against the cuts to the garbage contracts.

Praise for Veronia White and the "contribution" of the garbage vendors to the City's economy all around.

[same anon]

oysterboy said...

I think what Dr. Triplet is stating is in direct contradiction to Nagin's comments. Maybe she was read the quotes. Hence, she doesn't have the benefit of stage and inflection, and is responding cautiously. Whatever the case, one would have to be highly delusional or just plain ignorant to believe that Nagin's use of the word "community" isn't code for the African American community. It's easy to see when he says something like

"I think that, if we're not careful, we could get a candidate in there that could do some real damage to the community ... (I mean), to all of New Orleans ..."

So just try to tell me that his distinction between "the community" and "all of New Orleans" isn't a racial one.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps C Ray feels the need to inject race into the discussion because the merits aren't looking good.

GentillyGirl said...

I'm not touching this. There are things I know and I must watch for what is going down.

whirlygurl said...

It is a continuation of Nagin trying to find a group he can belong to. Nagin is an Indian name (dot not feather) and was not really a "black" leader. He has burned his white friends, so where does he land? Who does he belong to? It all started with Chocolate city when he tried to sound like MLK (who Nagin really doesn't get) and ended up sounding like Jesse Jackson.

He mistakenly thinks he is going to be better accepted by the black community, and he can blame racism for his failures. That is where he is headed. Using urban radio to prove his "blackness" I believe falls on deaf ears. The black community is smarter than he gives them credit for and he has no support there. It just makes him feel like he has an audience. And "his community" accepts him because he is black....he has not evolved and the black community has.

bruthaman1 said...

in reality nagin didn't become the "black" mayor until his shotgun marriage with the black community after katrina. he was endorsed by the times pic in 2002 and then he endorsed jindal in 2003. you don't get brownie points from most blacks for either one of the two. as far as burning his white friends goes i think he saw the writting on the wall in regards to the demographic shift and realized his white friends didn't need him in 2006 like they did in 2002. in my opinion this is why the chocolate city comment came into play. nagin tasted power and knew in order to stay in power he had to have overwhelmingly black support. i don't think nagin is racist but people of any color will do what they have to do to stay in power when they like how being powerful feels.

Jason Brad Berry said...

I think that's about the best assessment I've heard.

God i love my commenters.

lil'oya said...

I have worked with triplet and wouldn't trust her for anything. even a broken clock is right twice a day, that doesn't mean you should rely on it.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Oya,

Really? Damn, that's disappointing. My perspective was different. Oh well.

Puddinhead said...

I've spoken with Vera Triplett a number of times on various subjects (Gentilly kind of stuff, dontcha know?), and I've always been impressed. I can also say that unless things have changed dramatically in the past five or six months I find it hard to believe there's much of anything she is in agreement on with our illustrious and bombastic mayor.

Anonymous said...

I am Vera Triplett and I can tell you that the only portion of Ray Nagin's comments I agreed with was that the shear number of candidates require increased engagementby all New Orleanians. I'm sure the entire uncut interview would make clear where I stand.

Happy Holidays!!!!