I keep reading some opinions about the federal (lack of) response to the aftermath of Katrina. One point I keep hearing is how “this isn’t about race; it’s about class.”

To quote cousin Kenny, “Bullshit!”

First, check those poll numbers…

According to the NBC/Journal poll [survey of 1,013 adults — which was conducted from Sept. 9-12 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points], only 37 percent agree with the statement that the Bush administration would have acted with greater urgency had the affected areas been mostly white suburban communities. But there is a huge discrepancy by race here: Seventy percent of African Americans agree with the statement, while 67 percent of whites disagree.

Whether the Administration really would’ve responded quicker to white folks trapped in their attics and on their roofs for three days is irrelevant (though you can count me in the 30% of whiteys who think we’d have never seen such pictures of administration neglect happening to white faces) — it is the perception that matters here. Seven out of ten black folks surveyed think Bush lollygagged while their brothers and sisters drowned.

Then there’s the infamous two news photos and their captions:

…which have gotten plenty of attention, including recently The Daily Show with John Stewart and Mind of Mencia with Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central.

And the not-so-atypical reaction of the upper-crust set, exemplified by Barbara (Not The Young, Hot One) Bush. It’s “sort of scary” that all those poor black folks want to stay in Houston? And sleeping on a cot in a sports arena is “working very well for them”?

So this blame game keeps spiraling out of control — it was the mayor, it was the governor, it was the head of FEMA, it was the head of Homeland Security, it was the president, whatever. But, again, it’s the perception I’m talking about here. When we and everyone else around the world turned on the news, we saw a huge, desperate crowd of black faces, sprinkled ever so lightly with a white face here and there like bubbles in a Guiness Stout. Someone told me that’s not fair, because New Orleans is 70% black. I replied that I should have seen 3,000 white faces in that crowd of 10,000 at the Convention Center, then, huh?

Yes, class has something to do with it, but race and class are inextricably linked in America (the Asian exception notwithstanding). It sucks to be poor, regardless of race, but being black in this country adds even more hurdles for someone who is also poor. As Chris Rock opined, “It’s haaaard to be black in America. Ain’t no white man in this room wants to trade places with me… and I’m rich!”

It’s not just the Katrina story. It’s all those young pretty missing white women who dominate the national headlines and the cable news shows, while young pretty missing black women go virtually unreported save for brief mentions in their local news. It’s the death penalty and drug sentencing statistics that show black men are sentenced more often and to harsher penalties than whites. It’s that nationwide phenomenon some call “Driving While Brown” where cops are more likely to pull over a black or Hispanic-looking man than a white man. It’s that constant repetition of the image of the black man as a sex-crazed violent criminal in our TV cop shows. It’s all that and so much more.

And I don’t lay this all at the feet of white America, either. There are plenty of examples of black folks perpetuating the very images that lead to these prejudgements. That whole “acting white” taunting that black youths use against other black youths who seek higher education and don’t speak with that gangsta patois, for one example. The glorification of thug life and pimp machismo in hip-hop music and culture, for another.

Still, I see most of those aspects of the black community to be reactions to hundreds of years of overt and subtle repression at the hands of the dominant white majority. Some white folks think that because slavery is over, Jim Crow has ended, Martin Luther King Jr. brought the Civil Rights Movement, Bill Cosby had a hit sitcom, and Kindasleezzy Lies is the Secretary of State, that somehow racism is over.

Nope, we’re just beginning to reach a societal point where we can honestly look at our institutionalized racism and slowly begin to peel it away like the layers of an onion. And rather than argue about whether the racism exists and at what level, understand that the perception is the reality. When 70% of black folks agree with Kanye West when he said “George Bush doesn’t like black people” and 67% of white people can’t figure out why he said it, then we have us a serious problem.

Now, I can’t go about enacting nationwide racial tolerance and undestanding. I believe that most people, black and white, are not racist. But we’ve been conditioned by living in a racist culture, and we often don’t realize the subtle racism we exhibit. So I have a few suggestions for my fellow whiteys to bridge the gap on a personal level:

• When you first meet a black guy, don’t try to give him some sort of J.J. Walker hip-brother handshake or man-hug. You wouldn’t shake your boss’s hand like that, would you?
• Likewise, don’t offer up a greeting like “whassup?” or “yo!” unless you genuinely grew up in “da hood” and talk that way to everyone.
• There’s really no need to go into the whole “how’d you get your hair to…” conversation. Your hair doesn’t require that sort of special treatment, and you really don’t care very much about his/her hair regimen. You don’t go around asking Asian people how they see through those kind of eyes, do you?
• Don’t refer to a group of black guys as “the bruthas”. You don’t refer to your group of white friends as “the crackers”, do you?
• Try not to think or refer to your black friends or co-workers as “my black friend”. You don’t say “oh, my short friend Kelly said the funniest thing” or “you know my red-haired friend Liza”, do you?
• On the other hand, don’t go out of your way to not notice skin color when it is a relevant part of the conversation. If your black friend is standing in a room full of white people, you needn’t say, “he’s over there… in the red shirt… wearing high-top sneakers… kind of short… he’s got closely-cropped hair… in-between the punchbowl and the dancefloor…”
• If you’re a store clerk, go out of your way to not follow your black customers through the store. One polite “can I help you?” is fine, then go follow that white girl who actually is shoplifting you blind.
• No, you don’t get to say “nigger”. First of all, why do you want to? Second of all, you can’t do it because of the context. For three hundred years, we used the word quite freely, and we established that our use of it was not a positive thing. maybe in another three hundred years, it’ll be okay… but I doubt it.
• On the other hand, don’t go crazy with the “African-American” label. This may be just my own perception, but I find that term ridiculous. Charlize Theron is technically an African-American (South African-American, to be precise), while Wyclef Jean is not (he’s Haitian-American). Most black folks I know don’t mind the term “black”, and socially speaking, I find it more relevant; the discrimination doesn’t happen because some black people’s ancestors came from Africa, it happens because of the dark color of their skin, whether African, Haitian, Dominican, Cuban, North or South American.

Now, of course, these are guidelines, and any or all of these rules can fly out the window in the case of a close friendship or well-told, mutually-understood joke.