Race was clearly a factor in the government’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flood. Or maybe it wasn’t. And even if it wasn’t a factor, it’s become one because so many people suspect that it was.

Public opinion polls show that about two-thirds of African-Americans believe the government’s response would have been faster if most of those trapped in a flooded New Orleans had been white. On the other hand, just as many whites believe the response would not have been any quicker if they had been the majority of the storm victims.

These disparate assessments of racial equality and a pervasive unwillingness to consider why this difference of opinions exists, serves only to widen the chasm of perception.

If a child is attacked by a dog, he will be wary of all dogs in the future because some part of him is aware of and worries that it could happen again. Similarly, a person who has experienced racism, which is quite often less overt though just as painful as a dog attack, is more apt to suspect and recognize other acts of racism. This is why the president saying that neither Hurricane Katrina nor the delayed relief efforts targeted or ignored a particular race is inadequate and ignorant of the deeper, centuries-old, social-economic constructs that shape one’s life experience.

African-Americans make up a disproportionate amount of those who live in poverty. These same people, along with more well-to-do African-Americans are often subject to racism in many forms, overt and covert. However, since there are such a disproportionate amount of blacks living in poverty, their race and economic condition frequently become interconnected and inseparable.

Thus when people that have seemingly been relegated to secondary importance because of their economic status end up being left to fend for themselves after a natural disaster, it shouldn’t be surprising when they, and the people watching events unfold, look at the majority of faces in said circumstances, notice that many of them are similar to their own, draw on years of knowledge and experience, and logically theorize and deduce, whether wrongly or rightly, that the reason they have been left is their race.

While this conclusion may be wrong, it is a logical supposition that should be expected based on history and experience. Thus, just as the planning and relief efforts were seemingly inadequate because they failed to take into account all the possibilities, the claims that race is not a factor or that people are “again crying racism” are deficient because they fail to consider the foundation behind the very belief that race was an issue.

This disaster has alerted much of America to the elephant sitting in the corner of the room. There are a disproportionate number of African-Americans who are either uneducated, poor, or both. And while race and class may not have played a factor in who was assisted and how quickly, this disparity in lifestyle and education needs to be examined, understood and corrected, not dismissed by a government interested only in shifting blame through claims of compassion and implications of “wild accusations” or “playing the race card,” since to do so merely serves to demonstrate that the government doesn’t really care about any people.