Haitian Catastrophe: For Racists, a Good Laugh
In Haiti, tens of thousands of earthquake victims are dead, with at least one official estimating the number could reach half a million when the full, horrifying effects of Tuesday afternoon鈥檚 earthquake in the island nation are finally known.
In Arkansas, Billy Roper figured that made for a pretty amusing joke. So the former high school teacher and current head of the neo-Nazi White Revolution group today announced a food drive he called 鈥淣utrition for Neutering.鈥 鈥淵es,鈥 Roper鈥檚 White Revolution website said, 鈥測ou can get started on the ground floor with this charitable effort to provide one can of nonperishable food to each and every Haitian citizen affected by the earthquake who agrees to be sterilized.鈥
Roper鈥檚 charming post, featuring a photo of castration shears, goes on to say that if those citizens then go for nine months without producing children, he will send them a can opener. 鈥淧hysical evidence of the castration process should be mailed by the applying food aid recipients to Barack Obama,鈥 he adds.
For most Americans, the sight of the catastrophe in Haiti provoked an outpouring of sympathy and support for the victims. Early reports suggest that most structures in the island鈥檚 capital city of Port-au-Prince were damaged or destroyed. Men, women and children are wandering the streets with horrific injuries, and the cries of trapped victims still are emanating from underneath tons of rubble.
But Billy Roper and those with similar ideas 鈥 characters like the sterling defenders of the white race who populate the loathsome Stormfront.org, the world鈥檚 largest white supremacist Web forum 鈥 are not like most Americans.
Just have a listen to some of the voices on Stormfront:
鈥⒙犅犅 鈥淢oney showered on simians is wasted.鈥 鈥 鈥淜arl von Muller鈥
鈥⒙犅犅 鈥淔*ck Haiti. 鈥. I鈥檓 fed [up] to the core with hearing of Haiti and how we must help these 鈥榩oor鈥 abominations to [sic] humankind.鈥 鈥 鈥淚berian88鈥
鈥⒙犅犅 鈥淣egroes left to their own devices turn everything into a pest hole.鈥 鈥 鈥淗err Leutnant鈥
鈥⒙犅犅 鈥淣ature left to its own devices will clear itself of the blight.鈥 鈥 鈥淎ngelEyez鈥
And on the web page of the Council of Conservative Citizens 鈥 a group that has described black people as a 鈥渞etrograde species of humanity鈥 鈥 a report on Haiti was illustrated with an engraving of a white man being hanged by blacks, presumably in Haiti.
Most of these comments are far beyond the pale of what most Americans, of any race, felt when they heard news of the Haitian tragedy. But it wasn鈥檛 only neo-Nazis who said ugly things. Some of the most astounding comments came from people in the ostensible mainstream 鈥 people like radio heavyweight Rush Limbaugh.
To Limbaugh, President Obama, in calling for Americans to open their hearts and their wallets to the plight of the Haitians, is interested in nothing but political gain. 鈥淭his will play right into Obama鈥檚 hands,鈥 Limbaugh said on his Wednesday radio show. 鈥淗e鈥檚 humanitarian, compassionate. They鈥檒l use this to burnish their, shall we say, 鈥榗redibility鈥 with the black community 鈥 in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.鈥 Anyway, Haiti 鈥渉as been run by dictators and communists.鈥 It produces 鈥渮ilch, zero, nada.鈥 And Obama is asking 鈥減eople who have lost their jobs because of his policies to donate.鈥
鈥淏esides,鈥 the millionaire broadcaster added later in his show, 鈥渨e鈥檝e already donated to Haiti. It鈥檚 called the U.S. income tax.鈥
For his part, Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson said on Wednesday鈥檚 鈥700 Club鈥 on the Christian Broadcasting Network that the Haitians had brought it all on themselves. 鈥淭hey were under the heel of the French鈥 . And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 鈥榃e will serve you if you will get us free from the prince.鈥 True story. And so the devil said, 鈥極K, it鈥檚 a deal.鈥 鈥 [E]ver since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.鈥
Robertson, who once blamed the 9/11 attacks on abortionists, feminists and others, didn鈥檛 mention how he knew this to be a 鈥渢rue story.鈥
