Have you noticed the prevalence of this phrase in the aftermath of Katrina? It bugs me:

Kanye West: “…those are my people down there.”

Sean Combs: “These are my people.”

Aaron Neville: “That’s my hometown, that’s my people.”

Amaré Stoudemire: “I see a lot of my people struggling and I’m really trying to show a lot of support and get them on the right track, and do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

Christie Bazar: “These are my people.”

Quan Hong Huyn stayed behind “to help my people.”

It’s not just minority celebrities and leaders using it. Here’s a column from a black columnist who received a nasty message from a reader referring to “your people.”

And just in from the AP: Communities Help Their Own After Katrina

I don’t know about you, but when we donate to Katrina victims and say prayers for them in our home, every one of them is “our people.”

Jabbar Gibson is our people.

Deamonte Love is our people.

The people of Pascagoula, Miss., are our people.

The deaf survivors, the Vietnamese refugees, the rich and the poor, are our people.

Disasters don’t discriminate. Helping care for “my people” means helping care for them all.

Right, Rev. Sharpton? Rev. Jackson?

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President Bush needs to counter Katrina tribalism in his address to the nation on Thursday.

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Related:

Reaction to Katrina split on racial lines

And reader/blogger John Warner writes about the Katrina racism of Louis Farrakhan:

In yesterday’s Houston Chronicle, he was quoted as saying that FEMA and the Red Cross are too white to represent us.” I called the Nation of Islam in Houston and Chicago asking for clarification, and asked if I was too white to be assisting at the Red Cross. The lady I spoke to in Chicago said she didn’t see anything racist in Farrakhan’s comments, so I asked how she’d feel if somebody said the Nation of Islam was “too black”. She then hung up on me.

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Getting things done: Go to the Web Relief Project page for many ways to help…our people.

Iraqi soldiers get it:

Iraqi soldiers serving at Taji military base collected 1,000,000 Iraqi dinars for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Iraqi Col. Abbas Fadhil, Iraqi base commander, presented the money to U.S. Col. Paul D. Linkenhoker, Taji Coalition base commander, at a Sept. 5 staff meeting.

“We are all brothers. When one suffers tragedy, we all suffer their pain.”
Iraqi Col. Abbas Fadhil.

The amount of money is small in American dollars – roughly $680 – but it represents a huge act of compassion from Iraqi soldiers to their American counterparts, said U.S. Army Maj. Michael Goyne.

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