Monday, September 05, 2005

Yet another reason to like Kanye West

On a live fund-rasing telecast for the victims of hurricane Katrina, hip hop star Kanye West known for his creative and dare I say intelligent lyrics, dared say that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Now that takes HUGE balls.

Download the video clip here.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE TELECAST CUT SHORT:

Mike Myers: [dutifully reads canned plea for charity on teleprompter]

Kanye: [abandons teleprompter] "I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family and they say we are looting, you see a white family and they say they are looking for food. And, you know, its been five days because most of the people ARE black. And even for me to complain, I would be a hypocrite because I would turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right to see what is the biggest amount I can give. And just to imagine, if I was down there and those are my people down there. If there is anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help about the way America is set up the help the poor, the black people, the less well off as slow as possible. Red cross is doing as much as they can. We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way. And now they've given them permission to go down and shoot us.

Mike Myers: [stands frozen in horror, decides to pretend nothing happened and stick with the teleprompter]

Kanye: GEORGE BUSH DOES NOT CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE.

Mike Myers: [descends into complete panic]

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New Orleans is a city of 485,000 people. About two-thirds of the population is African-American, and about one-third lives below the poverty line.

While the evacuation order was issued Sunday morning, an estimated 100,000 people were left behind.

They were overwhelmingly the poor, the elderly, the sick -- and African-American.

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