Baltimore is not as diverse as San Francisco, I don’t think. However, it’s more diverse than I thought it would be. I learned that they actually have Thai restaurants in Baltimore. I have seen a fair amount of Asians, but hardly any Filipinos or Latinos. Instead of seeing these people, I see more African Americans. Instead of mostly Latinos doing the grunt work, like cleaning my hotel room or washing my dishes, African Americans are doing it. I wonder if anyone will construe that as racist. It’s naive to ignore race in this day and age.

We wish we lived in that ideal world Dr. King dreamed of, but we don’t. I think we ignore talking about race a lot of the times in fear of being a racist. Yet, I must warn you… ignoring it doesn’t lead to stasis. It doesn’t mean the problems will stay the same. Ignoring race doesn’t mean racism will go away. Complacency leads to decay, not stasis. And by all means, ignoring race will not make racism go away.

I’ve noticed a lot of race-based comedy recently. I don’t know if it’s really a modern trend, but for some reason, I think it is. If comedians want a cheap laugh, they don’t talk about airport security, they talk about race. The comedians say the things we’re too afraid to say. That’s the importance of comedians in our culture. They approach the issues we’re too afraid to approach. We laugh because we keep these observations bottled up inside. The comedians give us relief.

I turned my observation about the cleaning personnel into a joke when talking to other people. When looked at objectively, this observation isn’t really all that funny. It’s only funny because of the way society is right now. We’re afraid to touch on issues of race unless in a comedic setting.

New Orleans got me thinking. I was flipping through channels in the hotel room. I saw Tucker Carlson and Al Sharpton on, talking (bullshitting) about New Orleans. Carlson said race played no factor, it was class, and Sharpton said it did. Sharpton said this type of disaster wouldn’t have happened in a rich white community; they would’ve all been evacuated. Carlson disagreed with “white” and agreed with “rich.”

I thought, but these rich white mutherfuckers wouldn’t be forming mobs. They don’t know how to form mobs. If they tried, they’d only have to see one police officer and they’d think, “Oh crap, we better stop.”

Or rather, they’d see these police officers and say, “Oh thank you officer, we’re so glad to see you.” You think the left-behind population in New Orleans generally look upon the cops as their saviors?

It’s important to notice generalizations for what they are: generalizations. However, generalizations are not useless. Especially when you’re analyzing mobs. People in mobs don’t act as individuals.

Did the looters know that help was on the way? Is that part of the reason why they looted, because they thought they had to help themselves, or die? It’s not simply a question of survival. It depends on if you trust the people who are supposed to help you.

I pose these as questions, not as answers. As an open inquiry into avenues I haven’t seen examined. It’s all I can do. I can’t go into New Orleans and think about these things myself. However, it would be interesting to see a sociological study on the breakdown of order in New Orleans. I think the problem is bigger than local and/or state and/or federal incompetence. It’s naive to ignore the issue of race.