Oklahoma City v. New Orleans

There continue to be benefit concerts for the victims of the tornadoes that hit Oklahoma recently, and I've been noticing something very curious.

When Katrina hit, celebrities from all over the country, and in fact from all over the globe, sped to New Orleans to raise funds and help out otherwise to help the displaced residents and raise funds. Mike Myers and Brad Pitt, notably, were in the vanguard of relief efforts to help New Orleans. There were plenty of other stars there, but I mention those two for a reason.

When tornadoes devastated Oklahoma, there was a very noticeable bent to the celebrities who aided the victims.  In New Orleans, entertainment and sports celebrities of all races helped the victims. But in Oklahoma, besides Usher, who was there because he has relatives and members of the NBA's Thunder, there were precious few black celebrities who aided the relief efforts.  There might have been one or two who grew up there or plays elsewhere as a professional athlete, but the vast majority of celebrities who have helped the relief efforts are white.  Most of them are country and western artists who hail from Oklahoma, but there are some others who are helping out.

Why is this?

I remember Kanye West infamously declaring, as he stood by the very pale Mike Myers, that George Bush hated black people.  Well.  Does the absence of Kanye West from Oklahoma mean he hates white people?  Given that a very white woman just bore him a child, he has an interesting conundrum facing him as he tries to answer that question.  Where are his black brethern and sistern?

I thought that the idea of helping fellow Americans transcended race.  That's why Mike Myers -- who's Canadian, by the by -- and Brad Pitt rushed to New Orleans.  But black celebrities -- unless they play for the nearby Oklahoma City Thunder -- can't seem to be bothered to help out.  It's a very curious double standard, one that is either being ignored completely or going by absolutely unnoticed.  For all the talk of a color blind society, it sure seems as if whites are only too easily importuned to help out when many of the victims are black but when the shoe's on the other foot, whites shouldn't expect any support from blacks.

I wonder why this is.

To be sure, there are plenty of blacks who have the means to contribute.  Perhaps they're doing so silently.  For a celebrity to donate large amounts of money silently would be a surprise, but I suppose it's possible.  Somehow, however, I doubt it.  I think that blacks celebrities feel no obligation to assist unless it inures to their pecuniary interest.

Whatever the reasons, this dichotomy stinks.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles