How Hurricane Katrina and an off-script remark by Kanye West shifted culture

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — As the US works to recover from the latest major hurricanes, the cultural conversation and debate about disaster relief efforts in some ways began more than two decades ago, during a national telethon and a moment with Kanye West.

“I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a Black family, it says they’re looting. If you see a White family, it says they’re looking for food,” West, going off script, said in September 2005 during NBC’s “Concert for Hurricane Relief” telethon following hurricane Katrina.

“George Bush doesn’t care about Black people,” West said next.

The provocative remarks reflected the frustration of many who felt the state and federal response to Katrina’s impact – the deadliest hurricane to strike the US mainland in the past 50 years – was grossly inadequate and unfair, particularly to people of color or those living in economically disadvantaged areas.

Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, causing severe flooding damage to cities from New Orleans to Biloxi. New Orleans faced catastrophic flooding, leaving much of the city underwater after the levees and floodwalls failed. Thousands of people lost their lives and, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the total damage from Katrina cost more than $125 billion.

More than 25,000 storm evacuees who took shelter at the Louisiana Superdome were met with unsafe conditions due to wind and water damage. The massive scale of the disaster resulted in breakdowns in basic supplies before the venue was eventually evacuated by authorities.

Then-President George W. Bush faced backlash at the time after a photo of him observing the destruction from the windows of Air Force One was released, and for the government’s delayed response in providing aid to these areas.

“It made you wonder whether or not you lived in a government that was operating on your behalf,” Van Lathan, co-host of the “Higher Learning” podcast, told CNN. “It made you wonder whether or not you were an American.”

West’s comments were met with varying opinions.

Years after Bush left the White House, he disputed West’s remarks in an interview with NBC.

“It was not true and it’s one of the most disgusting moments of my presidency,” Bush said in 2010.

In a new episode of “TV On the Edge: Moments That Shaped Our Culture,” CNN contributor Van Jones described the telethon moment as part of the groundwork of what would come to be the Black Lives Matter movement.

“It was a cathartic moment that this new generation was coming on the scene and they were going to call it like it is,” Jones said.

Comedian and actor Mike Myers, who appeared with West on the telethon, did not know about the artist’s planned comments in advance. Myers said in a 2014 interview that he was “super proud” to stand next to West in that moment.

“Somebody spoke truth to power at a time when somebody needed to speak.”

Of course, this was decades before West went on to stoke other political controversies, and before subsequent comments from him more recently have been widely criticized as antisemitic and anti-Black.

“This moment should not even be about Kanye West and President Bush,” CNN Entertainment Correspondent Lisa Respers France said in Sunday’s episode. “This moment should be about how detrimental Katrina was to a community of people in New Orleans, the lives that were lost and the people who lost their ways of living.”

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Kanye West’s quote. He said, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people.”

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