Another Chris Christie outrage: Data shows stark racial gap in Sandy aid distribution

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/22/new_chris_christie_outrage_data_shows_stark_racial_gap_in_sandy_aid_distribution/

another day of "as the world turns" so does bridgegate.

According to the data, decried by groups including the New Jersey NAACP, the Latino Action Network and the New York Times editorial board, the Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation Program rejected 35.1 percent of African-American applicants, 18.1 percent of Latino applicants, 

and only 13.6 percent of Caucasian applicants. The Resettlement Program rejected 38.1 percent of African-Americans, 20.4 percent of Latinos and 13.6 percent of Caucasians.

Speaking to Salon late last week, FSHC staff attorney Adam Gordon urged the federal government to expand its investigation to include the racially disparate aid distribution, accused the Christie administration of trying to change the topic by attacking his organization, and charged “neglect and callous indifference in the needs of Latino and African-American communities impacted by Sandy.” A condensed version of our conversation follows.

Your assessment of this data shows that African-Americans were more than twice as likely as whites to get rejected by the RREM program and by the Resettlement program. What explains that disparity?

if there is a race card and this is true who played it first? just a heads up for the right wing.

We’re still trying to figure that out. And really, we’re talking to a lot of people who have been in that situation who are African-American and Latino and, you know, a lot of people feel like they’ve been rejected for no reason. 

You know, we’ve talked to people who live in mold-infested houses [with] serious damage, and got a rejection letter — and they can’t figure it out. So we’re still trying to figure it out.

But so far there’s really no explanation that we’ve been able to find that justifies it. And when we’ve talked to the actual people who are impacted, they seem like exactly the group of people who, based on the damage to their house, should qualify, and whom these funds are really meant for.

the plot is turning to cement and getting harder to explain away.  

So, is racism in play here?

I think that we're still trying to figure that out … There is more outreach and more help being given to people that are applying for these programs who are in predominately white areas. I mean, one of the big things in terms of the Latino community that we saw was that the website in Spanish for

these programs had incorrect deadlines, incorrect information about how to get help — and also didn't mention that, if you're denied, you have the right to appeal. Which could be important if more Latinos are getting denied for these programs. And you would hope that the Spanish language version of this website would include information that you could appeal the denial. But only the English language version did …

I don't know that we have evidence of intentional racism here, but I think that a neglect and callous indifference in the needs of Latino and African-American communities impacted by Sandy is certainly something that we've seen.

well in my 65 years i've noticed that when same programs that are made available to White citizens either don't equal or don't show up in Black and Latino communities, those affected generally are public housing or slum lords, that the local gov't seems to let prosper off of dilapidated invested dwellings, so you make the call. i guess it would be difficult at this point to claim racism but this has been the norm for decades we look back and reason those incidents were of a racist nature only difference here is the date.  check out article title