THE inescapable fact that most of the victims left stranded for days in New Orleans were African Americans has sparked accusations of racism against the Bush Administration and an uncomfortable national debate about the racial and economic barriers that still exist in the US.

Washington’s slow response to the plight of thousands of desperate victims, most of whom were black and poor, has led African American leaders to ask if race played a part even though Mr Bush’s Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and her predecessor, Colin Powell, are African American and the Cabinet is one of the most ethnically diverse in US politics.

African American leaders, summoned to the White House on Saturday in an effort to limit the growing racial fallout from the disaster, pointed to the speed with which Mr Bush travelled to Florida — a crucial battleground state — after Hurricane Charley struck before last year’s election.

They also noted that Mr Bush interrupted his Easter holiday and rushed back to Washington to sign into law emergency legislation aimed at saving the life of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman whose case had galvanised Mr Bush’s conservative, and predominately white, base.

By contrast, Mr Bush did not return to Washington from Texas until two days after Katrina struck and did not visit New Orleans until last Friday.

“Black people are mad,” Ron Walters, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, said. “And I don’t expect that feeling to go away anytime soon.”

After visiting a homeless shelter in New Orleans, Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader, declared: “This looks like the hull of slave ship.” Race was “at least a factor” in the slow response. “We have an amazing tolerance for black pain.”

Asked if the Government would have moved faster if the lines of homeless had been white, Elijah Cummings, a Democrat member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said: “That’s a pretty good probability.” In an effort to rebut the charges, the White House dispatched Dr Rice to her home state of Alabama on Sunday, where she said: “Nobody, especially the President, would have left people unattended on the basis of race.”

But the failure of the relief effort in its early days has severely damaged perceptions of the White House among African Americans, at a time when the President has mounted a serious effort at reaching out to the black community.

“Race is hard to ignore in this issue,” said Bruce Gordon, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People. He added: “It is a matter of race and economic class. The issue is sociological. It cannot be ignored.”

PEOPLE, POVERTY

The racial mix in New Orleans:

Black or African American: 67.3 per cent

White: 28 per cent

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 3.06 per cent

The racial mix in the United States:

Black: 12.3 per cent

White: 75.1 per cent

People living below the poverty line according to US Census in 2004 (National):

All races: 12.7 per cent

White: 10.8 per cent

White (not including Hispanic): 8.6 per cent

Black: 24.7 per cent

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