The following bit of mass forwarded email has flooded in-boxes, and presumably brought some smidgeon of mirth to those who don’t get out very often.
I called the Red Cross and gave them your address so you could help these folks from New Orleans by letting them live with you for about a year.
Above is a picture so you can recognize them when they show up tomorrow.
I can only presume that the original version of this unfunny message was also accompanied by links to organizations where the not-so-young republicans can send a few bucks to aid those who are well and truly fucked by Katrina and the government’s pathetic response.
Of course, if the persons on this mailing list are in fact, taking in those displaced, all the power to ’em.
The notion of harboring this truckload of black folks in your home for a year is no more or less hillarious than getting all nudge-nudge wink-wink about, y’know, hiding Anne Frank in the attic. And what a gutbusting bulk email that would’ve made, had the technology been in place.
It isn’t that Katrina is too sensitive a subject to joke about. But there’s something intensely creepy about the presumption that a picture of black people is enough in itself to provoke fear and ridicule.