Nagin calls for rebuilding 'chocolate' New Orleans
Black majority city 'the way God wants it to be'

Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Posted: 1:47 p.m. EST (18:47 GMT)

Programming note: Anderson Cooper interviews New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin about his "chocolate" city comments, 10 p.m. ET Tuesday.
story.nagin.file.jpg
"New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina," said Nagin, shown here earlier this month.

Nagin says New Orleans will stay "chocolate" (1:32)
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NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Mayor Ray Nagin on Monday called for the rebuilding of a "chocolate New Orleans" that maintains the city's black majority, saying, "You can't have New Orleans no other way."

"I don't care what people are saying Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day," Nagin said in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech. "This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way God wants it to be."

Uptown is a reference to a mostly white part of the city.

Pressed later to explain his comments, Nagin, who is black, told CNN affiliate WDSU-TV that he was referring to creation of a racially diverse city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, insisting that his remarks were not divisive.

"How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about," he said.

"New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special."

Before Hurricane Katrina inundated the city with floodwaters in August, forcing its residents to evacuate, about two-thirds of New Orleans' population of 485,000 was black.

However, the worst of the flooding was in mostly black areas that remain largely uninhabitable, while residents in mostly white areas that were less badly damaged have been able to return home -- prompting speculation that the much-smaller city could end up with a white majority if large numbers of black evacuees do not return.

Black residents and political leaders have complained about the slow pace of recovery in mostly black areas compared to mostly white areas such as Uptown and the French Quarter, where services have been restored and life has returned to a semblance of normal.

In his speech, Nagin also said "God is mad at America," in part because he does not approve "of us being in Iraq under false pretenses."

"He is sending hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it is destroying and putting stress on this country," Nagin said.

He said God is "upset at black America also."

"We are not taking care of ourselves. We are not taking care of our women, and we are not taking care of our children when you have a community where 70 percent of its children are being born to one parent."

Nagin, first elected in 2002, had been due to come up for re-election next month. However, state officials postponed the city election until April because of the disruptions caused by Katrina.


How did this guy get a direct link to God? Nothing like mixing religion and politics!