Much is being made of the disproportionate suffering being done by impoverished African-Americans in the wake of hurricane Katrina. I am going to make a few comments apropos of that point, considered independently of the poor advance planning which made the disaster far worse than it would have been had advance planning been optimal.

African-American leaders are correct in many of their statements accusing the federal government and society at large of ignoring the plight of impoverished persons. However, those same leaders should be leading their people out of poverty by emphasizing education, education, education over and over again.

It is ludicrous that so many young African-Americans have as their heroes and role models multi-millionaire rappers who rant about the tough life on the streets and then go home to their mansions in chauffeured limousines. Taste in entertainment is just that, taste, and it’s fine for somebody to like rap music, but in order to advance well in the world and make a useful contribution to it, people should be supplementing their love of rap with strong literacy and mathematical skills to be used as a springboard to a substantial career. What percentage of the population can expect to have phenomenal success as a rapper, compared to the percentage which could expect to have success as a medical researcher, a landscape architect or the owner of a restaurant chain?

Most obviously, the African-American community is not the only one with an education crisis. The current office-holding president, George W. Bush, made extremely stupid decisions that contributed to the severity of the crisis caused by Katrina. But that is no reason for black leaders to not make clear to their community that the fastest road to self-empowerment lies in education.