That's a tough question, but I tend to agree that it was racist. The difficult part is that 80% plus of the population of New Orleans is black, so it's hard to say that it was outright racist, with clear evidence of blacks being pushed aside from the helicopters to let whites on first.

If you look at semi-similar situations, like the big earthquakes in California in the 1990s (? .... sorry, have forgotten when, in Oakland, etc.), the response was much quicker.

However, having visited New Orleans well before Katrina, I have always felt an undercurrent of racial tension just below the surface in that city.

And yes, I do believe that the delay in getting help was partially due to racism. The other part I attribute to the fact that this administration in particular just doesn't believe that anything that drastic is going to happen to them (but it did!).