During the Katrina disaster it was interesting, there was a Red Cross shelter set up in Franklin, Tn. The NAACP complained there weren’t enough Black workers at the shelter. I guess there now has to be quotas for volunteering to satisfy the NAACP. I’m just wondering how is this supposed to be done? Seems to me that the NAACP is haranguing the wrong group. Shouldn’t the focus by the NAACP be on the Black community? They are the ones who aren’t stepping up to volunteer. Let’s look at the definition of volunteer:

A person who performs or offers a service of his or her own free will

Are you telling me that the Red Cross has to organize an effort to recruit Black volunteers? Does this mean that the Black community is unaware of the Red Cross? Maybe the issue is something different. I posted about a story last September that was eye opening for me.

I saw an example of last week while I was in Minnesota visiting with my parents. I was watching the Fox Affiliate 9pm news, they were doing a segment on Minnesotans helping out the victims of NO. A part of this was an interview with a Black woman who lived in Edina (I think it was Edina and to those not from the area, Edina is a very affluent suburb of Mpls). From the video you could see this woman and her husband had an extremely nice and well decorated home. Here?s the part that astonished me, the woman said she was opening her doors to a family from NO because she needed to help her own!!

Michelle Malkin had posted something on this same topic.

Here’s what the Red Cross thinks they need to do:

The American Red Cross has launched an aggressive effort to reach out to racial and ethnic minorities and add more of them to the charity’s vast network of volunteers, in response to criticism that it treated them callously during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

More than two months after Katrina and Hurricane Rita ripped through the Gulf Coast and caused tens of thousands of people to flee their homes for Red Cross shelters, the organization is dealing with complaints that it failed to provide enough translators and overlooked cultural sensitivities. The concerns have been raised by members of Congress and groups representing blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans.

Yes, let’s try to legislate volunteering! Do these groups complaining not see the ludicrousness of their complaints? Apparently not. And the Red Cross once again shows their lack of clarity in dealing with the complaints.

Red Cross Bolstering Minority Outreach