Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster that destroyed New Orleans, a
major U.S. city, and it is reasonable to expect all Americans to react
with sympathy and support for the disaster's victims and efforts to
restore the city. From another vantage point, however, Hurricane Katrina
can be seen more narrowly, as a disaster that disproportionately afflicted
the poor Black inhabitants of New Orleans. Past research demonstrates a
large racial divide in the support of issues with clear racial overtones,
and we examine the possibility of a racial divide in reactions to Katrina
using data from a national telephone survey of White and Black Americans.
We find large racial differences in sympathy for the hurricane's
victims, the adequacy of the federal government's response, and
support for proposed solutions to mend hurricane-ravaged New Orleans,
verifying the racial nature of the disaster. Blacks viewed the hurricane
victims more positively than did Whites, drew a sharper distinction
between and felt more sympathy for those stranded than for those who
evacuated New Orleans, and were substantially more supportive of
government efforts to improve the situation of hurricane victims and
rebuild New Orleans. This racial gap is as large as any observed in recent
polls; persists even after controlling for education, income, and other
possible racial differences; and documents more fully differences that
were hinted at in public opinion polls reported at the time of the
disaster. We spell out the implications of this divide for racial
divisions within U.S. politics more generally.