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The primary victims of Katrina, those who were given the least help by the government, those rescued last or not at all, were overwhelmingly people of color largely hidden from the mainstream of society.

There's a great deal of disturbance in this country and how black feel about what happened in Katrina, and, you know, many of the comics, many of performers are in Las Vegas and New Orleans trying to raise money for what happened there.

At screenings for 'Black in America,' I've heard people say, 'Well you know, I never thought you were black until you did Katrina, and then I thought you were black.'

Last year, when we were in Mobile, Al., covering Hurricane Ivan, we heard the stories of poor people, many of them black stranded downtown because they had no way out.

So the mayor of New Orleans would have used his own buses had the people had been white?

One of the most special things about the city of New Orleans is how diverse a people we really are. There's been a new generation of individuals that have all grown up together, so I don't really see myself as a White mayor. I've never seen New Orleans as a Black city.

I don't mind being black. I'm black out loud. It's more than the people that they are, it's the condition that they represent.

Unfortunately, I don't know many black people.

Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.

I was neither black enough for the black kids or Dominican enough for the Dominican kids. I didn't have a safe category.