Would so many white people struggling for life be ignored for so long? Racism explains some of what went on, but its route was indirect.

There are non-racialist explanations, of course. Katrina led to unprecedented crisis and Bush’s appointments process put incompetent leadership in charge at FEMA. We already have Iraq to go by. The US invaded a country but couldn’t govern. Margaret Thatcher once asserted there was “no such thing as society.” Bush no doubt would agree if he were inclined toward abstractions. But in whatever form it gets stated or not stated, such a belief wreaks havoc regardless of region, race or other social category.