It looks like congratulations are in order. Thanks to the relentless publicity given to an intense barrage of innuendos, inflammatory accusations and outright slander from politicians, activists, pundits and reporters, a majority of American blacks now believe that race was a key factor in the botched federal rescue efforts in New Orleans. According to a USA Today-Gallup poll, over 60% of African Americans feel, apparently, that if someone happens to be white and Republican, he is perfectly satisfied to see black Americans drown, starve and die. Good for you, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Michael Moore, Kanye West, Howard Dean, Wolf Blitzer and so many others! Surely winning acceptance of this poisonous idea will make America a better place, increase harmony, and lead to better understanding and cooperation between the races.

Those who always believed that the deadly strain of bigotry that fed the Holocaust in Nazi Germany could not flourish here…and I count myself among them…have reason to reevaluate their conclusion in light of the complete lack of outrage focused on these carriers of the contagion in the aftermath of Katrina. Because make no mistake about it, bigotry is what this is. Ugly, unthinking, vile and malicious bigotry with the same objective as Nazi Anti-Semitism: win power, pass blame, foment hatred. Here and now the targets aren't Jews but a political party, the Republicans. There isn't any physical threat behind them, perhaps, but the technique and rhetoric would be familiar to the architects of the Third Reich. "They aren't like us, you know. They don't feel the same way we do. They don't care about you."

"They would kill you if they could get away with it."

These are not the words of policy debate or political discourse. Such language aims at dehumanizing political opponents, portraying them not as wrong or misguided but monstrous, dangerous and evil. And, as Goebbels himself would tell us, it works. Look at the ease with which supposedly respectable media reporters injected the suggestion into newscasts and articles. Look at the attempts of the Bush administration to defend itself from the accusations, thus legitimizing the illegitimate. And from personal experience, listen to how people who should know better and be better instantly accepted and internalize it.

"You know if white people had been on those roofs, the government would have found a way to help them faster," an angry young liberal friend said to me the other day.

"I don't know that,' I replied. "In fact, if you've read the accounts of all the leadership, administrative and systemic breakdown at all levels before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, I'd like you to tell me how exactly the federal government could have delayed even if they wanted to. There's no evidence of malice, just a lot of ineptitude, chaos and bad luck combined with an unprecedented disaster. On what basis do you make that statement?"

"I just know," he said. "That's the kind of people they are."

Bigotry.

"I see," I said. "So the mayor of New Orleans, who was a day late calling for a mandatory evacuation, had neglected the need to develop an advance plan to evacuate the poor, and who made numerous other mistakes that had disastrous consequences for poor black New Orleans residents, he's just incompetent, right? He's an African American, so he can't be racist. White Republicans must be malicious when they screw up, but black Democrats are just inept when their blunders hurt the same group of people. White Republicans mean evil, and accomplish it by intentional neglect, while black Democrats mean well but can't deliver. Isn't that the dichotomy you're selling here?"

He wouldn't discuss the issue with me any further.

I suppose I was too hard on him; he's a committed progressive who is predictably vulnerable to the emotionally powerful propaganda put out by those who will benefit most from a racial divide:

• The professional dividers like Sharpton, Jackson, and the Congressional Black Caucus, whose funding and political influence depend on maintaining the perception that America persecutes African Americans;
• The bitter Bush-haters like Moore and Dean, who believe any tactic and any lie is justified if it successfully tips the balance of power;
• The alibi-makers like New Orleans' mayor and police chief, both accountable for a disgraceful performance and eager to point the finger of blame elsewhere, as emphatically as possible;
• The celebrities like the rapper West, whose recordings celebrate alienation and violence; and
• The news media, which appears to be perfectly happy to foster fear, hate and paranoia among American blacks if it will mean ratings, profits, and a months worth of controversy for "Hardball," "Meet the Press," and the op-ed page of the Times.

Bigotry on a scale like this goes far, far beyond being unethical. It constitutes an abuse of the First Amendment, a reckless disregard for the consequences of irresponsible speech. If shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theater is unprotected speech, how does one assess the speech of those who, in a time of crisis, use their visibility and influence to tell the most vulnerable and long-suffering of Americans that their elected government conspired to let them die in a hurricane? What is a population convinced of such a desperate situation supposed to do? Despair? Revolt? Riot? Give up?

Hate?

It's bigotry. And fair minded people on the left or the right, black or white, Democrat or Republican, should insist that those who have actively promoted it never hold political office, never appear on television, never are accorded a respectable platform from which to speak, and never are accorded public credibility or trust.

It is their conduct that is monstrous, and their statements provide irrefutable proof.