RACE BAIT: "New Orleans could lose up to 80 percent of its black population if people displaced by Hurricane Katrina are not able to return to damaged neighborhoods." So trumpets the first line of an AP story. Surely there's an important reason to lead with the racial angle — but, well, not really. See the story goes on to report that 50 percent of displaced whites probably won't return, either. So here we have a story that's actually about the fact that most people who felt the brunt of Katrina are heading toward higher shores elsewhere. There's no meaningful racial angle, but the mainstream media apparently has a weekly if not daily race quotient to meet. Why not focus on something relevant — like the number of oppressed women displaced by the hurricane's patriarchal? (Oops, that won't work. Katrina was a grrrl.)