Katrina Exposes Racism

[beetbox]

Katrina Exposes Racism
by Lee Sustar

August 31, 2005
 
DECADES OF OFFICIAL neglect, racism and the impact of global warming magnified the destructive impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and other parts of the South.

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Why the neglect? Though it is best known as a tourist destination, New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the U.S., with a population that is 67 percent African American. In the parish, or county, of Orleans, 34 percent of households live below the federal poverty line--an issue that was the focus of a new community coalition at a meeting just a few days before Katrina hit.

The scale of the threat has been well known for years. Oceanographer Joe Suhayda created a detailed model of the impact of a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans, showing that much of the city could be plunged under 20 feet of water, causing tens of thousands of casualties. And in 2004, Hurricane Ivan barely missed the city, again highlighting the urgent need for a viable evacuation plan.

"Affluent white people fled the Big Easy in their SUVs, while the old and car-less--mainly Black--were left behind in their below-sea-level shotgun shacks and aging tenements to face the watery wrath," activist Mike Davis wrote of the evacuation plans for Ivan. "New Orleans had spent decades preparing for inevitable submersion by the storm surge of a class-five hurricane. Civil defense officials conceded they had 10,000 body bags on hand to deal with the worst-case scenario. But no one seemed to have bothered to devise a plan to evacuate the city’s poorest or most infirm residents."

http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=8625§ionID=10

[kmwakak8]

1. Katrina Exposes Racism

Then perhaps the people need another lesson. They missed the point the first time.
Pathetic, no human being should have had to suffer regardless of race.

[CountAllVotes]

2. it is loathsome & disgusting

The poor, elderly and the sick (of all colors) should never have to suffer for any reason, especially now during these horrible times.

This is just one more example of how the rich seem to own America and they never seem to suffer it seems to me. They just drive away from it all in their SUV. As for those that have no way or option out, they pay the ultimate price.



:kick:

[Eloriel]

3. Nominated

This was also a good discussion, I thought:

A classist/racist tragedy...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4531590

[puddycat]

4. why weren't buses provided for the poor to evacuate before the storm?

I read that FEMA has 500 buses to evacuate the people from the Superdome into the Astrodome, but why weren't these buses used BEFORE the storm, for the homeless, for those working poor without cars? for the sick and disabled? It seems that nobody cared about them. And they don't even care now, because all the good law-abiding citizens who are poor are thirsty and starving on over-passes while the criminal element loots the city, and the law-abiding poor get nothing.