What do you think are the three things that have been affected most by hurricane Katrina?  Any opinions on the Jim Crow-like response of the suburban Gretna Police who turned back hundreds of desperate people trying to escape via  the Mississippi Bridge?

I received this question a while ago and went through several drafts of responses, never really feeling satisfied with my analysis of Hurricane Katrina and the issues of social injustice in its aftermath.  I wanted to be able to neatly layout 3 things that had been most affected by Hurricane Katrina with academic precision…1,2,3, but I’m not sure I can do this.  After watching Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke on HBO, I feel fine about my inability to be concise in my analysis because the situation before and after Hurricane Katrina hit are so complex, simplicity and brevity would add insult to injury.  However, I’d like to flow a bit about Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, black people, Federal Policy, states rights, Jim Crow, and Condoleeza Rice.

The psyche of the black people living in New Orleans and the surrounding areas hit by Hurricane Katrina has been forever impacted by the blatant neglect of the State of Louisiana and the Federal government.  Actually, I believe the psyche of all people, especially those of African descent, who witnessed the response to Hurricane Katrina, has been damaged, but I’m not sure it really registered with people.  (Black Americans saw their country respond more quickly and generously to the tsunami victims of Banda Ache.)   Yes there was initial outrage, but no marching in the streets demanding action, just begging from roof tops.  There have been no real changes to Federal and State policy demanded by blacks or anyone else. 

I think as a people, African-Americans remember the atrocities that have happened to our communities but no longer do we take those memories and engage in social action.  A tragedy occurs and we tuck it away because it’s too painful to remember and to do anything about it would be even more painful, like moving a leg that has fallen asleep…it’s better to wait until it wears off.

Spike Lee’s documentary about Hurricane Katrina was powerful in the same way as footage from the event of 9/11, facts and horrific images trigger the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder you didn’t even realize you had.  I sat nauseated listening to people recount their experiences, failed policies, breeched levees (possibly intentionally), the images of poverty so raw that I was ashamed of my own apathy, dead bodies…lots of them…mostly black people, some children, rotting in the streets, strewn about like debris.    We have grown so accustomed to seeing the images of dead Iraqis killed by American soldiers or dead Palestinians and/or Lebanese people killed by the Israelis, but there was something very different about seeing folks who could have been your relatives rotting in the streets like road-kill.  Those images should have been a call-to-action.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was the first time in my life American poverty, specifically black poverty, was on the center stage for the entire world to see.  It’s so frustrating to hear comments like, “illegal immigrants do jobs Americans won’t”, or “America is the land of milk and honey”, or anything about the “American dream” when poverty in the black community in New Orleans was so bad that people simply did not have the money to evacuate.  I wonder what would happen if a hurricane hit New York City.  In NYC we have a black male unemployment rate of 50%; blacks live in soul crushing poverty here in one of the richest cities in the world.  There’s an interesting part in the documentary where Ray Nagin, the Mayor of New Orleans is explaining how the people of New Orleans rely on public transportation and how that was part of the problem, but he slips a bit and says instead “public education”.   I believe both are to blame, especially when you link poor public education and the high drop out levels of black men in New Orleans with joblessness.

Hurricane Katrina hit and the people, who were unable to leave, were then unable to walk “to freedom”…they were prevented from walking freely on American soil: Gretna Police blocked fleeing (mostly black) New Orleanians from crossing the Mississippi Bridge into Jefferson Parish with shot guns.  The name of Jefferson Parish was changed temporarily during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to Jeffersonia and only citizens of Jeffersonia could enter its borders.  I am not at all surprised by this response by the Gretna Police and residents.  To say the response was Jim Crow-like is to imply that things like this haven’t happened since the 60s, but in fact, whites still hate black people, and Gretna is a mostly white community in Louisiana who saw hordes of hungry, desperate, disheveled black people crossing into their community, Gretna had no intention of helping humans in need because they did not consider blacks to be human.  Jim Crow lives on today.

I am, however, shocked by Condoleeza Rice’s behavior as depicted in the documentary.  I know, I know, I shouldn’t be.  I guess I didn’t realize just how evil she really was.  According to the documentary, the day after Hurricane Katrina hit and with no response from the Federal government, Condoleeza Rice was spotted in NYC shoe shopping at Ferragamo.  A fellow customer (a white woman) approached her and shamed her for shopping while such a huge tragedy had occurred.  Later that same day, Condi was spotted at “Spamalot”, the Broadway musical.  The lights were shown on Condi and the audience booed her.  The next day Condi was spotted playing tennis with Monica Selles.  The following day Condi arrived in New Orleans to make a statement that she was in fact African-American and from the South, but that this tragedy and the response and neglect from the Federal government had nothing to do with race. There are plenty of “uncle Toms” out there, but the callousness of this woman goes beyond that. 

I could begin to lambaste Bush, Cheney (who was fly fishing during the Katrina aftermath), Michael Chertoff, Michael Brown, Louisiana Governor Blanco (who said she needed to think about it a couple of days whether or not Louisiana needed Federal Aid because of her political animosity toward Nagin), and even Ray Nagin, but I feel that it was just really obvious how neglectful and incompetent and evil they all were, but Condi was on a different level.  She clearly sold her soul to the devil.

As New Orleans begins to rebuild and residents move back after being scattered and auctioned off reminiscent of our slavery past, blacks still haven’t risen up to fight the further injustices.  Jobs that should be going to New Orleans residents to rebuild THEIR city go to illegal immigrants, jobs doled out to the lowest bidder: subcontractors to blame not the illegal immigrants.  Those who had insurance are finding that the loopholes in their policy make them ineligible for the money they need to rebuild.  Schools struggle to teach traumatized children.  The hard-core poverty is still present in New Orleans as it has always been.  America and the world witnessed and still witness the disdain our government has for black people and the prominent black leaders in our government are complicit.

Finally, I believe that the very essence of New Orleans will be changed forever.  Eventually it will no longer be a “chocolate city” (another comment our black leaders should NOT have apologized for!).  At risk of engaging in “racially inflammatory rhetoric”, black Americans (an oxymoron really) were in crisis before Hurricane Katrina and remain after and lots of factors are to be blamed, including the black community and the ineffectiveness of our leaders to organize!  I’m not sure if the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (August 29^th) will incite the proper outrage about the continued neglect of New Orleans and further illuminate the conditions of impoverished communities in America, especially black ones, but the need for more conversations and even more action within the black community and the American community is dire.