Veronica's
View
by: Veronica Hendrix
Race Mattered
in Hurricane Relief Effort
"What we
witnessed in Los Angeles was the consequence of a lethal linkage of
economic decline, cultural decay and political lethargy in American
life. Race was the visible catalyst, and not the underlying cause,"
- Dr. Cornel West on the 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles from his
book "Race Matters."
How infallible those words were in 1992. How foreboding those words
seem today when I look at the government's impassive and languorous
response in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans
and Mississippi.
The devastation. The disbelief. The despair. The displacement. The
desperation. The deaths. This was a disaster of epic proportions.
New Orleans experienced the brunt of the disaster with nearly 90,000
square miles of civilization literally reduced to the wreckage and
rubble reminiscent of third world countries, displacing nearly 100,000
residents who were left to fend for themselves like wartime refugees,
instead of enfranchised American citizens.
The images of thousands upon thousands of folks who had no choice
but to seek shelter in the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center
was ominously akin to images of black folks crammed in the hull of
slave ships, piled upon each living in intolerable conditions.
The world saw the faces of the displaced as I did, and those faces
were overwhelmingly black. That's not surprising. Nearly 70% of New
Orleans residents are African American and 30% of its residents live
below the poverty line. However many who have viewed this crisis from
their ivory towers and yes their granite campaniles remain surprised
that these folks stayed in New Orleans when they had ample time to
evacuate before the hurricane, like many others did by car and by
plane.
The short answer is, they couldn't. Many residents are poor, who had
either no transportation or inadequate transportation, and had no
place to go. Shutting down public transportation essentially immobilized
many, leaving a disproportionate number of African Americans vulnerable
to the genocidal effects of this imminent, unnatural disaster. Countless
bodies had been reported floating down city streets. Many more are
expected to die due to dehydration and medical neglect.
This catastrophic ethnic and socioeconomic cleansing predominately
befell the poor, black and infirmed. It was all an inevitability.
With the city of New Orleans having the fourth highest poverty rate
in the nation, being below sea level, experiencing an increase in
strength and frequency of hurricanes due to global warming, along
with an aging levee system, how could officials not be aware of the
impact a catastrophic hurricane like Katrina would have on the city
and the majority of its citizenry? What they failed to do is either
devise a comprehensive evacuation plan for all residents or they failed
to execute a far-reaching plan if they had one. The question is why?
To add further agony to my disillusionment, five days after the hurricane
the "interned" were still without water, food, proper medical
attention, and extrication of the dead. The pleas of help from the
hurricane victims were agonizing. They were literally dying as the
nation watched. While the President promised that federal help was
coming, it was absolutely unconscionable that they had to wait at
all. This is American, a country known for coming to the assistance
of catastrophic ravaged, war-torn countries in a moments notice. Why
did our fellow Americans have to wait at all?
The anarchy and "lawlessness" that followed in New Orleans
were a direct result of desperation, frustration and a sense of abandonment
by the government. While the media focused on looting and pillaging
by what they called a mob mentality, the majority of these folks were
just trying to stay alive and keep their families alive too.
"It's quite easy for people to judge when they aren't faced with
this crisis," wrote a woman on a blog site. " The looting
in this case is a matter of survival. From what I have read, food,
water and basic necessities are being gathered from every possible
source. I cannot condemn desperate people simply trying to survive."
The federal response to this full blown humanitarian crisis is the
greatest national disgrace of our time. Many have criticized the United
States government for their slow and measured response to this crisis,
including the Congressional Black Caucus.
When the waters recede and the body count is enumerated, the nation's
grief, disgust and outrage will be magnified exponentially. This disaster
did not affect the residents of Louisiana and Mississippi equally,
race mattered. It determined who lived and who died.
