hurricane katrina and racism by jami brookes berry

Hurricane Katrina and Racism

By Jami Brookes Berry

Table of Content• Hurricane Katrina Aftermath of Disaster• Hurricane Katrina The Storm That Changed America• Forgotten in New Orleans• Amid Criticism of Federal Efforts, Charges of Racism Are Lodged• Black Leaders Say Storm Forced Bush to

Confront Issues of Race and Poverty• The Hard Truth – The Genocide Exhibit – NOLA’s Human Zoo• Race, Hurricane Katrina questions aren’t so simple• Chart: Poverty in New Orleans Prior to Hurricane Katrina – Income• Chart: Poverty in New Orleans Prior to Hurricane Katrina - Percentages• Chart: Population in New Orleans

without car access• Chart: Louisiana Population by Race Before Hurricane Katrina (2005)• Chart: Louisiana Population by Race• Works Cited

Hurricane Katrina Aftermath of DisasterBy Barb Palser

• This book discussed the events of Hurricane Katrina, from the actual storm to the government response. It detailed the circumstances for many of the residence of Louisiana, particularly poor minorities, that set them up to be victims. Many of the poor, black population had no access to cars and didn’t have the money to get transportation out of the path of the storm.


• There were warnings before the hurricane hit land that the levees surrounding Now Orleans would not hold, but nothing was done to reinforce the levees. New Orleans is surrounded by water and the city lies below sea level, making the levees necessary to keep it from completely flooding. “New Orleans naturally wants to be a lake. A city should never have been built there in the first place.”


• Given the warnings that the levees would not be enough to avoid flooding, 80% of New Orleans’ residence evacuated. However, the other 20% were left behind. Some were patience in hospitals and assisted living centers, people with disabilities and those in poverty, all of whom lacked the means to evacuate without some sort of assistance. Many sought shelter in the Superdome and Convention Center, declared Shelters of last resort, which were not prepared to receive the extremely large crowds.


• “The failure to order timely mandatory evacuations, Mayor Nagin’s decision to shelter but not evacuate the remaining population, and decisions of individuals led to an incomplete evacuation. The incomplete pre-landfall evacuation led to deaths, thousands of dangerous rescues, and horrible conditions for those who remained.”


• The levees failed an the city of New Orleans filled up with water. People were left with no option but to remain at the shelters of last resort and more people continued to arrive. The shelters quickly ran out of supplies and circumstances were becoming unbearable. Finally, a decision was made to move people to the Astrodome in Houston and eventually to other areas of Texas and to other states. A man waiting in line for a bus to the Astrodome stated, “I don’t care where they’re taking us. Anywhere is better than here.”


• In response to the disaster there was a lot of finger pointing; local government blamed the federal government for delays and many pointed to racism as a motivation, because a large portion of the victims were poor, black residence.


• Ultimately, I think that residence living in poverty were set up to become victims when they weren’t offered adequate assistance in trying to evacuate. They became victims again as the government agencies involved spent more time focusing on red tape and placing blame than they did on actually trying to aid victims.


• “One of the things that I hope we will do is look at this as an opportunity . . . To shine a bright light on poverty in America and do something about it nationally.” - John Edwards

Hurricane Katrina The Storm That Changed AmericaBy the Editors of Time Magazine

• This book discussed the events of Hurricane Katrina and particularly the circumstances and events that left many poor, black people as victims to this disaster.


• “There’s a geography of racism here . . . The city is built with the white, rich quarters above sea level, and the black, poor quarters below sea level. So when the waters come, it floods the black guys, and the white guys stand on the bridge.”


• The government at all levels failed to plan and protect the people who could not protect themselves. In New Orleans, city government was aware that a large number of people had no access to vehicles and yet they offered no help in evacuating these people. The city’s emergency plan merely offered the suggestion that people without access to vehicles ask for help getting out from family and friends.


• “The biggest problem, everyone seemed to realize too late, was the other 20%: the citizens who hadn’t fled, most of them because they lacked the means or good health to do so . . . they left behind in Katrina’s path the old, the feeble and the poor – in short, the very people whom government safety nets are designed to catch.”


• The government failed to protect the citizens affected by Hurricane Katrina before hand and they were slow to react after the fact. They became victims twice over and the fact that many of them were minorities makes it hard not to think that race was a factor, whether intentionally or unintentionally.


• “There is deep, persistent poverty in this region . . . And that poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America.”

Forgotten in New OrleansBy Susan E. Howell and John B. Vinturella

Published April 20, 2006 in the New York Times

• This article discussed the black middle class that was living in New Orleans East prior to Hurricane Katrina. The Bring New Orleans Back Commission ended up designating areas of New Orleans East as “delayed recovery”, which meant that residence that choose to rebuild will not be guaranteed services, such as sewer and police services.



• “No discussion of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina fails to focus on the stark class and racial differences that supposedly determined its residents’ fates. The city’s Lower Ninth Ward has become an international symbol of the neglect suffered by low-income African-Americans, while the white middle- and upper-class neighborhoods on higher ground are portrayed as having hardly been affected. But as gripping as that story may be, it’s an oversimplification.”



• Middle-class neighborhoods weren’t unaffected. Cities such as New Orleans East were destroyed, leaving families without homes. These areas weren’t just white middle-class neighborhoods, they included large black middle-class populations.



• “These are people who overcame the odds, played by the rules, broke out of the infamous ‘cycle of poverty,’ bought homes, built families and enjoyed a taste of what Americans define as success. And they are being told that their community is not on the immediate recovery list.”

Amid Criticism of Federal Efforts, Charges of Racism Are Lodged

By John M. Broder Published September 5, 2005 in The New York Times

• In this article Broder discusses the views of many that race was a determining factor in the delayed response to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. “The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina became a rally cry for African-American religious and political leaders . . . With pleas for charity mixed with a seething anger at the response to the crisis.”



• Church leaders, politicians and residents gathered in Houston to express anger over the response to the disaster. “Many blacks voiced suspicions that thousands of people were left to suffer and die in the floodwaters because they were, for the most part, poor and black.”



• Although many in the black community feel that race played a role in the response, government officials denied the allegations. The article quotes President George W. Bush as having stated that the size of the disaster area “has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities. The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable.”



• Even Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been accused of racism in response to Hurricane Katrina. Rice denied that the government’s slow response was because many of the victims were black. Rice said, “How can that be the case? Americans don’t want to see Americans suffer. Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race.”

Black Leaders Say Storm Forced Bush to Confront Issues of Race and Poverty

By Elizabeth Bumiller and Anne E. Kornblut Published September 18, 2005 in The New York Times

• This article was about the impact that Hurricane Katrina had on bringing poverty and race issues to light and influencing policy, specifically with the President of the United States. “Hurricane Katrina has forced President Bush to confront the issues of race and poverty in a way that has shaken his presidency and altered his priorities.”



• Hurricane Katrina was an eye opening disaster for President Bush. In response, Bush promised help for housing, education, taxes and job training, but many felt it still wasn’t enough to repair his image in the wake of poor initial response from the Federal Government.



• “Katrina has posed a challenge to the White House and the country regarding the great divide, which is race and class in America. It’s a challenge and an opportunity which can be won or lost, and ultimately it is the decision of the White House as to which way it goes . . . President Bush needs to ensure that we do not see racial divisions reproduced in the reconstruction effort as white millionaires get richer.” - Rev. Eugene F. Rivers III, president of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation



• Many black leaders express a desire to see black workers included in the rebuilding of New Orleans, to see black workers receive a portion of the money that will be dedicated to that project. The article discusses that the long history of problems with race and poverty have been made obvious through this terrible disaster.



• “We’ve all known that there are these big pockets of isolated deprivation and disadvantage in the country. Everybody seems to have taken their crack at it, but certain aspects of the poverty problem are stubborn. The reality is, having everybody wake up to the problem is a good thing.” - John DiIulio, first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives

The Hard Truth – The Genocide Exhibit – NOLA’s Human ZooBy Min. J. Kojo Livingston

Published January 7, 2013 in The Louisiana Weekly Newspaper

• This article discusses the continued delays in restoring certain areas of New Orleans, particularly the Lower Ninth Ward. The author talks about how the government is “quite proud of its long-devastated areas” and how these areas are still sites for tourists to visit, “the Human Zoo” as Livingston calls it.



• Livingston claims that the delays are racially motivated. The author maintains that parties at all levels of government are purposely trying to stop black people from returning to the area and rebuilding their homes. “We have seen the racial purge in housing, education, health, infrastructure, law enforcement, employment, culture, politics and business.”



• The author accuses government employees of misusing funding for Hurricane Katrina recovery. “The whole mess needs to be exposed . . . People should go to jail. Others should be forced to vacate their comfortable careers because of the crimes they have committed against the poor. Organizations should have to close their doors out of shame for the way they have treated people in their greatest moment of need.”



• “A new standard of values and practices for dealing with Black and poor survivors of disasters must be created and enforced. The ongoing orgy of greed and racism that is Katrina must be stopped, resolved and never repeated again . . .”

Race, Hurricane Katrina questions aren’t so simpleBy Jarvis DeBerry

Published June 24, 2011 in The Times-Picayune

• This article addresses the question about why there were so many delays in helping victims of Hurrican Katrina. “Theories abound . . . Former Mayor Ray Nagin said partisanship, classism and ‘racial considerations’ stymied the rescue effort . . . If so many of the stranded weren’t poor and black, the Republican administration led by George W. Bush would have been more responsive.”



• Despite the opinions of many that the delay to help victims of Hurricane Katrina was racially motivated, the DeBerry does not hold the same opinion. “Black, white, Asian; young, middle-aged, elderly; affluent and impoverished, we all suffered during and after Hurricane Katrina . . . The 17th Street Canal broke in Lakeview, on of New Orleans’ whitest, most well-to-do neighborhoods. Help was slow getting there, too.”



• DeBerry believes that the views of President George W. Bush about big government motivated the decision to try to avoid a big government response, though he doesn’t got as far as to say that there was no racism present in the response to the disaster.



• “Racism remains a problem in our country, but to make the Katrina delay exclusively – or even mostly – about race is to say the people who weren’t black and died didn’t matter as much, that their suffering was just collateral.”

Poverty in New Orleans Prior to Hurricane Katrina

Median Household Income$0

$5,000$10,000$15,000$20,000$25,000$30,000$35,000$40,000$45,000$50,000

$31,369

$44,684

New Orleans vs. National Average

New Orleans AverageNational Average

Source: Dyson, p. 5

Poverty in New Orleans Prior to Hurricane Katrina

0.0%

20.0%

40.0%

60.0%

23.0%

57.0%

18.8%13.1%

39.6%

15.5%

New Orleans vs. National Average

New Orleans AverageNational Average

Source: Dyson, p. 5

Population in New Orleans without car access

5%

White Population without Car Access

27.00%

Black Population without Car Access

Source: Dyson, p. 6

Louisiana Population by Race Before Hurricane Katrina (2005)

White Black AIAN Asian NHPI Two or More Races

0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

3,500,000

2,926,779

1,504,504

29,915 65,947 2,059 47,424

Source: Louisiana State Census Data Center

Louisiana Population by Race

White Black0

500,000

1,000,000

1,500,000

2,000,000

2,500,000

3,000,000

200520062011

Source: Louisiana State Census Data Center

Works Cited

• Broder, J. M. (2005, September 5). Amid Criticism of Federal Efforts, Charges of Racism Are Lodged. The New York Times.

• Bumiller, E., & Kornblut, A. E. (2005, September 18). Black Leaders Say Storm Forced Bush to Confront Issues of Race and Poverty. The New York Times.

• DeBerry, J. (2011, June 24). Race, Hurricane Katrina questions aren't so simple. The Times-Picayune.

• Dyson, M. E. (2006). Come Hell or High Water Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. New York: Basic Civitas.

• Livingston, M. K. (2013, January 7). The Hard Truth - The Genocide Exhibit - NOLA's Human Zoo. The Louisiana Weekly.

• Louisiana State Census Data Center. (n.d.). Population Estimates. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from Louisiana.gov: http://louisiana.gov/Explore/Estimates/

• Palser, B. (2007). Hurricane Katrina Aftermath of Disaster. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books.

• The Editors of Time Magazine. (2005). Hurricane Katrina The Storm That Changed America. New York City: Time Books.

• Vinturella, J. B., & Howell, S. E. (2006, April 20). Forgotten in New Orleans. The New York Times.

hurricane katrina and racism by jami brookes berry

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