Discontents of Hurricane Katrina

Introduction 

Human suffering from Hurricane Katrina, where images showed mostly black victims and looters provoked nationwide debates about how the country’s troubled racial history and economic barriers still separate Americans. Many people sought to know whether both social effects and the response given by the Government to the nation’s biggest natural disaster were based on race. Media broadcasts were evident and showed that the majority of those left behind were blacks. Those who were able to afford homes in areas that were safe from floods evacuated quickly and suffered less than the poor ( Blodorn, O’Brien, Cheryan, & Vick, 2016). Coupled with race and class issues seen during and after the disaster, there was no doubt that those left behind were predominantly blacks. After all, blacks are poorer than their white counterparts. As the racism debate continued to escalate during that period, conservative white Americans fought firmly against the idea. Adolph Reed Jr., a political scientist, even argued that blaming race for the Katrina disaster is a lame political strategy even though it is true that blacks had been historically discriminated against. He further states that those who claimed racism was present did so to feel righteous. Even though he refused the idea that racism was part of the Katrina problem, he acknowledged that social class was a significant cause of inequality that determined who would get saved and who would not. Far from Reed’s opinion, the concept of mistreatment based on racial lines seems to be a reflection of past similar events. The tragedies that occurred in the past and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina shows how society can be inhumane to mistreat a group of people simply because of the skin color and race. 

The Beginning 

Slavery in the United States marked the beginning of a societal system that was marred with inhumanity, where African American communities were recognized as disposable and unimportant people in the country. The continued suffering of the blacks did not stop even with their emancipation, and after the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln ( Reed, 2017). but instead continued to be witnessed even in current times. The primary misconception that construes and prevails in society is that blacks are inferior to the whites and do not deserve equal treatment and privileges their counterparts have. Despite them being regarded as trash and nothing, they are a vital part of the rich American history and with their successful efforts recognized in the building of the economic and cultural fabric in the U.S. 

Water is critical to human life, and the impact of the Mississippi River is proof of the vital importance of the aquatic source. The river was essential to the development of the Southern states, given that they were heavily involved in plantation farming. The river also provided a trade route for merchants and further developed to become a source of power in the county. However, the effects of the waters caused catastrophic events where some were even more severe than other times ( Rogers, 2006). The levee system that was thought to help in controlling flooding from the river. African Americans endured systematic abuse by the Red Cross in 1927 as the Jim Crow’s laws gained momentum to separate the whites from the blacks ( Race in the 1927 flood and Katrina) . Their food rations were lower as opposed to their white counterparts, who were also victims of the flooding. The refugee camps were the dirtiest and dangerous with the blacks calling it their home. On top of that, black males were rounded up and forced to work on the levees or have them and their families’ rations reduced. One story of Charlie Silas was notoriously known for murdering black workers are throwing their bodies into the river. The majority of the black men suffered as they worked extra hard to barricade the floodwaters by cement. 

What was more, appalling was the fact that the levee system was not built for stronger storms despite years of construction. Storms that have caused flooding from the Mississippi River began in the 18 th century, with the most damaging ones notably being those in 1923 and the years following after and through 1965 until 2005. The river always broke the levee system and caused flooding to adjacent areas ( Rogers, 2006) . The 1927 floods were reported to be the most devastating and severe where the levees that were supposed to protect the river from flooding broke in 246 different regions and caused more than 1000 deaths and displaced 700,000 people. 246 people who died were from New Orleans ( Rogers, 2006) . Hurricanes were even more notorious in causing flooding in New Orleans that created destruction on a massive scale.in 1965, the same section of the IHNC levee that failed for Hurricane Katrina had seepage into crevasses to cause more flooding to the surrounding regions. Hurricane Georges that wreaked havoc in the Caribbean region and appeared to be headed for New Orleans in 1998 provided the last pre-test of how the levee system was vulnerable ( Rogers, 2006) . Despite numerous warnings over the years, nothing substantial was done to provide a long-lasting solution. The dire need for repairs and improvements of the levees were ignored. 

Racism as an Aftermath Effect of Hurricane Katrina 

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was marred with widespread abandonment of Africans Americans by the government. Race as a lens during Hurricane Katrina would be effectively looked at from a historical point of how the blacks were underprivileged and treated as inferiors to their white counterparts. George Bush even agreed that the deep, persistent poverty in New Orleans has long roots in the history of racial discrimination. Past events of racism cut of generations from the opportunity of being part of America as the blacks are continued to be poorer than the white until now ( Blodorn, O’Brien, Cheryan, & Vick, 2016) . The perceptions that whites in New Orleans and Louisiana and other regions were has less racist attitudes than other southern states were false. Despite the blacks being more than half by the late 1900s, the whites were more elite and powerful. New Orleans has the highest population of blacks than other large cities in the country ( Blodorn, O’Brien, Cheryan, & Vick, 2016) . Two-thirds of the people in the region before Hurricane Katrina were blacks with the whites-only being 28%. The area also recorded the highest number of black poverty in the country ( Lavelle, 2006) . Therefore, the level of mistreatment and neglect that was seen after Hurricane Katrina is a clear indication that racism was present and was propagated mainly by the government. 

Environmental Acts of Racism 

Past events of flooding saw that black communities were forced to live in a dangerous refugee that was not secure. It, therefore, comes to no surprise that the majority of the African Americans were concentrated in New Orleans that was below sea level and was predominantly known to be one of the regions that suffered most years centuries of flooding since its establishment in the 1700s. The city had become geographically segregated, with the blacks remaining poorer than the whites despite being many ( Race in the 1927 flood and Katrina) . Good neighborhoods were predominantly occupied by the white communities, with the blacks being barred by 1890. The prosperity that followed after the wars enabled the city governments to drain the Jefferson Parish Swamp and converted the area into a suburb mostly for the whites to live in. New neighborhoods that were later developed quickly got filled up with whites from the middle and working classes. This meant that even the poorest white people were allowed to live in better conditions than blacks. This contributed to African Americans in New Orleans to live in underserving neighborhoods as the whites occupied regions that were safe from flooding ( Race in the 1927 flood and Katrina) . The structural reality saw the blacks being disadvantaged than the whites as New Orleans continued to show itself as a typically black city. 

Economic Mistreatment of the Blacks 

Blacks in New Orleans were believed to the poorest African Americans in the country. The state of their public schools is also deemed as intolerable and worse than Louisiana, where teachers had low salaries, and children were less likely to go to school. The majority of the young men who dropped out of school were likely to end up in prison, where one is located on a formerly slave plantation. The economic inequality was further felt after Hurricane Katrina, where the majority of the affected people who were left unattended continued to suffer in poverty ( Race in the 1927 flood and Katrina) . Those who had resources, predominantly the whites, had easier and safer evacuations and rebuild their lives on safer grounds. Rescue efforts even saw support being rushed to regions that belonged to the whites to save some of the expensive properties instead of helping people equally ( Lee, 2012) . One day after major levees broke when Hurricane Katrina touched down in 2005, most of the city remained underwater while many of its residents remained trapped and not evacuated for days ( Ali, Farrell, Alexander, Forde, Stockton, & Ward, 2017) . Both local and national governments were blamed for the poor state of response that was given to the victims in the region. The majority of the residents in the city argued that the lack of enough resources such as cars prevented them from leaving before the tragedy occurred. Future predictions from people see that nothing will change in the future as the blacks will continue to be poorer than their white counterparts. A recent court 2005 court ruling in the case of Kelo vs. City of London (Conn.) allowed city governments to seize lands irrespective of whether they are private or public to bring economic development ( Lavelle, 2006). The new form of “ethnic cleansing” from mostly white developers will be gaining lands that belong to the African American community at lower prices and get rid of the modest-income neighborhoods and its people for many years to come. As a result, black people who owned homes before the storm had dep concerns that their land will be grabbed and resold. The city committee claimed that it wanted to revitalize the city and bring its people back while attracting others into the region. Behind the promising words lies a field of lies as people knew that they would not get their lives back ( Lavelle, 2006) . Just as how the underprivileged blacks did not have resources to evacuate before the hurricane stroke is the same way they would not have adequate resources to return back to the region. 

Political Impact of Racism 

The political effect and response from the government is not an aberration of otherwise human help to the victim of Hurricane Katrina, but one that reflected racial discrimination. Black people cried out for help from the government but instead faced a sense of neglect. For instance, bringing in the national guard in the attempt to calm down the violence in Louisiana was overrated and a display of unnecessary excessive force. The then governor, Kathleen Blanco, was quoted saying that the troops are well trained and fresh from war and would, therefore, help to restore order in those streets ( Harden, Walker, & Akuno, 2009). The policies formulated by the United States government went against the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. The United States admitted heir flaws in front of the UN Human Rights Committee in 2006 with regards to the Robert Stafford Act that denied rights to individuals who were displaced. While the blacks suffered in anguish as they waited from help from the government, the country was busy enacting outrageous laws that did not correspond to the United Nations Guiding Principles. For instance, the Robert T. Stafford Act says that the U.S. government does not have the primary responsibility to facilitate disaster recovery including providing humanitarian assistance to victims. The Act even sated that displaced people have no protection from the government against discriminatory acts ( Harden, Walker, & Akuno, 2009) . This could have perhaps been the reason as to why African Americans were left to suffer for a very long period without help from the government ( Ali, Farrell, Alexander, Forde, Stockton, & Ward, 2017) . The acts denied almost every right to the victims despite article 5 of the CERD prohibiting racial discrimination in any form. 

The hurricane evacuation plan prepared by the country’s Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Management Agency (FEMA) increased deaths and injuries for the majority of the victims who were predominantly African Americans. The plan evaded the blacks who have limited resources to help themselves evacuate. They also left black people without any humanitarian assistance for days. Their actions contributed to the deaths of more than 1000 people that occurred during and after the hurricane ( Harden, Walker, & Akuno, 2009) . Those stuck in flooded regions were even referred to as looters and criminals by military personnel and further subjected them to harsher treatments. The governor of Louisiana even ordered a shoot to kill order and had many blacks arrested a few days after the disaster. Law enforcement departments in Michigan and New Mexico even filed a complaint against the brutality and excessive use of force from the police in Louisiana and New Orleans ( Harden, Walker, & Akuno, 2009) . African American residents were even blocked from getting to safer regions and killed several people who attempted to cross over. Predominantly white neighborhoods were also inundated from floodwaters by the Army Corp Engineers, while black areas received no help to reduce the water level ( Lee, 2012). A comprehensive reduction of flooding was completed in 2011 as blacks continued to be exposed to life-threatening conditions. 

Conclusion 

The tremendous opposition from the government through the enactment and enforcement of harsh policies illustrated how racism was politically motivated. At the same time, the “economic” cause to rebuild the city was an attempt to reclaim land from black communities. The environmental state that the blacks had before and after the disaster was evident that the government did not care about African communities despite there being numerous warnings in the past of impending disasters. While FEMA and the U.S. Army attempted to restore the region, they became brutal instead and left people to fend for themselves while calling them looters and criminals. The government’s response to hurricane Katrina in the treatment of the blacks was deeply rooted in the historical racism that continues to pervade society years after its establishment in slavery. 

References 

Ali, J. S., Farrell, A. S., Alexander, A. C., Forde, D. R., Stockton, M., & Ward, K. D. (2017). Race differences in depression vulnerability following Hurricane Katrina.  Psychological trauma: theory, research, practice, and policy ,  9 (3), 317. 

Blodorn, A., O’Brien, L. T., Cheryan, S., & Vick, S. B. (2016). Understanding perceptions of racism in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina: The roles of system and group justification.  Social Justice Research ,  29 (2), 139-158. 

Harden, M., Walker, N., & Akuno, K. (2009). Racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing in the United States in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: A report to the United Nations’ Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.  Historical inevitability: The role of Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans saga , 19-33. 

Lavelle, K. (2006). Hurricane Katrina: The race and class debate. Monthly Review. Retrieved from https://monthlyreview.org/2006/07/01/hurricane-katrina-the-race-and-class-debate/ 

Lee, S. (2012). Spike Lees When The Levees Broke A Requiem in Four Parts Parts III and IV HBO HDTVgoat. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vuQKo_uuKE 

Lee, S. (2012). When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts - Parts I and II. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vuQKo_uuKE 

Race in the 1927 flood and Katrina. Lake Forest College. Retrieved from https://www.lakeforest.edu/academics/programs/environmental/courses/seniorseminar/2013/students/perry.php 

Reed, P. D. (2017). Heirs to Despair-ity: New Orleans, African Americans, and the Inconvenient Historical and Present-Day Truths Laid Bare by Hurricane Katrina. In  African American Consciousness  (pp. 77-92). Routledge. 

Rogers, J. D. (2006). Chapter Four: History OF THE New Orleans Flood Protection System.