In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, America has learned many critical lessons on how federal financial assistance engaged in during emergency management activities can more effectively ensure that every member of the society receives such services through established guides on the national response to all types of disasters and emergencies and adequate recovery support to disaster-impacted areas.
Need for Guidance
The Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, made landfall in Louisiana, ravaging the coastal communities, as well as the counties of Mississippi, Alabama, and much of Southeastern America. Thousands of people lost their lives. Lost their homes and the neighborhoods they had developed over generations while emergencies and disasters may affect all people, communities of color's ability to access critical recovery programs, activities, and services often have been tampered with. To point how such discriminatory services, occur, during the Hurricane Katrina, numerous media reports showed images of black Americans stranded on roofs in New Orleans, exposing significant inequalities in access to emergency response and recovery efforts (Marable & Clarke, 2016). The teams planning for Karina assumed that most people would rely on personal vehicles to evacuate the victims, and failed to consider the transportation needs of all segments of the population.
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Nondiscriminatory access to shelters in the aftermath of the hurricane also posed a significant challenge for diverse racial and ethnic communities. Many people seeking temporary housing, immediately, encountered discriminatory rental advertisements that explicitly refused to rent to black Americans. White persons were favored over black Americans seeking shelter using contacts available to Katrina evacuees. These types of problems were not only limited to Hurricane Katrina; the subsequent disasters in other parts of the country have revealed additional cases of how communities of color and other key populations have been denied essential services and programs in disaster recovery efforts.
Recipients of federal financial assistance could play a pivotal role in ensuring that these inequities do not reoccur in future emergencies and disasters. Many state and local government agencies and other law enforcement agencies are on the front lines of responding to emergencies and are integrally involved in emergency management. Many of the services provided by these agencies, including emergency housing and shelter, access to transportation, food banks, childcare services, and public health programs, as well as long-term housing and support, are not only essential during the emergency situations, but also in the preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery stages.
The National Response and Disaster Recovery Frameworks
The Recovery Framework points out that care must be taken to ensure that actions, whether intentional or unintentional do not exclude groups of people based on race, color, national origin (including limited English proficiency), religion, sex or disability.
Just like the National Disaster Recovery Framework, the National Response Framework also highlights the importance of complying with the requirements of non-discrimination of civil rights statutes, ensuring equal opportunity to access recovery efforts, and addressing the needs of the whole community.
This guidance provides an extensive overview of the application of Title VI in emergency and disaster management, and the examples of promising practices that help in ensuring non-discrimination on the basis of race, national origin, or color recipients of federal financial assistance (Abramson et al., 2015). This is the assistance that provides information or services in connection with disasters like hurricanes must also comply with any other federal anti-discrimination provisions, which include prohibitions against discrimination and specific affirmative obligations for all federally aided activities based on sex, disability, religion, economic status, age, or family status.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
This bill and its implementing regulations obligate recipients of federal financial assistance to make sue non-discrimination in federally-assisted programs of emergency preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery, and activities all beneficiaries must comply with this regulation, as well as any other anti-discrimination laws, at all times including during emergencies. This article provides that no person in America shall on any discriminatory grounds such as color, race, or national origin be discriminated in participating in, be denied the privileges of, or be subjected to unfair practices under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Title VI's plain text and agency regulations point out that discrimination based on race, national origin, or color is prohibited. Recipients of federal financial assistance are also forbidden from implementing facially-neutral policies and practices that have a disproportionate impact on protected groups (Hersch & Shinall, 2015). Additionally, this bill requires recipients to make sure that LEP persons have sufficient access to programs or activities, services, benefits, and vital information. To prevent violations of federal law, recipients must also ensure that their actions do not exclude individuals because of their color, race, or national origin, or their limited English proficiency.
The proscription of discrimination by color, race, and national origin can never be waived. Recipients of federal financial assistance involved in emergency management activities, as well as recipients that provide emergency-related services, such as health providers and law enforcement agencies, must comply with Title VI at all times. As a matter of fact, complying with these requirements becomes even more critical during emergencies and disasters in order to ensure that no person is unjustly denied the services and support they need during times of crisis. This is when their physical safety or wellbeing is often at the greatest of risks, and when most of the resources they might otherwise have drawn upon for support may not be available. Proper planning to comply with this requirement avoid Complications imposed by the exigencies of emergencies and disasters.
Practices for Ensuring Title VI Compliance during Emergency and Disaster
Reaffirm Commitment to Nondiscrimination Protection. Recipients who convey this commitment within their departments, agencies, and organizations, as well as externally through training, policies, and outreach set the stage for improved mechanisms compliance and more effective delivery of services. Useful information sharing with affected or potentially affected communities is a reasonable way to reaffirm recipients' loyalty to Title VI protections. It is also necessary to advance effective emergency preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery efforts (Rutherglen, 2015). Information sharing activities also present a significant opportunity for recipients to inform the beneficiaries of their nondiscrimination rights directly.
Engage with, and include different racial, ethnic, and limited English proficient population. Direct engagement with different racial, ethnic, and LEP people or through community and faith-based organizations civil legal aid, and ethnic media outlet is a crucial step in ensuring that beneficiaries of federal financial assistance comply with Title VI nondiscrimination policies, as well as that of other civil rights regulations. Recipients should not hold back until there is an emergency or disaster to engage with different racial, ethnic, and LEP populations or to seek their cooperation to help inform emergency management. Consistent and robust awareness can assist recipients' efforts to include the entire community in emergency planning, as well as, recovery stages.
Provide meaningful access to LEP individuals. This regulation and agency implementing regulations require recipients to take a reasonable step to ensure the meaningful access to the information and services Title VI provide to LEP persons. Recipients should make language services accessible in all their public-facing programs or translations services. For instance, monolingual communication in the LEP person's language, and sight translation. Including input from agencies, and addressing the needs of the LEP population in evacuation and disaster preparedness plans which are made widely available helps in ensuring that communities have access to them when needed.
In conclusion, as can be seen through the paper, it is crucial that better mechanisms are put in place to ensure no discrimination or biasness in the process of helping victims of such natural calamities as hurricanes and tornadoes. It is the duty of the government and other relevant bodies to ensure that there are established criteria in achieving these mechanisms for equality.
References
Abramson, D. M., Grattan, L. M., Mayer, B., Colten, C. E., Arosemena, F. A., Bedimo-Rung, A., & Lichtveld, M. (2015). The resilience activation framework: a conceptual model of how access to social resources promotes adaptation and rapid recovery in post-disaster settings. The journal of behavioral health services & research , 42 (1), 42-57.
Hersch, J., & Shinall, J. B. (2015). Fifty years later: The legacy of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management , 34 (2), 424-456.
Marable, M., & Clarke, K. (Eds.). (2016). Seeking higher ground: The Hurricane Katrina crisis, race, and public policy reader . Springer.
Rutherglen, G. (2015). Private rights and private actions: The legacy of civil rights in the enforcement of Title VII. BUL Rev. , 95 , 733.
