What's Katrina's Problem?

Although I've been doing well without television, I think the main drawback is the fact that I'm without constant video updates of the devastation of New Orleans. However, from what I'm reading, that could also be a good thing. I've been using my trusty Yahoo! news coverage to figure out what is going on. In times of a massive amount of available news on one topic, I've always found that print journalism does a far better job.

I must say that when I first started hearing the reports of Katrina's impact on New Orleans I was a little annoyed. "These people had been ordered to evacuate; it's their own fault for staying." Now me, being the heartless-biznatch I was, I've had to re-evaluate my thoughts. From a tourists' and outsiders' perspective New Orleans is often viewed as a city of slothenly mayhem. Alcohol and sex for drunk white people seems to be what it is best known for. But, like most cities in the U.S. there are the real people of the city. Those who live there. That is who I forgot about as I heard the first reports of devastation in New Orleans. The people who stayed--those were the people who couldn't leave. Money and means of transportation are not widely available to all. Nor is there always another place to go. And when you've got little, the prospect of leaving that behind is terrifying. So, there were people who had to stay. And I had forgotten about them.

And the government seemed to as well before this happened. Its previous actions/inactions and now, reactions, are honestly quite disturbing. Apparently for decades the government knew that the levees along the gulf coast were inadequate. They calculated cost-effectiveness, and well, money and the human lives of those there weren't important enough to cause it to repair them to withstand a natural disaster. (I also should point out that this has been a concern through reigns of both major political parties) Then there is the fact that there are STILL thousands of people without food, water, shelter--basic necessities. It's not like they're on some remote island in the middle of the Pacific. They are in freaking New Orleans. There are buses and helicopters able to come in. Mass evacuation is possible. But hey, "let's suspend them because we think someone shot at one of the helicopters!" Yes, shooting at rescuers is not good, but what can be expected (now expect a bit of more anti-racist rhetoric)?

New Orleans is a city that is over 65% African-American. According to one media report, whites there make nearly twice what blacks make. Thus, it's easy to see why we see fewer whites on the pictures--they had more of a financial means to leave the city beforehand. And those who are left behind . . . after working in at least two different ghettoes of the U.S. it's easy to see why these poor minority groups are upset with the rescue workers. We see poor blacks clinging to their children and belongings and white 20-something-year-old males covered in black uniforms holding machine guns standing nearby. Surprise, surprise but law enforcement officials are not highly regarded in poor communities. In L.A. I have had to sit back while the local law enforcement tried to "bring order" to local high schools. I have had kids tell me how they were arrested for skateboarding where an officer asked them not to. Granted, neither of these things should have happened, but in poor minority communities, officers (who are generally on a bit of a power trip) react far differently than they would in a white, middle-class community. And so, now in a place like New Orleans there is "lawlessness" where the residents wanted immediate relief from their suffering, and they're bitter they didn't get it. After a lifetime of slow-brewing poverty, is it wrong to expect that when their poverty is demolished into nothing they are upset? No. Is it wrong for me to assume that if a natural disaster hit someplace like Maine (which is I'm assuming majority white), the residents would have been quickly evacuated and cared for? (one of the few-publicized stories of the tsunami was the fact that there was an immediate mass exodus of the white tourists and ex-pats in the South Pacific while rescue workers left behind little for the non-white locals). Just get the National Guard in there and help them. Even if they're shooting. Not everyone wanted the National Guard in Iraq, but the Guard still went there to "save" people. But if the Guard can't even restore enough order in New Orleans to get rescue workers in, I wonder just how well they're doing in those overseas missions . . .

Then, there is the president's comments quoted from the AP article . . . "I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during an emergency such as this — whether it be looting, or price gouging at the gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The citizens ought to be working together." Yes, Mr. Bush, I agree that the people at the top shouldn't be taking advantage of those who are suffering in the South. I also agree that taking someone else's valuables isn't acceptable either. But damn that woman who looted diapers for her baby. You should really fine her along with the pump peddlers charging $5.00 a gallon. Zero tolerance? Heck, let's put her in prison! Death penalty, anyone?

And speaking of looting, media is now in a tizzy evaluating itself. Why is it that the AP commented on two different pictures--both with victims carrying away food, and according to captions, the black person had been "looting" and the white people had "found" the food? Then, there are those journalists lamenting whether the term "looting" is in and of itself racist. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I do believe it is high time media take a step back to examine why certain words are used to describe the conditions or actions of people of different races.

Racism aside, there are few that will argue that not enough is being done, and the reaction is not quick enough; I don't think that will be changing any time soon, sadly enough.

I will leave you with a comment in the AP by Terry Ebbert, head of New Orlean's city emergency operations. "This is a national emergency. This is a national disgrace," he said. "FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans."

But don't worry, everyone's biggest fears were eased today. The New Orleans Saints announced their season will go on elsewhere.