The Hard Truth — Katrina = Metrocide

5th September 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Min. J. Kojo Livingston
Contributing Writer

Six years later and what have we learned?

Six years ago this week one of the worst man-made disasters in the recorded history of the United States occurred. You could call it metrocide, the killing of a city or large portions thereof. It happened in the city I call home…New Orleans. I currently reside in Shreveport, La., but New Orleans is home.

It was man-made because of what happened before hurricane Kat­rina, what happened during Hur­ri­cane Katrina but mostly because of what has happened since Hur­ricane Katrina.

Prior to Katrina the local, state and federal governments ignored three decades of credible studies that agreed that the condition of the levees put the city at risk. They knew a big one would hit and kill thousands one day but chose to ignore the danger. It was certainly not due to a lack of government funds. Heck, a couple of missiles from a hi-tech bomber could have paid for most of the repairs without being missed. In a personal situation this would amount to, at worst criminal negligent homicide and at best a devastating lawsuit to atone for the lost lives and property.

During Katrina the most powerful government on earth let thousands of taxpayers suffer, starve or die in their own filth and horrendous heat instead of rescuing them like they do people in foreign countries. They did this with the world watching and have never had to give account for it. This alone may have extinguished the soul of the city.

After Katrina the U.S. government, especially FEMA (the new four-letter word) and non-profit agencies, especially the American Red Cross made it as difficult as possible for victims of the disaster to receive aid.

Red Cross concocted a 30-page application and a process that made getting even a little assistance more tedious than purchasing a home. It was clear that preventing some fraud was a higher value to them than helping the masses who needed it. White neighborhoods got fast approval and debit cards. Black neighborhoods didn’t. In several cities ARC staff was caught lying to Black disaster victims about what assistance was available. We had to send white people in to fool them.

The U.S. government rejected hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster aid from nations like China and Venezuela but still made Katrina survivors grovel and beg for minimal assistance. Two years later, after denying thousands of people aid, Red Cross publicly announced that it had to give away $85 million in furniture that it had refused to give Katrina victims. No criminal charges or lawsuits were filed against the agency for misuse of these resources…or just plain meanness.

What happened during and after Katrina showed us how low the mass media would go in demonizing Black survivors and perpetrating any sensational lie to exploit the situation. They made it worse by creating an animalistic image of those who were trapped in the city. Some people still repeat these lies today, like the one about people shooting at helicopters.

This may account for some of the savage and brutal behavior Black folks faced at the hands of law enforcement and the national guard. Innocent people were killed. Guns were pointed in the faces of women and children that I personally know, who dared asked when they were leaving or where they were going; children were taken from their parents and put on buses going in different directions. It was clearly not a rescue mission; it was a capture and occupation and the enemy’s skin was his uniform.

Last week I drove through “home.” Not the fancy rebuilt downtown or white uptown areas. I’m talking about the neighborhoods that used to thrive with Black life: Children playing, folks on porches, people walking or grilling outside, music blasting. When you go back to New Orleans you realize that it’s not the city you left. Much of the form is there but the substance is largely missing, like a dead man walking. Oh, we can still party with the best of them. But you still see the signs of death: Thousands of vacant lots where people have not been able to rebuild or storm-damaged structures that should have been torn down six years ago.

Some have made much of the fact that the name “Katrina” means cleansing. Unless we’re talking about ‘ethnic cleansing’ that name has little significance. The city is not “cleaner.” Neither its problems nor its sins have been washed away. If anything has been removed by the waters of Lake Pont­­char­train it is the façade of fairness or racial justice. White racists are pretty much open in their takeover of housing, politics, business and even Black culture. Every cultural entity has a mostly white board of directors.

Much like in Shreveport, Black “leaders” in New Orleans are generally docile and afraid to speak out or take a stand on anything of significance. Cops have declared open season to the extent that a white taxi driver even commented that he would not want to be Black in New Orleans.

Six years later, I have family who just returned and friends who are still waiting for their homes to be rebuilt. Why? Because of government agencies and policies that are punitive, racist and obstructive. After wrestling with the various entities one thing becomes really clear — somebody really does not want Black folks returning to the Crescent City. Nations who are defeated by the U.S. in wars get more respect faster aid.

We should NEVER forget and never stop telling the story. The lessons for Black people are many.

For Black people everywhere Katrina should stand as a warning. There’s a lot of hate in this nation toward us and a lot of people who don’t mind hurting us or watching us get hurt. Katrina showed us that the nation and the world would watch us suffer in mass and not challenge this government. That alone should make you feel uneasy.

Even the religious community was and is still as quiet about the injustice of Katrina as it was about the slaughter of Jews in Germany. The swelling of racist/conser­vative rhetoric and policies should be sounding like an alarm in our ears.

Now, more than ever we need to come together in small and large groups to plan for our future survival and prosperity. We need to use what we have to put ourselves and our children in a more secure position than we currently occupy. Then we must unite with any courageous allies we can find to aggressively work to change or replace the current system of rulership.

We have no one to depend on but God and ourselves.…and that’s the Hard Truth!

This article was originally published in the September 5, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper