Racial tensions rise in New Orleans; economic segregation endures

[Selatius]

NEW ORLEANS — The videotape seems to show just another night at Razzoo, a popular French Quarter nightclub known for three-for-one drink specials and raucous dance parties. But then, as the crowd parts, the tape shows three white bouncers pinning a black man to the ground.

When they rise, the man does not move. Later that night, Levon Jones Jr., 25, was pronounced dead.

The college student's death five months ago has become a flashpoint for New Orleans, plunging a city famous for its easygoing vibe into a painful period of introspection and antagonism.

The NAACP has called for a federal civil rights investigation into the death, the city has scrambled to write "use of force" guidelines for bouncers, and some African Americans have threatened to boycott the city. The death, meanwhile, has been followed by a series of racially charged controversies.

In March, a jury found the city's first black district attorney guilty of discrimination for firing 42 white employees and replacing them with blacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050530/ts_latimes/bigeasyisuneasyafterdeathofblackclubgoer

I highly suggest people to click the link and read all the way through. Some of the information is, to say the least, saddening.

[Amelie]

1. It is sad

I live in Orleans parish, and one of the things I've always loved about this place has been the "us against them" feeling; no one understands a New Orleanian unless you are one; who else can find CL-10 on a street map? The people here have always stuck together, and I hate to see that slipping away.

Anyway, race be damned, this white woman plans to go watch the Mardi Gras Indians next year. AND if anyone should come to New Orleans, PLEASE go visit Ernie K-Doe's widow. It's people like that who keep the real New Orleans spirit alive.

[Selatius]

2. A further snippet from the story:

In an effort to quantify some of New Orleans' problems, Nagin commissioned the nonprofit Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center — which typically investigates allegations of discrimination in the housing market — to look into claims of racism in the French Quarter this spring.

Teams of young adults, black and white, visited 28 French Quarter bars. The groups coordinated their dress — some dressed sloppily, while others made sure to wear dress shoes and no hats — and their drink orders.

In more than half of the bars visited, whites were treated better than blacks. At nearly half, blacks were victims of price-gouging. They were told more often than whites that they must abide by a drink minimum to enter, and they were more frequently told — as Williams reportedly was before the scuffle that killed Jones — that they did not satisfy a dress code.

James Perry, the executive director of the housing center, said the different standards were part of an elaborate, off-the-books effort to establish "quotas" on the number of blacks in some bars. He said some bars believed they could maintain a steadier profit margin by avoiding being labeled black clubs.