Not Much Has Changed
President Bush made some bold promises to help the Gulf Coast’s poor after Katrina. Too bad he hasn’t kept them
Web-exclusive commentary
By Michael Eric Dyson
Special to Newsweek
Updated: 1:51 p.m. ET Aug 25, 2006
Aug. 25, 2006 - A year after one of the worst disasters in the nation’s history, New Orleans remains a shameful symbol of the Bush administration’s neglect and its antigovernment philosophy. The condition of the black poor has barely changed since Katrina struck.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, Katrina’s violent winds and killing waters swept into the mainstream a stark realization: the nation’s poor had been abandoned by society and its institutions long before the storm. Since then, we have failed to acknowledge that grinding poverty is fueled by social choices and public-policy decisions that directly impact how many people are poor and how long they remain that way. There were 37 million people living in poverty in the United States in 2004, the last year for which U.S. Census Bureau figures are available, and 1.1 million of those fell below the poverty line entirely. Some of the poorest folk in the nation have been largely ignored, rendered invisible, officially forgotten. FEMA and other parts of government left them dangling precipitously on rooftops and in attics because of bureaucratic bumbling. Homeland Security failed miserably in mobilizing resources to rescue Katrina survivors without food, water or shelter.
The hardest-hit regions in the Gulf States had already been drowning in extreme poverty. More than 90,000 people in each of the areas stormed by Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama made less than $10,000 a year. Black folk in these areas were strapped by incomes that were 40 percent less than those earned by whites. Before the storm, New Orleans, with a 67.9 percent black population, had more than 103,000 poor people. That means the Crescent City had a poverty rate of 23 percent, nearly double the national average of 13.1 percent.
It’s apparent that Katrina’s survivors lived in concentrated poverty—they lived in poor neighborhoods, attended poor schools and had poor-paying jobs that reflected and reinforced a distressing pattern of rigid segregation. To be sure, concentrated poverty is the product of decades of public policies and political measures that isolate black households in neighborhoods plagued by severe segregation and economic hardship. But the policies of the Bush administration have only made things worse. Ironically, Bush’s first nationally televised speech after the disaster offered hope that his administration might finally get the gist of the problem. Bush stated that the “deep, persistent poverty” of the Gulf Coast “has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which has cut off generations from the opportunity of America,” and that we must “rise above the legacy of inequality.”
Since then the president has completely backed off such bold analysis. He has failed to foster public policy and legislation that helps the poor to escape their plight. Instead, he remains intent on slashing tens of billions from social programs that help the poor combat such a vicious legacy. Neither has the president offered creative solutions to a prime source of poverty: the nation’s failing public schools. Bush’s No Child Left Behind act promised to bolster the nation’s crumbling educational infrastructure, but instead has only exacerbated the problems: underperforming schools, low reading levels, and wide racial and class disparities. Bush has even failed to sufficiently fund his own mandate, reinforcing class and educational inequality.
Rest of article here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14515119/site/newsweek/
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