America's Shame: 2 years after Hurricane Katrina

[Sapphire Blue]

America's Shame: 2 years after Hurricane Katrina
by the Sacramento Area Black Caucus

"If you are poor and of African descent, America is not concerned about your well-being."

On August 29, 2007, the nation will commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. As we prepare to remember this incomprehensible devastation, the Sacramento Area Black Caucus (SABC) is outraged by the ongoing neglect of the thousands of community members, communities, local businesses, schools, libraries and colleges throughout the Gulf Coast regions.

(snip)

Even before the storms, the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast regions were exposed to poverty and a historic legacy of institutional neglect, classism, sexism and racism. The Bush administration's policies, designed to pad the coffers of big business and the pockets of the wealthiest Americans, have deepened and reinforced this poverty. Tax cuts for the wealthy, bold faced cronyism and the changes in bankruptcy laws all point to a government that operates on a policy of quick grabs for the few with little regard for those outside the favored circle or the future of the country. The relief and rebuilding efforts must first and foremost benefit the people of these communities, restore their lives, their businesses and put the region back to work.

The message was very clear during and even now two years after Hurricane Katrina's devastation. The world witnessed first hand American's shame: If you are poor and of African descent, America is not concerned about your well-being. During the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and even today, the world watched the bureaucratic bungling, massive incompetence and unconscionable neglect.

(snip)

Katrina exposed the region's deep-rooted inequalities of gender, race, and class. Katrina did not create the inequalities; it provided a window to see them more clearly. But the aftermath of Katrina has aggravated these inequalities. In fact if you plot race, class and gender you can likely tell who has returned to New Orleans. The Institute of Women's Policy Research pointed out:

"The hurricanes uncovered America's longstanding structural inequalities based on race, gender, and class and laid bare the consequences of ignoring these underlying inequalities." As Oxfam documented, government neglect has plagued the rebuilding of smaller towns like Biloxi Mississippi, and rural parishes of Louisiana, leaving the entire region in distress. In Biloxi, the first to be aided after the hurricane were the casinos, which forced low-income people out of their homes and neighborhoods. In rural Louisiana, contradictory signals by government agencies have slowed and in some cases reversed progress. Small independent family commercial fishing businesses have been imperiled by the lack of recovery funds. The federal assistance that has occurred has tended to favor the affluent and those with economic assets.

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Additionally, we are encouraging all citizens to remember, "Passivity, massive incompetence and indifference to the people's needs did the most damage" We are urging voters to engage in honest dialogues and demand congressional candidates and presidential candidates that are seeking your support to live up the America's responsibility. Americans should and must commit the much needed resources to rebuild those communities destroyed in Gulf Coast regions.


http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=308&Itemid=33

[waiting for hope]

1. Thank you SB -

As you know, New Orleans was my home for over a decade, thank you for bringing this to light.

K&R!!