Five days before Hurricane Katrina struck, 100 persons gathered
at a local Catholic Church in Eastern New Orleans. They were
there to talk about the city's astronomically high rate of
poverty that had increasingly become a national embarrassment.
This was not a gathering of academics, local and state officials,
and business leaders. They were community residents, welfare
recipients, ex-offenders, and anti-poverty activists. Most
of them were black.
Many of them did not have cars and had to take buses to
get to the meeting. That wasn't unusual. Nearly one out of
three New Orleans residents don't have cars. The participants
had a deep sense that they were in a race against time to
do something to combat the looming poverty crisis. The poverty
rate for young and old in New Orleans was double and triple
the national average. Nearly 100,000 households were eligible
for federal Earned Income Tax Credit but had failed to take
advantage of it. Nearly 60, 000 children were eligible for
a health care program for low-income families but were not
enrolled in. The city's poor had grown more numerous and desperate
than ever.
The
times over the years that I have visited friends that
live in neighborhoods away from the glitter of Bourbon
Street, the French Quarter and other tourist spots,
I was struck by the dire poverty, the legions of panhandlers,
and homeless persons on the streets, the large number
of abandoned, run down buildings, and the pock marked,
unkempt streets and sidewalks in poorer neighborhoods.
New Orleans was indeed the classic tale of two cities,
one showy, middle-class and white, and the other poor,
downtrodden, and largely low-income blacks. It was a
city that didn't wait for a disaster to happen. The
city's grinding poverty and neglect had already wreaked
that disaster on thousands.
Katrina only added to the misery. What happened next
was predictable. Federal bumbling, bungling, and cash
shortages turned relief efforts into a nightmare. That
virtually guaranteed that some blacks out of criminal
greed and others out of sheer desperation and panic
would take to the streets in an orgy of looting and
mayhem. It was equally predictable how some state and
federal officials, and some in the media would respond.
They instantly branded the looters, animals, thugs,
and even less charitably cockroaches. Though it wasn't
said directly, some state officials inferred that soldiers
should shoot to kill to restore order. That would turn
New Orleans into a war zone, and the ones that as often
happens in any war that are hurt the most are innocents
who have nothing to do with the criminal violence. And
that is the overwhelming majority of New Orleans poor.
It would further embed the image of New Orleans blacks
as lawless, out of control, and undeserving of any sympathy
and support.
It was even more predictable that some black leaders
would wag the blame finger at Bush and city officials
and accuse them of racism in not responding fast enough
to the crisis. Certainly city and state officials must
take some heat for the chronic neglect of the New Orleans
poor. And Bush must take heat for the severe cutbacks
that crippled FEMA's ability to speedily manage, coordinate
and fully fund disaster efforts. Bush's singular obsession
with the war on terrorism has also resulted in the radical
shift of millions in money and personnel from disaster
relief to Homeland Security. That shift in priorities
further hampers federal efforts to deal with disaster
relief.
The heavy handed rush to openly or subtly to paint the
tragedy of New Orleans as yet another terrible example
of the black-white divide in America does a horrible
disservice to the poor and needy that are suffering.
Admittedly a majority of them are black, but many of
the victims are white too. This stirs fear, anger, and
latent racism in many whites. It stirs the same fear
anger, and racial antipathies among many blacks.
The comments on some black web sites pulse with wild
speculation that the continual TV shots of blacks running
wild in the streets are orchestrated to insure that
as little as possible will be done to aid New Orleans
blacks. That kind of talk smacks of defeatism. If one
screams racism and deliberate neglect, and when it happens
scream even louder, I told you so, it becomes a grim
self-fulfilling prophecy.
The poor of New Orleans need massive aid, long term
relief, and the continued goodwill and sympathy of the
nation to put their lives back together. They also need
a sustained public effort to lobby the Bush administration
to drastically up the ante on the paltry and embarrassingly
low $10 billion that he's pledged for Katrina disaster
relief. That's less than it costs to bankroll two months
of the Iraq war. Sadly, turning the monumental tragedy
in New Orleans into racial one-upmanship, piles one
tragedy on top of another.
Earl
Ofari Hutchinson is a columnist for BlackNews.com,
an author and political analyst.
For
media interviews, contact:
Mr. Hutchinson at 323-296-6331 or hutchinsonreport@aol.com
Email
This Article To A Friend
