Month: April 2006

Here is an interesting article I came across this evening in my quest to figure out why things are the way the are in the hurricane damaged areas.
Another perspective:

Where Are the Black People Offering Relief?
By Sasha Vann
Black College Wire 

Since Hurricane Katrina hit last August, many of us have moved on with our lives.

But not those in the Gulf Coast region. I bore witness.

Spring Break 2006 gave many college students the opportunity to see firsthand the damage created by a storm that changed the face of America.

Katrina on the Ground, a project sponsored by several grass-roots organizations, allowed black college students a chance to help an area where the large African American population was devastated. March 12-17 gave us the opportunity to help. But we didn’t expect the surprise.

With all the allegations of injustices delivered to African Americans in the United States, I figured that the NAACP, the Universal Negro Improvement Association and other black-focused groups had been in Mississippi and Alabama with one fist in the air, the other dragging limbs.

Nope.

Everyone we met in those areas looked at us with wide eyes like we were the second coming of Christ. All we heard for an entire week was that we were the first group of black people that they had seen in the area and that they were so grateful for our help.

My question was, “where in the hell is everyone else?” Then I realized something that struck me as just plain ridiculous.

I knew of no relief provided by our own.

Our own, as in the people who looked like those who had been exploited, making national headlines without national help.

Our own, as in those who lived in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and are still recovering body parts from hidden corners on the streets.

Our own, as in those who, trapped in the capitalistic constraints of America, couldn’t look to their democratic government to provide shelter and medicine at the height of the storm.

It took walking into a volunteer center to see that what the residents spoke as truth was only a part of this realization. Walking onto that field in Biloxi, Miss., was like stepping onto Duke University’s campus.

Don’t get me wrong. Relief efforts should not be segregated. In a catastrophe of this scale, I applaud anyone who works in the gulf.

But I must say I am disgusted by the lack of initiative taken by the black community.

So what have we been doing?

I mean, while the rest of America sat in front of the television for the three weeks after the storm, those directly affected watched their lives flow down the new rivers in their neighborhoods.

They watched their so-called government pass over them like roadkill. They watched their family members die hopelessly in front of them.

And so did black America.

We, the African American population who represent those disproportionately affected by the storm, witnessed the atrocities. Due to the inadequacies of the Red Cross and FEMA, many of us saw how masses were taken away on the back of trucks, only to be dropped off in locations more chaotic and severe than the place they left.

People, please understand that we are doing an injustice to ourselves by not helping our people. Yes, the media over-romanticized New Orleans and completely dismissed Mississippi and Alabama, places where people are still living in tents and dead bodies are turning up in houses.

I ask three questions:

What is wrong with us?

What are we waiting on?

And why can we not ever seem to help ourselves?

The organization that we worked alongside was called Saving Ourselves, or S.O.S., which did a profound job in supplying the volunteers with food and shelter during our stay.

However, the denial of help to other black people when we can clearly devote the time, energy and money is strictly murder.

I need for the fratricide to stop.

Really.

Sasha Vann, a junior history major at North Carolina Central University, is sports editor of the Campus Echo.

Posted April 3, 2006

Here is the government’s site listing all the relief efforts and future expenditures for Katrina’s victims. “President Bush continues to follow through with the Federal commitment to “do what it takes” to help residents of the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives in the wake of the disaster.” This is a clue to what you will find here at the Dept. of Homeland Securtiy Site.

I have been asking everyone I run into for their take on the Katrina disaster and what they think needs to be done. The answers I received were not what I had expected. Upper middle class to upper class persons (Republican’s mostly) thought the remaining problems related to the displaced moved to Texas and all the ungrateful complaining they were doing. “No wonder Texas wants them out.” The more liberal minded were surprised/shocked after looking at my photos, videos, and hearing my personal observations, that the situation was as it is. They really did not understand the damaged areas were still in need of cleanup and their personal knowledge was limited to plans their Church groups had for providing cleanup assistance later this summer or donations they had made and what they had seen on the evening news.

The mid to lower (economic) class people tended to feel the governments failures were directly related to rich peoples views about poverty and racial isssues. “They do not care, they want those people to suffer”. “If it were a bunch of whites stiffs they would be there helping more”.
I came across this article by Robert Radujko-Moore, Ph.D. at My Spaces that expresses a common opinion I heard a lot.

Bold-Face Katrina Immorality
Let’s Get Past Diluting the Disaster with Words
Yet Once We Know Who The Enemy Is, It May Be Us

“The majority of displaced citizens are black/African Americans. From Willie Lynch to the “Jim Crow” laws and beyond, racism is a fact in the United States. A lot has changed, yet from sea to shining sea there is nothing like the South.”

Well folks, the people I saw were young, old, short, tall, white, black, employed, on public assistance, not on public assistance, middle class, upper class, and poor. Katrina apparently did not differentiate or discriminate when delivering her blow. The few I conversed with were friendly and upbeat. The exception was when we became semi lost in New Orleans and – well – I had a few moments of being afurd (nerd scared) – but that is another story. ..

With Delay exposed and George Bush the known as the “Head Leaker” will people listen to the “liberals” now. After all we have screamed, protested, and written about the corrupt, money hungry, out of touch with the ordinary citizen administration. Tax cuts for the Richest, Iraq, Social Security plans, Katrina, cuts in medical coverage and other social programs, ummmm. ..

I don’t know why but I just thought of a few lines from Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye): “Dear God, you made many, many poor people. I realize, of course, that it’s no shame to be poor. But it’s no great honor either!”