Audre Lorde Research Paper

The article Being Poor, Black and American: The Impact of Political, Economic, and Cultural Forces written by William Julius Wilson is about the struggles and inequalities African Americans living in poverty encounter. Wilson discussed political, economic and cultural forces that have an impact on American impoverished communities. The author suggested the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina brought the media and world attention to poverty in the United States. Prior to Katrina, the author believes Americans did not focus or sympathize with poor communities. This unsympathetic attitude stems from the belief that people are poor because they did not work hard enough, or are not doing anything to get out of that situation. After Katrina, Americans started to notice and care about the impoverished communities because the hurricane was a natural disaster and out of their control. Overall, the author explains how politics, economics and cultures forced many families into poverty, and diminishes the idea that people live in poverty because of their own shortcomings.

Though the earthquake happened quickly, the lasting impact and trauma remained. In an article from the Wall Street Journal, Luhnow and Dugan stated that following the event many people went searching for psychological support and aid instead of physical (2010). After having buildings tumble and fall onto people, many suffered from PTSD and survivors guilt; children were the most emotionally traumatized, and there was a fundamental lack of aid for facing psychological traumas endured by so many (Luhnow & Dugan, 2010). As a society, an increase in crime and violence is on the rise; Haitians had no defined structure in communities, and most established norms

A modern-day study being done about the racial discrimination that was brought upon thousands of families during Hurricane Katrina is now in the limelight and takes a specific look at the way certain people perceive this notion of racism. The arguments that are being considered examine the past reports of Black and White participants regarding racial differences and their perceptions of the racial inequality following Hurricane Katrina. The participants for this investigation were asked whether or not the United States government would have provided aid and responded faster to different socio-economic and racial groups during the hurricane. According to de la Peña et al. (2010), a higher percentage of White participants said that socio-economic status is more important, while Blacks relied on race more. Additionally, more White participants believed that the slow government response effort was not influenced by race and/or socio-economic status of the victims. Although there is a contention between the two races, there is a higher percentage of agreement when concerning discrimination altogether.

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans. The communication broke down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were broken down, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” (Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS).

In December of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, tearing through the levee systems, and resulting in massive flooding that eventually covered 80% of New Orleans (1), leading to the most significant number of deaths by the storm. As images of Hurricane Katrina were displayed on front pages and television sets across the counry, Katrina became a strategic research site for sociological theory and research of how identity shapes a natural disaster (1). In this essay, I want to explore the fate of New Orleans. How will climate change affect human populations and which human populations will it affect? To do this, I will need to review both scientific and socially scientific papers to understand what the future of New Orleans and southern Louisiana will look like. Though this concept is technically broad for the limitations of this paper, I will review several pieces of literature to begin to gain an understanding of the social and ecological situations at play.

It is pretty poignant, yet honest to say that the hurricane Katrina has long derived an almost obsessional attention from Natasha writer. In “Beyond Katrina: A meditation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast”, Tretheway has purposely pictured the devastation scenario from witnesses’ narratives; hence her story could speak for many stories of people who are less visible, whom we cannot see struggling against the aftermath - the stories we may not know about how tenacious the return of Gulf Coast communities was from those tremendous sufferings they miserably faced up to.

The poem, “A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde is a both a confessional and identity poem. She is not only addressing her internal battle and self-suffering, but also discussing the societal inequities African American women were suffering in the United States. The poem’s diction, on the surface, produces a tranquil tone to the poem. This facet of tranquility in the poem is used to express how her battle against inequity will not be fought with violence or hatred, and how she is not blaming any specific party or institution for her personal suffering. She instead plans to use the power and beauty of words to communicate the flaws of the image of women, fight against injustice and racism, and alleviate her internal despair. “A Woman Speaks” by Audre Lorde is an anthem for African American women and uses vivid imagery, ancestral references, and a call to action to connect to the reader and enact a fight against the underrepresentation of African American women.

Audre Lorde was born on February 18, 1934 in New York City to immigrant parents from the West Indies. She learned to talk, read, and write somewhere around the age of four and wrote her first poem in eighth grade, which was then published in Seventeen magazine. In 1962, Lorde married a man named Edward Rollins and had two children before they divorced in 1970. However, in 1968 she moved to Tougaloo, Mississippi and met her long-term partner, Frances Clayton. Her earliest poems were often romantic, but in the 1960s became more politically centered due to the amount of civil unrest combined with confusion over her own sexuality. At the time many of her poems were written, more than one-fifth of the nation lived below the poverty line, and

“They killed my son in cold blood,” lamented Eloise Armstead. Her husband, Add Armstead, was traveling to work with a companion on Saturday evening in the early 1970s. Thomas Shea and Walter Scott, responding to a call about a cabby that was robbed earlier that day, used this opportunity to rid the world of the wicked and gain a victory for the righteous. Walking along New York Blvd. in South Jamaica, Queens, Shea and his partner pulled alongside the two. Armstead says, as he recalls the incident, “We were walking, not saying anything to each other, and this car pulls up, and this white fella opens the door with a gun.” To him and his companion it looked like they were going to be robbed, so they ran. As the gunshots

In October of 1998, Hurricane Mitch slammed onto the coasts of multiple South American countries. Countless people lost their homes, over eleven thousand people lost their lives, and the hurricane left five billion dollars’ worth of damage in its wake (“Hurricane Mitch”). This event caused a new wave of events also of short term mission trips. Americans seeing the cities torn to shreds decided to act. For a couple of weeks at a time, different groups would go clean up, rebuild, and show love to the people of these devastated

The opinion of New Orleans residents regarding how Hurricane Katrina was handled by the government also depends on the resident’s race, class, and gender. Many of the poor urban residents in New Orleans that were the most devastated by Hurricane Katrina were African American (Pardee, 2014). These residents felt that they were forgotten by their government and left to die because they did

A few identity components have all the earmarks of being connected with such strength, including an inclination toward self-upgrade and positive feelings. In like manner, certain demographic and logical components, including sex, training, social bolster, wellbeing, and less stretch introduction, are connected with versatile working. In any case, the enthusiastic and behavioral impacts of Hurricane Katrina—which created far-reaching group interruption, introduction to a variety of known danger components, and an extended recuperation—were more considerable than those subsequent from most past common calamities

As we all know, the world is surrounded by life and death. It is inevitable to avoid death, but preventions can always be made. Depending on how someone chooses to live their life that may lead them to their death. For example, if someone decides to live an unhealthy life style, than they may die being unhealthy. Another example is if someone risks their life to save others, than they may lose their life for the cause of another. The reason of death may be because of warfare, ailment, catastrophes, the lack of resources, old age, there are limitless reasons. We will be able to see how the different sites the hurricane passed through, hurt the citizens in different ways. In addition to this information we will also see how the loss of both life and material objects affect communities. In the first article, “Hurricane Matthew: floods hit Jamaica and Haiti as storm approaches” the news journal brings attention to the emergency procedures as many flee from their homes for the reason that a category 4 hurricane will cause great commotion. The news forecasters state that the hurricane will bring devastating chaos in Haiti and Jamaica. The storm has winds of 140mph which cause serious problems such as thing flooding and mudslides. For people who live in poor countries, Jamaica and Haiti have limited resources. Thus, housing construction is a problem because material is expensive and building houses take money and time people do not have. Also, water contamination and the

First, one must understand what human flourishing entails, in order to understand what might compromise it. Several different events in the United States provide examples of members of society coming together. Generally, disasters represent the events that bring members of society together, such as the September 11, 2001 disaster involving the Twin Towers in New York City, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the destruction caused by severe tornados in Oklahoma (Grossheim & Brodak, 2015). After each of these disasters, members from all over the United States participated in donating essential items, such as clothing, food, and shelter, to those who were negatively effected

Humans naturally want to have a successful life by building homes, schools, and creating jobs but natural catastrophes leave many people in chaos, depression, and poverty by destroying their livelihood in a very short period of time. From Hurricane Katrina to the Haiti Earthquake, entire communities have been demolished. In light of a disaster, communities from all over the world unite to help one cause - give hope and love to the individuals affected. In fiction or real world situations ordinary people in the United States or dystopian worlds, like Unwind, assist distressed populations to develop a positive community.