Class Inequalities During Hurricane Katrina

It appears to be that the discussion of race and class in America has become amplified, especially in the last couple of years. For many, it is a touchy subject that hits close to home. With the presence of social media and news that feeds off of racial tension in America, the issues are polarizing and difficult to productively discuss. America’s handling of race and class relations is generally not something to be proud of, and there exists a long history of issues with race. It is clear that there is a lack of understanding and empathy of what others experience toward those who are oppressed. So often it is too easy to dismiss another human’s experiences as reality if one has had no prior encounter with the same challenges. Race is easy to sweep under the rug, but we must address the problem, and it is not a one size fits all solution. It is a problem that has been years in the making and continues to have an enormous impact on our human capital from an economic standpoint. And most of the time, there is a correlation between race and class.

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.

Two images taken from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2008, depict two different stories although the images themselves are almost identical aside from one thing; the color of skin of the people in both images. Focusing in on image A, which shows an African American male walking through high, dangerous waters hanging onto a trash bag full of food and other goods. Similarly, image B also depicts a man and woman doing the same thing—treading through high waters gripping onto food and supplies, however these two people in image B are Caucasian. The issue that is comprised of these two images that Harris and Carbado touch on are the captions below the two images. In image A of the African American male holding the supplies, the caption reads, “A young man walks through chest-deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans,” while image B with the two Caucasian individuals who were also holding onto supplies while wading through flood water had a caption of, “Two residents wade through chest-deep waters after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store

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).

As Hurricane Katrina ravaged the South and drowned large parts of New Orleans this past September, the ugly reality of our nation's continuing problem with class, poverty, and race became apparent. Many Americans began to question the possibility of racism being a deciding factor in the fate of many New Orleans citizens who were black and who lived in the poorest, most low-lying portion of the city, the Ninth Ward. Many, including First Lady Laura Bush, denounce critics who say race played a role in the federal government's slow response to the victims of Katrina. While it is possible that the government's slow response to the disaster was not directly due to racism, there are many unanswered questions suggesting the protection of the city

Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29th, 2005. The events that followed would leave the whole nation in shock until this day. One of the major topics of discussion after this disaster was whether or not the government's slow reaction time had anything to do with the fact that New Orleans is sixty-seven percent African American. As helicopters circled a wasteland that was once a major tourist attraction, the racism of the Deep South, thought to be extinct, proved it was only dormant. The same racism against African Americans that could be seen on Bourbon Street in the months prior to the hurricane reared its ugly head once more in Gretna, LA and was pointed out on live television by rapper Kanye West.

There are many examples which show the close relationship between social justice and harm including Hurricane Katrina, which was a category 5 hurricane that hit the Gulf of Mexico Coast, Louisiana before descending chaos on New Orleans. Levees that protect New Orleans were broken and the area was flooded with toxic water, much of the population were forced to evacuated, however there were a many citizens left behind. The majority of whom were black and or poor. Accounts of two paramedics who were present and the media reports of the Hurricane highlight both social harm and social justice and how they are viewed differently within the

In the television show The First 48, which is promoted as being an authentic form of reality television, the depiction of blacks as criminals is evident. In most cases, it is a black person who is suspected, accused and arrested for a crime; although, one might argue the show does its job to follow along with the calls received and crimes reported, the overrepresentation of blacks relative to the population numbers is evident. Ardis C. Martin, in an Academic Psychiatry Journal, writes, “People develop conceptions about the world as a result of repeated exposure to consistent and repetitive images in the media.” In watching The First 48, it is no surprise why a white consumer would come to the realization that all blacks are deviant criminals, while a black consumer would be susceptible to being a criminal because of a media that has already defined him or her by the color of his or her skin.

This book has emboldened and inspired us to think about racial discrimination and classism in the twenty-first century. Foley proves with a lot of evidence that racial power is neither obtained through racial identity alone nor is it maintained through a form of class or gender oppression. It perseveres through endless racism, as those in power accommodate themselves to remain in power. People of color are also able to fine-tune themselves to become white through changes in their economic class and embracement of white values. In this process, the so-called colored whites will be use to reinforce white power and deny hope and freedom to other people of color, the poor and

Explanations that justify the use of racism directly relates to differential treatment of minority groups and contributes to racism’s existence as an unstoppable social problem. The foundations of these explanations are based on the common misunderstanding of the definition of race. Thus, problems that tend to concentrate in one race are mistakenly judged as “race problems”. This judgement leads to the establishment of a system of inequality between a superior race and inferior races. However, the logic behind these explanations don’t account for the true reasoning behind minority individuals value status. In fact, these explanations contribute to minority individuals’ further struggle in life.

Racial discrimination dominated over social classes creating an unfair way to divide people. "In all areas of life, Americans were persuaded that the major races - black, Indian, Asian, and white - could not and should not live or work together and certainly not as equals." (Smedley 221) All other races were homogenized, regardless of education, skills, language, religion, income, or place of origin, into one simple category. Class separation was temporary and situational, as so many Americans were quick to uncover. White Americans believed that anyone who succeeded in business, politics, entertainment, or their professions automatically improved their class status and eliminated the barriers to upper class institutions. Class barriers can be surpassed; race barriers can not.

Past research demonstrates a large racial divide in support of issues with clear racial overtones and we examine the possibility of a racial divide in reactions to Katrina using data from a national telephone survey of white and black Americans. Some find that there is a large different in racial sympthanys for the victims of Hurrican Katrina, how fast the government responded to urgency of attention for the victims, and support for proposed solutions to mend hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, verifying the racial nature of the disaster. Blacks viewed the hurricane victims more positively than did whites, drew a sharper distinction and held more sympathetic feelings for those stranded than evacuated from New Orleans, and were substantially more supportive of government efforts to improve the situation of hurricane victims and rebuild New Orleans. This racial gap is as large as any observed in recent polls, holds up even after controlling for education, income and other possible racial differences, and documents more fully differences that were hinted at in public opinion polls reported at the time of the disaster.

Introduction: I have learned a multitude of concepts during this quarter that will linger with me for years to come, the two that resonate the most, for me, are classism and racism. Classism and Racism are the two most prominent “ISM’S” due to their relationship and how they intermingle disparities and biases of being poor and a minority. Although I knew of the issues taking place in my own community, I would not allow myself to absorb the magnitude of this travesty. After watching the American winter, the disparities became clearer than I had dreamt.

The idea of race has been constructed over hundreds of years, with numerous cultural implications arising from this construction. Since Johann Fredrich Blumenbach’s racial hierarchy, the inventor of a “…modern racial classification" (Gould 1994:66), the idea of race as a scientific truth justified slavery, colonisation and other existing racial structures. We see these racial hierarchies with notions of white superiority affecting events around the globe everyday; regardless of the fact that race has been proven as a flawed biological concept, with racial categories a result of ‘pseudo science’. The events following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 are evidence of the racist attitudes that linger in our society, institutionally and in everyday life – racism is more than simply individual attitudes, and is embedded in the social structures of society.

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