Minorities After Hurricane Katrina

The storm unearthed weaknesses, inequalities, and prejudices that were present throughout the Gulf Coast and U.S. society long before the storm (Levitt 2). By unveiling the black poor of New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina had the potential to become a turning point that would force the United States to take another look at race and class relations in a supposedly “post-racial” and “democratic” society, spurring brand new conversation about the structural racial and classist intersections from which societal inequalities and institutionalized racism are produced. However, this hurricane did not become that turning point, and we were instead steered back to our ideological bases while we watched the unending coverage of the crisis. We were able to

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.

Statistics show that 75% of the African Americans in New Orleans were affected compared to the 15% of African Americans in the Biloxi-Gulfport metropolitan area (Cutter and Gall, 5). It also states, “The calamitous combination of insured development certainly accounts for much of hurricane katrina’s damage, specifically in New Orleans.” All levels of government failed to do their part, which includes state and local government.

While racism in the handling of the disaster was evident to many Southern blacks, some believe that poverty was a contributing factor. Not only were 90% of the citizens of New Orleans black, they were also extremely poor.

claimed that, "George Bush doesn't care about Black people." ("Racism charged...") Not only is New Orleans sixty-seven percent black, but also most of the people who could not evacuate were living under the poverty line. Almost eighty percent of people living under the poverty line in New Orleans are African American. West also pointed out that there is a double standard in the way the media portrays Hurricane Katrina victims. The Associated Press, and later many other news outlets, posted a photo of a black

Prior to Katrina, New Orleans focused on a “levees only” to uphold a tight flood infrastructure system. However, Katrina was a force too powerful and destroyed these levees, affecting the communities around them. In terms of culture and race, the population of the lower socioeconomic class were pushed into poverty and driven out of their homes; to further illustrate, African Americans were a class that became the most exposed to high levels of risk and was depicted as criminals on press. On Yahoo News, two pictures have two different connotations. One says “White People ‘FIND’” and the other says “Black People ‘LOOT.’” The mainstream press coverage then views stranded whites as good citizens.

Hurricane Katrina will forever be noted in United States history as one of the worst natural disasters to hit the states. Within its wake, Hurricane Katrina left thousands of Americans dead and many more homeless with no place to call home. A vast majority of the homeless were already living in poverty in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina hit the hardest. People that already didn’t have what most Americans have were forced out of their homes and their jobs with nowhere to go. Many have criticized the United States government and President Bush for the lack of response to this disaster, as well as ignoring the fact that the levees in the Lower Ninth Ward were not strong enough to withhold this type of force. Still to this day, many are still rebuilding their lives, homes, and businesses.

Since Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the city has been repopulated by rich whites and Latinos with African Americans returning to the area at much lower rates. Hurricane Katrina affected millions of people across the United States by tremendous flooding and Category 5 winds; Hurricane Katrina remains the most expensive and most destructive natural disaster to strike the United States.

Hurricane Katrina bedeviled the uneducated lower-class African Americans as well as the low- income families. Many lower-class African American families were already extremely poor prior to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. These people were without adequate transportation to escape the

In the wake of natural disasters, the minorities of America are down the pecking order in the government’s list of priorities. Specifically seen in the African-American people, the government fails to provide speedy response time, supplies and other aid, as well as providing substantial compensation for the families devastated by disasters, which could have been preventable or deterred from causing more havoc. In many cases, the African-American people were exposed to poor living conditions, living in undesirable areas, and a lack of wealth, education, and preventative warnings of oncoming disasters. This can be seen in the cases of the 1900 great hurricane of Galveston, Texas and the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, but the greatest example of

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005. A once vibrant and cultural community was decimated by harsh winds and extreme flooding. The rescue efforts sent to Louisiana were substantial, consisting of now only FEMA but also donated services from other countries as well. Even so thousands of people were displaced from their homes. There are people who refused to leave even after their homes were flooded and their mementos lost to the dirty polluted water. Ten years after the fact the city is still under construction. There are varying degrees of repair from street to street, the tourist area was one of the first few areas to be repaired, and the neighboring residential areas seem to have become of secondary importance. People were forced into homelessness because they could not afford to repair the house they had worked to attain before the hurricane toppled their economy. Still to this day the homeless line the streets, which should seem scary and dangerous, but it does not feel that way. It has become obvious that people need to learn to look beyond their own beliefs to better understand the world as a whole because not everything is how it seems.

Instead African Americans because of the economic differences were more likely than White Americans to live in lower lying areas of the city which were more affected by the ocean swells and sea wall breaches caused by Hurricane Katrina. It would seem as Klein put it, “wealth buys altitude”. And the numbers seem to resonate this sentiment, “A block-by-block analysis of census data and flood maps reveals that about half of the city’s white residents experienced serious flooding, compared with three-quarters of black residents.” (Fussell, Elizabeth)

10 Years ago on the last week in August, one of the most brutal storms the United States has ever had hit Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On August 28th and 29th, Fifty-five-foot waves crashed down the Mississippi coast leaving total destruction behind. In New Orleans a levee was built to protect the city but failed in 50 different places due to it being poorly designed. FEMA brought many survivors to their camps, but some weren’t that lucky. In New Orleans about 20,000 residents were trapped in the Louisiana Superdome without clean water, medical care, or working toilets. After the floodwaters receded, over 100,000 residents left the city of New Orleans to never return. 10 years later after the hurricane, most of the affected

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.

Hurricane Katrina is infamous: the storm that buried the vibrant city of New Orleans under up to sixteen feet of water. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster, but the crimes committed against the storm’s survivors in the months prior, setting them up for devastation, were the true tragedies. Not only were the citizens of the Big Easy neglected pre-Katrina, but they remained on the back burner of the federal government for days after the storm hit. Citizens of New Orleans - who had just been put through one of the worst natural disasters the United States had ever seen - were treated like animals, or foreign refugees seeking sovereignty in the US. They were not treated with the common decency an American citizen deserves, but why did this happen? The answer is simple, because the politicians on all levels, before, during, and after the storm, neglected the citizens that trusted them. City, State, and Federal government officials incorrectly used funds that had been allocated for disaster relief, and to the repair of the levees for many years leading up to the disaster. Because of this corrupt behavior, the people of New Orleans were caught in a very unnatural disaster to accompany the storm. The low class citizens of New Orleans were hit with unparalleled injustices. The atrocities committed against these innocent people was no less than a war waged against them, but the