Racial Discrimination In 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

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

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.

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.

We have issues: more specifically , the United States has issues, continuous and all-encompassing issues of racial inequality.The United States is experiencing a outburst of racism, as can be seen from the 2014 killings of two unarmed African-American men, to the brutality of white supremacy in Charleston and the string of arsons in black churches across the South. Of course, it’s nothing new for a nation with a long history of extreme racist violence—the most recent lynching-related death occurred in 1981, hardly a lifetime ago, when Michael Donald was hanged by two members of the Ku Klux Klan.The United States, however, continues to avoid its history on race, refusing to confront its past in a “post-racial,” “colorblind” society, and that policy of systemic ignorance is particularly strong when mention of racial equality is brought up. Although the concept of equality has never truly existed in this world, as can be traced back to the very beginnings of recorded history we see the nobles ruling the commoners, conquerors reigning over the conquered, the will of man dominating women; the United States needs to acknowledge the fact that racial inequality still exists within our country and has in no way progressed towards betterment.

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

“Katrina provides an unprecedented opportunity to communicate that "racism" is not just a matter of the psychology of hatred but is instead also a matter of the racial structure of political and economic inclusion and exclusion”. An issue mostly left out of the public eye that was uncovered by the hurricane was gender issues. Women were the largest numbers affected in the disaster. Single head of family mothers and their children made up a large portion of New Orleans.

Along with misogyny and LGBT+ phobia, racism is one of the many methods of discrimination and bias that still exists today in America. It affects many ethnicities; Asian, Latino, even Indigenous Americans, but racial bias in the United States today especially focuses on African Americans as it did since the times of slavery. How does the race system still exist? The answer is simple; racial bias, like a living creature, will constantly adapt to its surroundings as time passes. Michelle Alexander’s nonfiction book, The New Jim Crow (2010), discusses the several changes made to the racial caste system following slavery and how most African Americans themselves cannot see it in its form today.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to hit the United States in decades. The economic losses were extraordinary; however, it was the human losses that stuck Americans at their core. The media brought into our homes graphic images of the destruction of New Orleans. Its mayor had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city and yet 150,000 citizens are said to have stayed. Like most of the nation I asked myself, “Well why did they stay? If a mandatory evacuation is issued, it stands to reason that state officials considered the situation to be precarious.” It is only recently, when I’ve seen reports of New Orleans slow rebuilding, that I have really given thought to the undisclosed factors that lead to such

Although the extent in which color blind racism surrounded Hurricane Katrina was a contributor to the relief efforts that went about helping those in need because of the pure carnage with Katrina had caused the representation also backed this up with different terminology used to portray different races in ways which made Black Americans more subordinate, which shows how colour blind racism played a hegemony part in the politics of Hurricane Katrina. From evidence gathered it can be seen in a context where the government's involvement before and after hurricane Katrina which can show and demonstrate the hegemony of color blind racism and the different dynamics which have shown the use of color blind racism. Although this approach wasn't primarily

Even the climate has the ability to impact inequality. As the frequency of natural disasters increases, there is a growing need for people to have enough money to pay for recovery or to afford insurance against such occurences. One only needs to look at New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, or even how the different boroughs of New York City were affected by Sandy. As catastrophic weather events increase, there is a need for more economic stability.

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.

The disaster of hurricane Katrina briefly brought down the color blind frame, the black victims could not be blamed for their suffering as it was a result of a natural disaster, Harris and Carbado write, “the precipitating event was an act of God, not the cultural pathology of the victims.” (625) The frame however reasserted itself as the media reports changed from the difficulties experienced by the survivors and the governments slow response to the crimes committed at the superdome and escalated reports of violence in the city. According to Harris and Carbado, the

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.