Hurricane Katrina: Failures to rebuild (Blog post #9)

In 2005, the world saw the harsh, ugly truth about the social standing of individuals in America. Hurricane Katrina hit the eastern coast of North America, especially hard in Louisiana (most greatly New Orleans), Alabama, and Mississippi. In New Orleans, the city became flooded, destroying thousands and thousands of peoples' homes. The rescue and evacuation of the city took far longer than it should have and as a result, conditions went from terrible to post apocalyptic. Resources weren't assigned effectively and politicians seemed to take a "wait and see" approach because they held back on sending in help.
Residents of area (mostly African American) were outraged at the "attempts" to save them. Their tactics to change their situation were appealing to the local politicians. They asked why their city and country had forsaken them, and pleaded for the help that they needed. Many people were unable to fight back because the National Guard and local police were ordered to "maintain order" in the aftermath of the hurricane. When the people tried to help themselves and leave the city via bridge, they were herded back to the side they came from by police and guns. They weren't even allowed to walk out of their city! Without the proper evacuation and bus transport they should have received, they couldn't leave, even if they weren't asking for the help. After days of poor news coverage and inaccurate information, the Mayor Ray Nagin, had had enough. He had heard the pleas of his people, but didn't have the authority to call in the proper resources. His tactic was to appeal to the media with the passion of seeing his city torn and ripped to pieces. He challenged authority and changed his problem by stating his unsettling attitude about the government. He claimed that just because the National Guard and money going to the war weren't being utilized is why the situation was so dire. Immediately after, the President stopped in and they all figured out an evacuation plan, though not a great one, it was a plan more than they had.
Racial discrimination really came into play in this natural disaster. Stories of Caucasian people being picked up and rescued over African American residents.Though the government claimed their was no segregation in the rescuing, the fact that white residents were taken by bus to a hotel for shelter, and that black residents were taken (though less frequently) to the Superdome, an arena stadium filled with cots and sleeping bags. Though mostly African American, their were some white residents there, and the media focused on them because it "showed" how there was no segregation.

On top of that, race played into this issue in how people were perceived in this time of crisis. White people wading through the water were heroes, looking to rescue others, while black people were "looters" and shot at on sight. Katrina has shown the true colors of our society and how they see social justice and what that is. This movement (that I argue is a movement, because of the aftermath of the relief and how class standing and race played into how "urgent" it made these rescues) was a giant leap forward when discussing the topic of segregation around today. Though it proved that there still is, it also brought out into the open. It changed the problem from being invisible to very visible, and a hot topic of racial inequality.
I knew of this movement, but only vaguely. In fact, I only knew of the event. The media coverage was inaccurate and unreliable, and i did not know about the real problems that were underlying in the situation.
Like I said earlier, this situation was a big step for the topic of segregation and it's implications in our society today. Race IS a problem, and it DOES affect how people are treated. Katrina proved that.