My Friend Cecily Sent Me This Interesting Analysis

The Tide of Destruction Washed Away the Pretense of Equality

I’ve done my very best to keep this forum about sexual topics and restrict
serious discussion for the AfroerotiK yahoo group but my soul won’t let me do
that this month. AfroerotiK is about addressing issues of Black culture and
sexuality and healing us as a people and I can’t, in good consciousness, limit
this forum to issues of sexuality when there are so many other larger, more
sobering discussion that must be had.

Everyone has been affected by the news of Hurricane Katrina and it’s victims
who happen to be largely of color. The media has made no attempt to hide its
racist practices by portraying the economically disenfranchised Black people
that live there, whose lives have been devastated and destroyed, as thugs,
criminals, and lawless rouges while the fairer “victims� of Katrina are
portrayed as helpless and defenseless survivors trapped in dehumanizing
conditions. Down in Louisiana, with its vicious racist policies that allowed 30% of New
Orleans’ residents of color to live below an acceptable standard of living
and educational opportunity, with its governor having her lips dripping with
the words of interposition and nullification, calling her own devastated
constituents hoodlums and lawbreakers, the receding waters have revealed a
frightening reality in this so called land of opportunity. The commander in chief,
the leader of the free world that was elected for his supposed ability to lead
this country in times of terror, has turned an intentionally blind eye to
relief efforts and arrogantly thrown a pittance of aid and assistance as a
appeasement to those that might question his reaction. A few sound bites and a
few dollars absolves him of any guilt or complicity for the conditions of all
the areas devastated by Katrina in which people are color and people with no
means are involuntarily thrust into the limelight as America’s newest reality
television stars. There’s no million-dollar prize at the end of this game of
Survivor, there’s dehydration, starvation, and death for the losers and the
winners get unimaginable nightmares that will haunt them for the rest of their
natural lives.

White people (and Blacks that want to distance themselves from the heathen
behaviors of the people on the news) want to point the finger of indignation
and say, “Look at those animals, those ‘BLACKS’ down there, stealing
televisions and creating chaos. Look at them fighting and behaving like beasts and
savages.� White American can rest easy that Black people do in fact possess the
inherent criminal/inferior gene that predisposes them to acts of lawlessness
and savagery and it’s right there on the television to prove it. The
assumption is always that white people would NEVER behave that way under those
catastrophic conditions.

They’re right. They are absolutely correct. White people have never lived as
third class citizens in the richest nation in the world so it’s very
reasonable to assume that white people would be able to afford to pack up and leave
when the threat of impending danger was looming on the horizon. White people
would not have to wait for days for food and water and dry clothing because
there would be safe havens set up before the last rain drop fell that would
have provided cute little tote bags of toiletries and snack foods, insurance
agents to process claims and bank representatives to provide emergency loans as
they got off the evacuation buses. White victims of a tragedy like this
would have the nation rallying around them with signs of solidarity waving from
SUVs and flagpoles all around the nation. Moreover, when white people would
eventually behave in barbaric and uncivilized ways, the way anyone would do
under such dire circumstances, there would be a psychological term slapped on
it, a telethon to cure it, and the media would cover it more than the OJ Trial.

Newt Gingrich said, “If we can't respond faster than this to an event we saw
coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we're prepared to
respond to a nuclear or biological attack?� I’ll tell why the two are vastly
different. God forbid there was planned act of terror that would occur in a US
city, you’d see the nation rally around that cause, the draft would be
reinstated with the quickness, hundreds of billions of dollars would be given to big
businesses to aid them, and we’d be at war with Iran in three days time.
Bush never intended to have a plan to respond to the victims of the hurricane
and he hasn’t lost a minute’s sleep because of it. The plan to attack Iran has
been in place since the same illegal plan to invade Iraq was set in motion.
As long as there’s money to be made by Bush and his cronies, there’s a plan,
a backup, and a contingency all outlined.

It’s estimated that it’s going to take an estimate $56 billion dollars to
rebuild New Orleans. (That says nothing of the other devastated towns, hamlets
and villages that don’t have TV cameras there to chronicle their
devastation). Bush generously offered $10 Billion dollars to the relief effort. I guess
now he’s concerned about fiscal responsibility now and pinching pennies
because of the billions he’s spending to get an oil monopoly . . . I mean building
democracy in the Middle East Why not cough up $100 billion W? You are making
exponentially more than that by charging us $4.00 a gallon for gas. Why do
we, the American public, have to dig deep in our already strained pockets to
aid in the relief of these victims? This is the richest nation in the world.
Don’t pinch pennies when it comes to your own citizens.

Message boards all over the Internet are filled with posts from white people
that are espousing hatred and rejoicing that Katrina caused such devastation
and how they wished that it had killed all the (racial epithet) of New
Orleans. Black America has been feeling the pain of the racist tone since the
first reports of Black people being termed looters and white people were
miraculously finding food. We are supposed to accept our lot in life and not complain
because that’s the premise of this great nation. Black people, check your
birth certificate to see if you are classified as three-fifths of a human
being. Chances are, if you are poor and undereducated, it says you are because that
’s the way the government is treating us.

Where are the cries of God Bless America that followed 9/11? I guess people
want to save their prayers and petitions for causes all America can rally
around, not just the Black people. Where is the emergency midnight session for
Congress to pass illegal legislation like they did with one white woman who
was already dead while thousands of living people suffer without food and
water? Will America wear brown ribbons as a show of support for the flood victims
of Katrina? I think not. It is with this faith that we as a nation will be
able to hew out of the cesspool of despair a drop of hope.

Nothing will change. In two weeks, things will go back to normal. TV
stations will go back to being focused on some white girl missing in the Caribbean,
Sin City will have dried out and it will be old news. We’ll be tracking the
next hurricane that is set to hit Florida and airlifting everyone from The
Keys to Disney World to a safe haven. Black America will have digested yet
another bitter racist pill and swallowed it with a xenophobic chaser. Katrina has
washed away the pretense of equality in this country and we have been left
exposed and vulnerable.

Copyright 2005 Scottie Lowe
topic of Katrina's Aftermath.