Hurricane Katrina, Race, and the Class Divide

In an effort to poison public opinion about the incompetence of the government, the media lapdogs have bit on stories of looting, law and order, and the need for policing out of control Black folk. American racism permeates the newscasts, and the cracks in the system widen with each day people -- poor people -- sit in sewer water, rotting in the heat while the rich sit in comfortable chairs remaining disconnected from the reality around them.

There are a few articles which bring attention to the true concerns surfacing from beneath the rubble, but there's still a denial of the blatant racism in the media. I have heard the people of New Orleans referred to as "Animals" on networks. "Chaos," "refugees," "Third World," "National Disgrace" were the codes in speech used to describe Blacks who were angry, hungry, and in desperation began "looting."

When stores have closed because the upper class got in their SUVs and left town, and your home has been washed away, and no help is in sight, and your family is dirty, hungry, defeated, and you have a few soggy dollars in your pocket, and the stores are shut down, it is only human to say fuck the system, I'm getting my hands on what I need to survive. So you'll break into a store, take a few things, and at the very least you'll be taken by cops to a place that is safer than the infested water you and your family had to struggle through for three days.

For those who question the "looting" of items not needed for survival, I'll turn to what was written on another blog called the YellowLine. I didn't agree with everything written on that blog, but this sums up this particular subject neatly.

I'm not too broken up about people stealing from Wal-Mart, another highly questionable capitalist organization that will have no difficulty recouping their losses through insurance. Also, I take some small satisfaction in seeing people steal Nikes, a corporation that has built its empire on the backs of the poor in sweatshops worldwide. When a pair of $150 basketball shoes only cost you $12 to manufacture and $8 to market, there's a kind of equitable symmetry in seeing poor people steal these shoes...

Fuck this government and fuck all y'all who still vote for these clowns who serve the needs of the ruling class.

Articles of interest are below:

The hurricane disaster: US capitalism stands disgraced

With at least 100,000 people trapped in a city without power, water or food and threatened with the spread of disease and death, the government has proven incapable of establishing the most elementary framework of logistical organization. It has failed to even evacuate the critically ill from public hospitals, much less provide basic medical assistance to the many thousands placed in harms way by the disaster.

Hurricane Katrina Exposes Racism And Inequality

The levee system, crucial to the survival of a city surrounded on three sides by water, hasn't been upgraded to withstand a Category 4 or 5 storm. Thanks to George Bush and his "war on terror."

What Katrina Says to Us All

The fact that nearly 30% of New Orleans lives below the official poverty level (which itself is affixed at an absurdly high level) is astounding.

Timidity No Answer to Racism in Katrina Debacle

Is it any wonder that these citizens, like the working poor all across America, felt abandoned long before a powerful storm blew off the cover of their ignored and invisible lives?

Listen to a House Negro beg his white masters for help. This is what happens when you put all your faith in a system known for its brutality towards the poor and people of color.

Download Mayor Ray Nagin on WWL Radio mp3