'Post-flood city wrestles with race issue'
From BBC news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5283522.stm
Just thought I'd share. This article obviously supports much of what we learned in seminar. Any thoughts?
posted by Breanna @ 8:22 PM
5 comments
5 Comments:
"Race, class, money and power are inextricably linked in the US, and the flooding of New Orleans is proving a textbook example of how they intersect."
^wow. where was this article when I was writing the first paper? That sounds like it should be a thesis for that essay.
Anyway, what really makes me angry is that the city still, after the incredible amount of inequity that the flood revealed, doesn't seem to recognize any obligation to its poor. You can't remake a city by only reconstructing its middle and upper classes. and sure, the "historically black" neighborhoods in New Orleans were some of its most vulnerable to flooding, but then shouldn't they be trying to strengthen the flood defenses in those areas instead of abandoning them alltogether? it just seems like faulty logic to me.
Yes, Ryan, I saw that quote as well.
Today at breakfast my (British) mother commented that she hadn't realize that Louisiana was such a messed up place. (If I recall, she compared it unfavorably with the fifteenth century.) I must admit certain Professor Brown quotes leapt to my mind, though fortunately I was awake enough not to mention them out loud...
woot for bbc. i heart you.
Okay, I'M NOT RACIST I SWEAR (heh), but I have to disagree on the rebuilding issue...I think it's good sense to rebuilding areas that are below sea level -- nothing should have been built there to start with. But on the other hand, it's wrong to just throw those residents out into the general housing market and say: okay, fend for yourselves in the middle class suburban market. The city should construct more cheap housing for those people, but not in the same prone to flooding area.
those neighborhoods may be the most at risk, but the problem is, whether the government creates new cheap housing or just ignores areas like the ninth ward as it is currently doing, not rebuilding sends the message that your areas aren't important to the city. Your neighborhoods are poor and disposable, and the government can force you out of them whenever and to where ever it wants. That's a terrible message to be sending out, and especially when it's also so racially intertwined.
just my opinion.
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