I’m exhausted right now. Being unemployed for a full month is draining, lemme tell ya. Then, it’s the last BBQ holiday of the year, and I can’t find a grill to mooch from. It’s like 10,000 spoons when all I need is a knife.
(Notice that’s not ironic, I don’t think. It’s just a bad break. That song could have been more accurate if the hook went, “that’s kinda fucked up, don’t you think?”)
That said, this isn’t as exhausted as I was during Katrina. My daddy’s from Louisiana, just about everybody on that side of the family went to Southern in Baton Rouge, and I grew up on the Gulf Coast. The initial concern was making sure all my folks got out okay. They did, thought not all my folks could say the same thing about their people.
The exhaustion reached critical mass for me at seeing what the shameful negligence of the federal government. Those folks that see Obama getting this nomination and marveling at how far America has come need to get a grip. Yes, it’s been decades since Bull Connor was sicking the dogs on us and black folks were actually considered by both laymen and scientists to be subhuman.
But you know what? Katrina was just 2005. The shit that really matters, living up to the spirit of the 14th amendment, is still light years behind. The images of those black people — a staggering proportion of which were dark-skinned, it should be noted — trying to survive in sci-fi conditions brought me to tears. These were real humans trying to survive in water with fucking nutria rats. In real life, no CGI. And while this went on, Wal-Mart got to New Orleans before the federal government. I’ve never been more embarrassed of those entrusted to provide basic humanity to us all, and I’ve never been more disheartened about where I stood as an American.
The most treacherous natural disaster in the history of this country hits, and folks are wasting time wagging their fingers at people for not leaving early? It’s 20,000 leagues under the sea, and you’re concerned that people are boosting at Wal-Mart? Please.
Now, the government would never do that to me. I grew up with a decent amount of money. I live in a neighborhood that, while riiiiiight by the ‘hood, would be taken care of if a natural disaster hit Durham, N.C.
But let me go a little longer without a steady job and see how that would work out. I’d be on the other side of 147 leaving voicemails at City Hall, not knowing that they got the hell out of Dodge before the gunfight even started.
Yes, Katrina was as much about class as it was race. But, as Steve Harvey once said, we’re all a couple of bad decisions away from being out on the street. For that reason, I could easily see myself cooking on one of those roofs in the Lower 9th. There was no way I could see what happened after the levees broke and not take that personally. I’m not forgiving anyone any time soon, either.
Thankfully, Gustav dropped down to a Category 2 and didn’t hit the city directly.
Do I think the federal government would handle things as poorly as it did three years ago? No.
Do I want to find out if I’m right? Hell no.
The folks in Louisiana are surely breathing the loudest sighs of relief right now. But I’ve had enough conversations with people that felt as personally attached to the folks in New Orleans as I did to know that there are a lot more people exhaling, too.
17 thoughts on “Phuckuhgustav”
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Bomani,
“The images of those black people – a staggering proportion of which were dark-skinned, it shuld be noted – trying to survive in sci-fi conditions brought me to tears”.
I don’t know where you will find your dream job, but if it’s a writer “of which” should be “of whom”.
Dark-skinned is a signal of castes and discrimination in the black community, not the general commumnity.
The elite in New Ahwlins have kept these people as truffles for two hundred years to clean their house and suckle their children and sweep out their stables.
In the past eighty years, it has been Democrats specifically who have kept these people living below water level and below all other standards of hope and aspiration.
Katrina exposed this horrible injustice…it was not created by the Federal government or George W Bush.
What’s sad is that someone as educated as you don’t see the larger picture.
Good luck getting a job with your body wracked hard to the left by that big ‘ol offended balck man chip on your shoulder – it’s time to light a candle and quit cursing the darkness.
Talk about missing the point, Eddie.
When talking about the aftermath of Katrina, it doesn’t really matter how those people who were stranded came to be impoverished. What matters is that because they were dirt poor, the gubment sat on its hands for days while those people suffered and died.
Eddie-
You stated that “Dark-skinned is a signal of castes and discrimination in the black community, not the general commumnity.” First of all, be careful about correcting the spelling and grammar mistakes of others when you have them in your own post. Secondly, you are 100 percent incorrect in your assertion. Skin shade discrimination occurs in many cultures both within the U.S. and internationally. Social scientists are beginning to do even more extensive work on the implications of skin shade bias (colorism) among Latinos (check out Hunter, 2007 and Telles, 1990 for earlier work). There are also many examples of colorism among U.S. Asians (see Rondilla and Spickard 2007). This phenomenon appears in Brazil, China, India and many other countries as well.
At the end of the day, race and class played a role in why folks were abandoned in the face of a terrible hurricane. The reality is that this happened on the watch of a presidential administration that simply doesn’t get it, failures in leadership at the local and state level and levees that were known to have been inadequate for a storm of Katrina’s magnitude.
Tiffany,dear…there are mistakes of grammar and there are typos.
Secondly, I did a poor job of commenting on Bomani’s “staggering proportion of dark-skinned” angle. What I meant to say is that as a typical white person the darkness was much more noticeable and important to Bomani than is was to me. I just simply saw the sadness of group of people neglected by liberal local and state government – and black leadership at all levels and of all hues – forced to live ten feet below the level of the river with absolutely no plans for the inevitable.
Bomani, the “gubment” that failed was at the local and state level, which is where all but just a little government should take place anyway.
Tiffany…I am not a citizen of the world, so the “color line” in cultures around the world doesn’t interest me.
Tiffany…Katrina happened on the watch of a presidential administration “that doesn’t get it”. How can you say that with a straight face – we both know that Bush, about 4 days before Katrina hit, called Dick Cheney and his buddies at Halliburton, cranked up the secret atmospheric equipment that directed Katrina straight towards New Awlins (with just barely enough time to set the charges along the levees and the IC) and that they are still counting their profits for the rebuilding.
Bomani…get a real job. If you are as smart as you think you are, start your own bidness. It will, as they say, put things in perspective when you see “what you make” v. “what you take”.
Eddie, I’ve never understood why right-wingers such as yourself have always tried to obfuscate any discussion of Katrina by facetiously saying that W and his cronies somehow made the hurricane hit New Orleans, as if anyone in their right mind actually believes that to begin with.
Oh, I’m going to regret this…
There were admittedly failures in the response to Katrina at the state and local level; no one is saying there weren’t. However, the United States gubment absolutely had the power and resources to overcome any obstacles, but didn’t. Why? And how can anyone not find it morally reprehensible that a perfectly capable entity did nothing while countless people suffered greatly and many lost their lives?
Bomani, the assessment concerning hurricane Katrina is exactly right. The administration did not give a damn about the people stranded in LA. The worst quality a person can have as far as I am concerned is indifference. This administration demonstrated indifference to perfection.
On CNN last night Jesse Ventura said he was glad this was a election year or this administration would have shrugged off Gustav much like they did Katrina.
I am not a fan of either Jesse and certainly not W. I am white and I will vote for Obama not because he is African American but because he most matches my values.
Eddie-
I’ll try to ignore the condescension in your post and reply to your points. I know you were *trying* to be witty regarding your conspiracy thoughts, but no one on here posted anything about Dick Cheney starting Katrina. No one here is that crazy. Clearly, as everyone has stated, there WERE a number of inexcusable failures at the local and state levels of government. However, in a time of crisis, national leadership is still key–and this administration dropped the ball. It’s not as simple as blaming George W., although that would also be easy (and often accurate). It’s about the fact that the head of FEMA couldn’t even be trusted to run horse shows, yet was entrusted to head an agency charged with providing disaster relief. It is that Wal-mart was on the scene before the federal government and was turned away from helping these folks. I could go on and on, but it’s clear that nothing anyone says, (correct or not) can sway you from your belief that the feds were ill-prepared for this disaster.
I’m not sure what you’re a citizen of, if not the world, but the fact that you say that you’re not indicates just how small your universe is. If you had any inkling of the history of New Orleans (or the U.S.), you’d realize that the intersections between race, poverty and skin shade have been and are still very relevant. The fact that you don’t ‘notice’ them doesn’t make them any less real.
You elitists and Socialists are so funny. You keep an underclass of “workers” below water level and below any standard of humanity in New Awlins for two hundred years for your amusement and for your pleasure and then you blame the aftermath of Katrina on the current Federal administration. If Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and Bill Clinton had descended from the clouds two days after Katrina left the diaspora would have been no different. You have to separate your hatred for GWB from the truth of the situation.
You and the left wing “GUBMENT” of New Awlins was the created the problem – Katrina exposed it.
And a question for you all, especially the “writer” Bomani. Why all the Ebonics and the droppin’ of “G’s” and the double negatives when you write here or talk on the redio.
Do you think us right-wing nuts don’t cling to our dictionaries and thesauri and grammer texts just as we cling to our guns and religion?
Today, Obama called Governor Palin’s hometown “Wassilly” instead of “Wassila”…Joe Biden called Palin “good lookin'”…Joe Biden says your can’t go into a Dunkin DoNuts or a convenience store in NJ without an Indian accent…Biden welcomed Obama to the political scene by calling him “clean” and “articulate”…
“Coulda been the right time, but it musta been the wrong guy…” my apologies to BP.
I drop the g’s when I talk because that’s just how I talk, and how most of the people I grew up with talk. I write conversationally on here because, yanno, it’s a blog. You know what yanno means, right?
Then there’s the other reason — I talk like that because that’s what I fucking feel like doing. I added that “g” for emphasis, not to appease anyone.
As for the other stuff, you’re picking a fight that no one feels like getting into. If you need to find something to beat up on, go to the bathroom and do you. I’mma do me.
I’ll tell you this about Jesse V. He is a free thinker regardless of partisan views. I may not agree with him a lot of the time, but he is EXACTLY the kind of politician we need. Like I said, not necessarily HIM, but his candid assertions of all of his views are needed. Instead, we have people like Ron Paul being shunned by his own party because he doesn’t tow the “party line.”
In regard to Katrina… As a Louziana born person with family in and around the bayou (although we are mostly from the north), I get irked when I hear Katrina referred to as the “Black 9/11.” Trust me… It was a “class” thing more than anything else. I had family affected (and missing) from that Hurricane.
All of you have made good points. The thing I here the most about Katrina is that the federal government acted slowly. Well, the state government acted even slower. It is the job of the state government to provide the necessary information about when and where. This way the federal government can act in a swift manner. I’m not saying what happened was right, but give me a break. When the feds are up our ass with illegal phone taps and everything else involved with the Patriot Act, we call for less government. You can’t have it both ways. The state government of Louisiana is to be blamed the most, and the citizens of New Orleans helped with those choices by electing people who ran away, instead of figuring out how to help their voters. Stop asking the Federal government to help all the time. We need to start acting as “UNITED STATES”, not states waiting to see what BIG BROTHER wants to do. That is the way we were intended to conduct government business. One other thing, How the fuck does that no good son of a bitch of a mayor keep his job in New Orleans. He is a piece of SHITTTT!
yes the government acted slow, but weren’t the folks down there warned 3-4 days out it was gonna be bad, and they should go? I don’t care how poor you are, if your life is on the line…figure out a way to get the hell out. of course, sick, elderly, etc needed help…but a lot of the people you saw on tv…both white and black…were perfectly capable of getting out..or at least farther away.
While Katrina is a horrible example of this phenomenon, the people disappointed in the government (at whatever level) for not coming to their aid weren’t the first, and won’t be the last. Big, dumb, slow, unaccountable government is the cause of so many (and the solution to so few) of life’s problems. I’m not judging those folks because no one plans on a 15 foot wall of water knocking your house down the city block, but anyone expecting the government to fix anything hasn’t had their driver’s license renewed in a while.
My sister spent this past summer in NOLA counseling people as part of her internship in grad school and building houses on the weekend. She won’t shut up about the place. My first trip to NOLA was this past Spring. That city is a gem of this country’s culture, and it is a shame that is is managed by fools. Its people deserve so much better.
I hope folks look at Katrina and learn the lesson I see from it: somewhere Bigfoot, Tupac, Elvis and a benevolent, responsive and efficient government are sitting down having a cocktail.
Regarding Eddie’s comment about colorism, you should know that colorism is also prevalent among white Americans. Blond teutonic types are valued much more highly than swarthy Slavics, for example.
David Wood, complaining about the federal goverment’s Katrina failures and complaining about the Patriot Act are two completely different things. People complain about the Patriot Act because it steps on civil liberties while giving short shrift to legislation like FISA already in place for the intelligence community to use. People complained about the federal response to Katrina because FEMA, it’s related agencies under Homeland Security, and the US Army Corp of Engineers all had to scramble to do the basic parts of their jobs–and they still are. That’s not having it both ways in terms of the government–they’re clearly failing us in one area while overstepping their bounds in another.
Coming from someone that actually lived and worked in areas affected by Katrina and Gustav…what pisses us folk down here is the fact the our government can mobilize to a country a half-a-world away and respond with bombs quicker than getting to one of the world’s most famous cities/one of the nation’s most important seaports/one of the nation’s key oil-refining areas to help American citizens.
Don’t let this Gustav/Ike response fool you, we still don’t trust the powers-that-be to come in and help. That’s why we learned our lessons and help our neighbors out with what we need, because we know waiting on the calvary will be a long one.
It’s a lot more about class than race, although race comes in a close second. Anyone that knows anything about Louisiana history would understand why folks have doubts about the levee breaches during Katrina (see Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the levee blow up in Plaquemines Parish).
Ineptitude over the years from the powers-that-be, whether local, state and federal, was the main culprit during the Katrina chaos. Katrina was an inevitability (spell check), something that was a scenario that been on the books for 30-40 years. However, the powers-that-be ignored the geeks with the maps.
Now this whole La. Gov. Piyush “Bobby” Jindal (who was John McCain’s FIRST choice as running mate) and his management of the Gustav thing just sickens me. The right-wingers are praising this dude from Valhalla when all he did was watch from the sidelines after Katrina, criticized outgoing Gov. Kathleen Blanco, and applied some common sense in regard to future hurricane preparedness.
A trained group of chimps could’ve been doing what Jindal’s doing right now, real talk.