Racism and Katrina

[pegkerr]

In all my compulsive reading of the Katrina coverage, I've been mulling over the ugly questions that have been raised about how racism has made this whole story play out. I was withholding judgment for awhile. But then I read this, and this and saw this, among other things (there was one other link that I can't find right now). And I've decided that, yeah, chalk me up as one of the minority of whites who think that race does have something to do with the abysmal response. Along with class, I'll add.

I'm thinking about some advice I gave to two friends of mine recently who have been struggling with a troubled marriage: if one of you says, "I see a problem here" and the other says "you're imagining things, there is no problem here" then the proper response is: guess what, you both have a problem here, whether the second sees it or not. Because if it's a problem for the first one, it's a problem for the relationship.

So . . . what can a liberal but often clueless honkey woman like me do about it?

Comments

[silme.livejournal.com]

I like what one person said on one of your links...

Yes, it's one of the things that the ruling class uses to divide the rest of us. Stopping talking about it won't make it stop working: it will create a vacuum where race is talked about only by racists.

Yes, SES is a big part of it -- class, poverty, etc. But I keep seeing race as part of it also. And I say this as a privileged white person who looks very white; people can't see my 1/16th Native American nor can they what probably is 1/64th black. What might my life be like if they could?

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

In some cases, race and class are inseparable. I don't think that should keep us from recognizing that class is a factor. If those in power can keep those who have no power focused on each other as "the enemy," who does it benefit? Those in power.

I doubt that any well-off or even comfortably middle-class black people were trapped in the Superdome because they had no way out of the city. And while Bush played his new guitar, Condi Rice shopped for pricey shoes.

The pictures from the airport that show the evacuees from nursing homes show both black and white elderly people, lying in the same wretched conditions.

I'm not sure how the first account you link to (even granting that everything in it is true; there have been some challenges to its factuality, and not just from people on the right) supports the case for racism being part of this; the only mention of race is in reference to the Gretna sheriffs: "They responded that the West Bank was
not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their
City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans." But unless Bradshaw and Slonsky themselves are poor and black, the account shows that the sheriffs weren't letting anyone in.

In your second link, the question is raised whether the response would have been the same if all the poor people trapped in NOLA had been white. No one can know, of course, but we can look at history: for example, the treatment of poor white people who went in search of work in California during the Dust Bowl years . . . turned back at the borders by armed law-enforcement officers . . .

Again, of course I know that racism exists. But I think that those in power have a vested interest in convincing poor people of color that all of their problems are due to racism, and in convincing poor white people that all of their problems are due to people of color.

[dreamcoat-mom.livejournal.com]

Again, of course I know that racism exists. But I think that those in power have a vested interest in convincing poor people of color that all of their problems are due to racism, and in convincing poor white people that all of their problems are due to people of color.

That is something my sister, a transplant from lily-white NW Wisconsin who lived in rural south Georgia for over 10 years observed almost immediately upon her arrival there. We spend a great deal of time bemoaning the existence of racism, which we KNOW flourishes, but seldom seek its source. There are points at which race and class can and cannot be separated. In the case of the Katrina response, you're probably right - it would be pretty tough to tell - but in light of the point you made in your last sentence, I don't think that citing racism as at least one of the elements here is inappropriate.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

but in light of the point you made in your last sentence, I don't think that citing racism as at least one of the elements here is inappropriate.

Of course it's not; racism is a component of much in human (not just American) life.

But I think that if racism were magically eliminated (even retroactively, to eliminate the historical effects), there would still have been poor people trapped and neglected. They have been trapped and neglected throughout history (and probably prehistory as well).

[perigee.livejournal.com]

I think that you can do plenty of things about it.

One is to keep talking about it. Another is to keep trying to make your choices (especially those that relate to these issues) intentionally and well-thought-out. I don't think it's possible for anyone to be totally consistent, but I do think that application of intent can help keep sure that any disconnect between intent and result is low in your life.

I do not think you are clueless at all, and I do like your analogy to relationships.

I can tell you that as a highly assimilated half-Chinese guy-like person, even I experience the negative effects of implicit and explicit racism directly, and it's easier for me to have as friends honkies who take it as writ that their lives are entwined in racism and that living sort of entails implicit racisms and implicitly slanted power dynamics. I find that people who do accede that no matter how hard they try, they're probably perpetuating some kind of power dynamic not everyone might be happy about are more intentional and careful about what they do and say than those who don't, and that that, in turn, minimizes the harm they do to me and to other I care about who may not be pink (or old or rich or male or...) themselves.

This is very difficult to talk about, and I still have people in my life who truly don't think about it, as well as many who do think about it and have come to different conclusions.

[perigee.livejournal.com]

Also, regarding your second link, there is an extreme disconnect in America, especially, where people are kind of "over" the whole "race issue" and so it's just business as usual that of course racial minorities are poor, so we can just stop thinking about that social injustice and focus on how poor people are treated.

The reason I call it a disconnect is that the fact is, poor people are still often disproportionally (and in urban areas, usually) of racial or ethnic minority. And I thought it was the dream of the civil rights era that 1) there'd be a good mix there and that if we had to have poor people, a representative portion of them would also be pink or 2) if we could avoid it, we'd try not to have desperately poor people.

And we got done with Civil Rights and we still have a bunch of poor people who also happen to be non-pink. But since we're done with Civil Rights activism or something, it's rude to bring up the "race card" and instead we should focus on economic factors of prejudice.

I think I missed the "being over race" bus. Somehow, no matter how hard I scrub, my olive skin doesn't turn pink, and people still treat me differently from pink people. Or maybe it's my eyes. Should I have a surgeon "correct" my epicanthic fold?

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Yes, poor people in the U.S. are disproportionately people of color. But I don't think it matters to the power structure whether they are or not. Countries, societies, cultures, that are racially/ethnically homogeneous still have class structures, still have rich and poor. You'll find rich and poor--powerful and powerless--in Liberia and Korea as surely as in a U.S. city.

For many people, the only measure of their success, of their position, of their status, of their value, is to be better than someone else. It's a zero-sum game: I can be "better" only if you are "worse." (Look even at the human tendency to believe that "different" must mean one is better than the other.) And one obvious, clearly delineated way to measure "better" is by worldly goods. If you have more than I, you are obviously "better" than I. "Have" is obviously better than "have not."

This isn't just a material measure, either. One thread of Protestantism is not the only world religion in which one's success in life is considered to reflect one's spiritual stature. And not all of those religions are in white cultures.

Focusing on economic injustice does not mean that one does not believe that racial/ethnic injustice exists. But my reading of history is that in every time and place, when people divide the world--as humans seem unable not to do--into "us" and "them," the single certain differentiation is between "have" and "have not."

If you believe that racism is the most pervasive human characteristic causing injustice, then surely your focus should be on racism. I don't think that means that you don't think classism exists. But neither does my opinion that classism is the most pervasive human characteristic causing injustice mean that I don't think racism exists.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

If someone could wave a magic wand, would you trade the physical circumstances of your current life, including your home, material possessions, and degree of financial security (whatever it may be), as well as the way people treat you, for a poor white man's life, including his home (if any), material possessions, and degree of financial security (i.e., none at all), as well as the way people treat him?

[(Anonymous)]

In the days since the Titanic went down, where the affluent passengers floated away in half-empty lifeboats and the lower class passengers drowned/sank/froze to death, we've come exactly, well, not far at all.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Race intertwined with class, most definitely. I think a lot of what can be done about it is /talk/ about it, and keep talking about it, and keep encouraging discussion.

Resist blaming, and encourage other people to resist blaming either themselves or others. That leads to defensiveness, and when defensiveness is manifesting itself, it's hard to listen to anything. The kind of racism that I've been seeing during this disaster is most often not conscious and not deliberate. If you saw the two captions of 'finding vs looting', you probably know there was a very good /reason/ for the captions-- but it's also true that it played into and helped create people's perceptions of what was going on.

Keeping aware of it is kind of like keeping aware of sexism. Most sexism isn't done deliberately by cruel people, after all.

So basically, keep talking, keep being aware, and keep confronting your own part in it. (I'm white, I'm middle class, and I am quite often clueless. I have, however, had good friends who have helped me immensely.)

If you want to do something Right Now, I'd really suggest seeing if there's a local organization thinking about holding a dialogue on race. These things can often be uncomfortable, but extremely effective. I didn't do a lot of web searching, but it seems as if the Minneapolis YWCA is doing a lot of good work on the subject. (With both adults and kids.)

I keep hearing, incidentally, the question of whether Larry Bradshaw and Lorrie Beth Slonsky are white. (For those not following links, those are the folks who wrote the account of the Gretna Sheriff denying them entrance.)

That's so very much not the point. In fact, this is an example of racism hurting everyone, be they white, black, or polka-dotteed. The essence of the confrontation is that the Gretna Sheriff is one of many people who had heard the rumors of the situation getting out of control at the Superdome, and /believed/ them. I don't know if all of the wilder rumors /are/ true (the 'they're shooting at the helicopters' one turned out to be false), but /regardless/ of whether it's fact or fiction, the Superdome had, at that point, turned into one of those big ol' boogeyman Things To Be Scared Of. So it affected how he thought about the entire situation, and how he reacted to people who were not at the Superdome at all.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Ask your interlocutor, "Do you think that if there had been a disastrous flood in Portland, Maine, the suburbs next door would have sent out the sheriffs with shotguns to keep the refugees out?"

Because, no, nobody would have allowed this to happen to a majority-white population.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about the economic situation of Portland, Maine, so I don't know what the class system might be. But armed law enforcement certainly kept white people out of California during the Dust Bowl years.

Not racial, I don't think

[amandageist.livejournal.com]

My husband and I were talking at length about this, because neither one of us feel race has much to do with it. We asked ourselves: if this had happened in San Antonio/south Texas, and where Hispanics are in the majority and probably comprise most of the poorer classes, would it be racial?

Our thought: No. Because we both ascribe "racial" in the way it is being used, as having some intent attached. Given the geographic location and the history, it so happens that there are loads of black people in New Orleans. Lots of them are poor. Just like, given the geographic location and the history, there are lots of Hispanics here. Lots of them are poor.

It was past racism that affected the particular mixes in these locations. But to say that the fact that the poor were black, affected the way response happened? I'm sure you can find isolated incidents of race affecting an individual response, but to apply it to the entire effort? In fact, I'm not sure you can, the effort has not been coordinated enough to have any sort of central scheming like that.

Occam's Razor. I can ascribe all the mistakes to human error and poor organization. I don't have to reach any farther than that. I think if the stranded people had been white, Native Americans, Russian emigres, Hispanic, Asian, migrant workers, etc.--the response would have had the same problems.

As to your marriage analogy--I can't give it 100% applicability. For one, you don't take into account that in some cases, the partner with the problem is not healthy, and I think that applies to your racial analogy. I think minorities have an unhealthy belief that they are entitled to special treatment because of various past injustices (long past), and I don't remotely agree with that. If I'm in a relationship with you, and I believe you ought to bring me breakfast in bed every day, and you don't--yes, it's a problem for the relationship, but it's your attitude that needs to change. What I need to do is help you through that growth, not bring you breakfast.

That said, there's surely work to be done. What I do? I have raised my children to be as color-blind as I can. I work with others on the basis of their abilities and contributions, not their race. My firm, in fact, has Diversity listed prominently in the competencies one must master to succeed, and it does not limit itself to race, but includes diversity in styles of approach, ways of thinking, etc. I see so much of the discussion about race having the effect of reinforcing the differences, rather than ignoring them to celebrate the similarities, and this is sad. So I try not to join activities or movements that, to my mind, only draw the lines darker.

If any of this is coherent? We so often share goals but got there by widely divergent paths.

~Amanda

Re: Not racial, I don't think

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

*Is speechless for a moment* In this case, I believe these people were absolutely damn right to expect someone to bring them breakfast in this exact situation. Why? Because they were American taxpayers, and they had paid for that breakfast with the fruits of their labors, their own tax money.

You speak as if you think by helping these people we would have been doing them a favor, going above and beyond what was expected and necessary, something that they don't deserve.

I entirely disagree. Giving someone emergency aid isn't "special treatment." It's the designated function of FEMA.

It is good, I suppose, that you are raising your children to be color-blind.

Just be sure you don't raise them to be blind.

Re: Not racial, I don't think

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I have raised my children to be as color-blind as I can.

Only parents of white children dare to do that.

Re: Not racial, I don't think

[genealogygirl.livejournal.com]

So, you think if it were white doctors and lawyers and investment bankers and their families and children clinging to the roofs of their Garden District mansions shown on CNN that first day, the response would have been the same?

:::raises eyebrows:::::

I suspect the Marines would have been storming in, had that been the case.

I think it's correct to say that poverty is the root underlying issue by and large, but I think either way (whether because of poverty or racism or both), the response was utterly appalling at every level. Nothing less than a national disgrace.

[bordergold.livejournal.com]

I'm not white or black, but I honestly honestly think that it has nothing to do with racism, or even much with class, it's sheer INCOMPETENCY and IDIOCY on both Brown and Bush's part.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

On that, a substantial number of people can agree, I'm sure.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I like your story--it makes a really good point, one that works especially well for things like the Confederate flag. But in the case of New Orleans, there's concrete evidence that there really is a problem related to race--some will say class, but class in this country is so much a function of race that the distinction doesn't matter. I just got back from working with some of the New Orleans folks who were sent here after being god knows where (guess what--even the FEMA people can't make the FEMA website work). They are mostly black--and yes, poor and uneducated. But having grown up in the South I know that underfunded segregated schools and everything else that created the culture of racism are not erased in an instant. And the kind of racism that just doesn't know people exist (who knew there were people in the Convention Center?)is just as bad as cross-burning.

Sorry to rant.

What can we do, indeed. Work for progressive candidates--to me that's the most important thing we can do. Never let another Bush be elected, or any of those others who created this hell.

Re: My own take, for what it's worth...

[perigee.livejournal.com]

I think, as a person who endures racism in daily life, that it's really difficult for me to just ignore it, and I would rather have allowances made for racism (suffering it, addressing it, correcting it) while also working to right other wrongs.

When people tell me it's a small thing that I should just ignore, because there are bigger fish to fry, I feel left behind.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

I suspect race and class both have something to do with it. The question few seem willing to ask is, these "wards" in NO probably voted Democratic. The state has a Democratic governor.

Was Karl Rove willing to be late with the cavalry in over to anger people enough to throw over their governor? Or did the Bushites not care, since (I think) this is a red state in presidential elections? (Or, now that I think about it, would it have been a red state EXCEPT for NO?)

There's long-term planning. Relocate all those pesky Democrats!

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Dear Peg,

We seem to have hijacked your LJ. Having had this happen to me a time or two, I know how irritating it can be. I hereby apologize, and I hope you have gotten something from these exchanges.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Well, I knew it could happen because it's a difficult and fraught subject. I think people are at least trying to be civil, even if/when they disagree, which I appreciate. I haven't felt the need to put the kibosh on anything yet.

[syberghost.livejournal.com]

I agree that racism probably had something to do with Governor Blanco's horrible response to this catastrophe. It's a pity that the fantastic job FEMA has by any objective measure done isn't enough to make up for her stupidity and, possibly, racism.