During
class this week my professor shared some history of New Orleans to me and the
class that was extremely disturbing. One thing she said was, “before Katrina
there was Katrina”. I didn’t fully comprehend what she meant till she showed us
a timeline of the the big flood in 1927. After intense rain the Mississippi
River found weaknesses in the levee system and broke through killing thousands
of people and leaving many stranded. The flood itself is not what really
disturbs me; it was the inhumane treatment of the African Americans during the
rescue.
The flood triggered the Great Migration, which was 6
million African Americans from the southern United States migrated up to the
Northeast, Midwest, and West United States.
The state of New Orleans feared losing their work force, and trapped
many African Americans from leaving the state.
Many Americans were stranded on the levees, and during rescue attempts
only the whites were saved. The
government forced the African Americans at gun point to start rebuilding the levees
rather than saving them. Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover was in charge of the flood relief, and was going to be
running for President in the next election.
Herbert Hoover made promises to the leader of the Colored Advisory Commission,
Robert Russa Moton, stating that further reforms for the blacks will come when
elected president if they kept quiet about the miss treatment of the black community. Of course those
promises weren’t kept, and Moton influenced his people to vote Democratic the
next election after Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected.
How are these inhumane treatments any different from what
happened during Hurricane Katrina.
People were left stranded for weeks on their roof tops waiting for aid,
and all they got in return was to be called looters when looking for food. How can we say that racism is dead, if a huge
black community in need of rescue was just left there to save themselves? I guarantee if this was a rich white
community, by God!! there would have been food and water immediately, and the
rescue of these people would come first over any other issues in this country. Racism will never stop if America just acts
like these types of injustices never happen.
If we don’t make a stand now, then when will America ever take a stand? We as a country need to hit racism and unfair
treatment head on. We need to unite as a country of equality for every man and
woman, and if a person is in need we need to help them in whatever way we can no
matter what color their skin is. We also need to show the world that we are the
strongest country out there not a divided one. Now is
the time to stand up and not take the back seat, now is the time for justice
not injustice, and now is the time to become the United States of America not
the United States of Inequality!!!
Here is a little video of the flood in 1927 to give you a little insight of what occured during this tradegy.
http://youtu.be/MGs2iLoDUYE
Your blog gave me chills, Cade. It is just despicable how many groups of people are treated compared to others. Will we never learn from our past mistakes? I am sure when you were serving our country, you were serving for ALL Americans, not just a select few. My hope is that your generation will shout from the rooftops, "NO MORE INEQUALITY!
ReplyDeleteWe are so proud of the young man you have become and if more people think like you do and act on this issue, it will be a better world!
Cade,
ReplyDeleteWhat you're saying about racism in relation to the treatment of blacks before and after Katrina is very true. It seems like, from what we learned in class, there is a large disparity in the amount of wealth and support received by blacks and whites in New Orleans. I found it sick how the only reason why some people cared to save blacks from the flood in the 1800-1900s was for their own labor agenda. I remember (as I'm sure you and everyone else does) how after Katrina, Kanye West declared that Bush doesn't care about black people. Although I find Kanye to be a bit obnoxious and I feel like he was a little tactless, I think that he did have a point with regards to FEMA's delayed reaction. It may not have been that Bush didn't care about black people, but that the interests of minority groups as well as their well-being have put on the back burner for so many years. You make a lot of great points throughout your blog.
Cade,
ReplyDeleteWell said!! I feel your frustration. I only hope I live to see if not a big change, some kind of change significant enough to really mean something. It is a shame when those responsible for building the levees were left trying to save themselves when the levees were destroyed by the flood. If you would like to intiate a march on Washington, I'm all in!! It almost seems as if that's the only way policy changes, economic equality, and social conscious will suffer a blow. Good job!
See you soon.
So Cade, my question is how do we combat such rampant ignorance and disregard for our feel travelers in life? History, both modern as well as ancient, is replete with man's inhumanity to man. Why is it we continuously ignore the past only to relive it?
ReplyDeleteI agree we need to attack racism but we need to learn tolerance for all regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, hair style, body shape/size, intelligence and all of the other ludicrous traits we use to belittle others.
Love you son,
Pa
Having grown up in the 70's I witnessed what could happen when people united to fight intolerence, Sadly I now see so many of those same people (my generation) uniting to promote intolerence in a much more sinister and cloaked message. Look at where the Tea Party wants to take us. It scares the bejeezus out of me.
Good job.