Hurricane Katrina--Drowning Our Heritage

Hurricane Katrina has destroyed lives, houses, shoreline and infrastructure throughout the gulf coast region of Louisianna, Mississippi and Alabama. She has revealed the rift between the haves and the have-nots in the region, especially in New Orleans. But more than that, she has revealed just how unprepared our government and our "Defense Readiness President" are to deal with a large scale disaster. The winds and water have also given white America another opportunity to ignore the aftershocks of slavery-- race and inequality in this country.

It was easy to see that the majority of people who were without the means to evacuate New Orleans were people of African Descent. New Orleans is home to a large African American population, many of whom can trace their ancestry back 200 to 400 years. They make up a large part of both the middle calss and the underclass and they carry with them some of America's richest traditions in music, cuisine, language and culture.

Probably America's first multicultural city, New Orleans has welcomed wave after wave of Italians, Germans and others, yet at it core it has retained a certain element of "Blackness". The Williams-Rivers Family does not come from New Orleans, but New Orleans's culture has migrated up the Mississippi River and touched us where we've settled in Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit. We know of no blood linkages, but they are our brothers and sister nonetheless.

And so with it's formidable middle class leaders and it's poorest citizens all black and all displaced--I can't help but wonder what New Orleans will look like when the pieces are reassembled? It's poorest neighborhoods border some of the most desirable real estate for tourism in the country. I wonder if, in the scramble to rebuild and "improve" the city the poorest citizens will be able to hold onto their family homes? My experiences with gentrification in Chicago do not bode well for them. The costs associated with rebuilding tend to favor those with lots of patience, access to credit/loans and deep pockets. Some of our brothers and sisters in New Orleans may not be able to clear all the hurdles in the race to reclaim what was theirs before Hurricane Katrina took it away.

Is it possible, that one day in the future New Orleans may have to bus black street musicians and performers into the French Quarter to add color to an otherwise rebuilt white city. I hope that is not the case. We have to join the fight to make sure that New Orleans keeps it's Soul.

Read abut the Black heritage of New Orleans here --> BLACK NEW ORLEANS