| September 9, 2005 Red Alert by Soren Wuerth Mississippi
Burning
“Taken collectively, they are not
simply 12 million people; in reality they constitute a separate nation,
stunted, stripped, and held captive within this nation, devoid of
political, social, economic and property rights.”
— Richard Wright, Native Son, 1940 An image that stands out in Katrina’s wake is that of a young black man alone in a tree at night fending off giant rats. It’s an impression that at once recalls the scene in Richard Wright’s Native Son in which protagonist “Bigger” kills a rat with a skillet in the tiny Chicago apartment he shares with his family. Only one word is needed to explain the thousands of deaths in New Orleans—racism. It is not the racism of rhetoric, exactly, not the overt kind that spits from the lips of a white-hooded coward, that is at the core of the disaster. Rather it is the more sinister, institutional racism, the type that grows malignant in suburbs, schools and correctional facilities, places where the color of one’s skin still determines where he or she winds up. About 90 percent of those unable to evacuate the city were African American. In one of the most inundated neighborhoods, the median income is less than $7,500 a year and only one of three residents has a car. While it has been known for years that New Orleans is at risk of a major hydraulic event—to the degree that scientists involved wanted to rename their study of a storm’s potential impact KYAGB, or “Kiss Your Ass Goodbye”—Bush nonetheless cut a grant aimed at alleviating the potential for flooding and upgrading the levees by 90 percent. It is needless, now, to mention the failure of a white-dominated bureaucracy to provide support for thousands of people languishing for days in the wretched and putrid hallways of the convention center and Superdome. The news reports focused on “black looters,” instead of desperate Americans looking for food. Yahoo.com provided a series of photos of New Orleans, six showing black people. Each photo’s caption identified the subjects of the photos as “looting.” The one picture the popular web site had with white people stated: “Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda ... (emphasis added).” As bodies begin to float free of the rubble and fires turn New Orleans into America’s second Baghdad, will the words “racism” and “prejudice” be our bombs bursting in air? Soren Wuerth is perhaps Alaska's best known community activist. He resides in an undisclosed location in Southeast Alaska and can be reached at soren@insurgent49.com. |
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September 2, 2005 August 26, 2005 August 19, 2005 August 12, 2005 August 5, 2005 July 29, 2005 July 22, 2005 July 15, 2005 July 8, 2005 July 1, 2005 June 24, 2005 June 17, 2005 June 10, 2005 June 3, 2005 May 27, 2005 May 20, 2005 May 13, 2005 May 6, 2005 April 29, 2005 April 21, 2005 |
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2005
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Reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
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