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The “unnatural disaster” of Hurricane Katrina is examined in the context of American structural racism. The Bush administration's lack of response in providing aid to the city of New Orleans and the public spectacle of Black anguish is a “civic ritual” that reconfirms the racial hierarchy of the United States. The denial by white America of the reality of Black suffering is essential to the preservation of white hegemony.
Notes
1. Ted Steinberg, “A Natural Disaster, and a Human Tragedy,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 52, no. 5 (September 23, 2005), 811–812.
2. “Washing Away,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 23–27, 2002.
3. Adam Cohen, “If the Big One Hits, New Orleans Could Disappear,” New York Times, August 11, 2002. Also see Jon Nordheimer, “Nothing's Easy for New Orleans Flood Control,” New York Times, April 30, 2002.
4. Editorial, “Truly Clueless at FEMA,” Boston Herald, September 8, 2005; Editorial, “Political appointments, loss of focus, crippled disaster relief agency,” USA Today, September 8, 2005; Tina Susman, “FEMA: Effort mired in bureaucratic hash,” Newsday, September 11, 2005; Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young, and Shannon McCaffrey, “Was FEMA's Brown the fall guy?” Seattle Times, September 14, 2005; Angie C. Marek, Edward T. Pound, Danielle Knight, Julian E. Barnes, Judd Slivka and Kevin Whitelaw, “A Crisis Agency in Crisis,” U.S. News and World Report, September 19, 2005; and Editorial, “FEMA: Just a Money Pit?,” Hartford Courant, September 23, 2005.
5. Andrew Buncombe, “'Racist' Police Blocked Bridge and Forced Evacuees Back at Gunpoint,” Independent [London], September 11, 2005.
6. Monica Haynes and Erv Dyer, “Black Faces are indelible image of Katrina,” Independent, September 4, 2005.
7. Aaron Kinney, “'Looting' or 'finding'?” http://www.salon.com/new/features/2005/09/01/photo_controversy/print.html.
8. Guy Dinmore, “City of Rape, Rumour and Recrimination,” Financial Times [London], September 5, 2005.
9. David Caruso, “Disaster official at NY symposium: Planners didn't anticipate gun problem after Katrina,” Newsday, September 12, 2005.
10. Matt Welch, “The Deadly Bigotry of Low Expectations? Did the rumor mill help kill Katrina victims?” http://www.reason.com/links/links090605.shtml.
11. Katherine Griffiths, “Firms linked with Bush get Katrina Clean-Up Work,” The Independent [London], September 17, 2005; and Scott Van Voorhis, “Katrina Boon to Builders,” Boston Herald, September 6, 2005.
12. Coleman Warner, “Primary Turnout Makes Black Vote Crucial in Runoff,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, February 7, 1994.
13. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, “Katrina Wallops Black Voters,” available from [email protected].
14. Jonathan Curiel, “Disaster aid raises race issue; critics say poor blacks not considered in planning for emergencies, evacuations,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 3, 2005.
15. Alex Tzon, “Katrina's Aftermath: Images of the Victims Spark a Racial Debate; some say authorities' response time is affected by the victims' skin color,” Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2005.
16. Lynne Duke and Teresa Wiltz, “A Nation's Castaways; Katrina Blew In, and Tossed Up Reminders of a Tattered Racial Legacy,” Washington Post, September 4, 2005.
17. Desiree Cooper, “Outrage, carrying mix in Katrina response,” Detroit Free Press, September 15, 2005.
18. CNN, USA Today and Gallup poll, released September 13, 2005, cited in ibid.
Other opinion polls confirmed that most black Americans believed that racism was behind the federal government's inaction to aid Katrina's victims. A Pew Institute poll, for example, indicated that 66 percent of Blacks surveyed “felt the government would have reacted faster if the stranded victims had been mainly white than black.” See Alex Massie, “Racial tensions simmer as blacks bear brunt of slow official response,” http://www.Scotsman.com/?id=1920892005.
19. Elisabeth Bumiller, “Gulf Coast Isn't the Only Thing Left in Tatters; Bush's Status with Blacks Takes a Hit,” New York Times, September 12, 2005.
20. Duke and Wiltz, “A Nation's Castaways.”
21. Kanye West, quoted on “The O'Reilly Factor,” Fox News Network, September 8, 2005.
22. Robert E. Pierre and Paul Farhi, “'Refugee': A Word of Trouble,” Washington Post, September 7, 2005.
23. Cornel West remarks, “When Affirmative Action Was White.” Symposium, Institute for Research in African-American Studies, Columbia University, New York City, October 1, 2005.
24. Bob Herbert, “Impossible, Ridiculous, Repugnant,” New York Times, October 6, 2005.
25. See Manning Marable and Leith Mullings, Freedom: A Photographic History of the African American Struggle (London: Phaidon, 2002), p. 132.
26. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Senate Issues Apology Over Failure on Anti-Lynching Law,” New York Times, June 14, 2005.
27. “Eight U.S. Senators Decline to Cosponsor Resolution Apologizing for Failure to Enact Anti-Lynching Legislation,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education Weekly Bulletin, June 30, 2005; Avis Thomas-Lester, “Repairing Senate's Record on Lynching,” Washington Post, June 11, 2005.