Henkel, Dovidio, and Gaertner (2006), in their article titled, “Institutional Discrimination, Individual Racism, and Hurricane Katrina,” argue that the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina was shaped by roles of institutional discrimination, subtle biases, and cultural influences that lead to a racial mistrust with the government and the black community. The authors begin by explaining that the understanding of racism is much more complex as how it is portrayed in the media. They state that racism involves more than individual biases; racism reflects institutional, social, and cultural influences. In addition, Kovel (1970) differentiates between the “old-fashioned” dominative racists who act out bigoted beliefs and the aversive racists who regard themselves as nonprejudiced, but, at the same …show more content…
The understanding of responses to Katrina examines historical and institutional issues regarding racism, elaborating that the racial disparity in wealth, the disproportionality of jobs, and the residential segregation of blacks between whites was an institutional racism that contributed to the vulnerability of blacks in New Orleans. Moreover, the authors argue that the lack of immediate responsiveness by the first responders reflected a subtle bias that directly affected blacks and demonstrated that we are unprepared for natural disasters, given that the hurricane had been predicted and there was a warning that gave sufficient time to evacuate the most vulnerable areas. The mistrust of the government in New Orleans was present prior to Katrina. Flooding that happened in 1927 and 1965 rose the mistrust of the black community with the government and the decision to not listen to the warnings of evacuations and the obstruction in the bridge provided a racial
Dr. Robert Bullard is a researcher, activist and author who pioneered a branch of social science known as Environmental Justice. His efforts have been to fight toxic dumping in minority communities by bringing wide attention to this issue. He has been referred to as the "Father of Environmental Justice". (Bullard 1) This speech, “How Race Affected the Federal Government’s Response to Katrina” uses Hurricane Katrina and several other disasters to highlight inequities toward the black communities at all phases of disaster response. There is special emphasis on the negative effects of these inequities as deliberate racial discrimination against black communities by all levels of government. Although Dr. Bullard engages the listener well with emotionally charged phrases, it will be shown that he fails to establish that discrimination alone, and not other inherent complexities of disaster response, accounts for all of his claims.
Mann, Eric. “Race and the High Ground in New Orleans.” World Watch (2006): 40-43. Academic OneFile. Thomson Gale. Univ. of South Alabama, Mobile. 28 Nov.2006
Nearly 10 years after hurricane Katrina ravaged through the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas in southern Louisiana, the city is still struggling to recover from the $108 billion caused by damage. Nominated for Academy and Emmy awards, the captivating documentary Trouble The Water analyzes the consequences played both during and following the disastrous events during hurricane Katrina. Such events are displayed using the sociological perspective —the perspective on human behavior and how it connects to society— to understand how poverty, social class, and racial issues are valued in different areas of the United States, especially in these troubled areas. Trouble the Water explores these issues of race, class, and the relationship of
...ying to take cover from the storm. On the Daily Show hosted by John Stewart had some video depicting how certain news station was covering the aftermath on Katrina. Fox News, ABC news, NBC was depicting white people as victims, when they were looting stores the news station anchors call it finding or they are surviving. But when the same imagery was on African Americans they depicted as looting. According to a statement from Travis L. Dixon a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles he said “The news continues to create fear of blacks.” Some local news station continues to link African Americans to unlawful acts and portray a stigma that African Americans are the bad people. YAAMS(Young Africans Americans Against Media Stereotypes) had discuss how the news media use negative representation to can lead emotional problems in the black community.
Racism and classism are very big issues in the world today. The state, local and federal government's slow response to assist and evacuate the left behind poor, mostly Black people of Katrina is an example of racism and classism today. As explained by reporter Mike Davis (2005), "the ultimate revelation of Katrina was how the promise of equal rights for poor African Americans has been dishonored and betrayed by every level of government."(Johnson) I feel the response of the local, state and federal authorities to the Katrina disaster was inadequate and it demonstrated the continuing relevance of race and class for many reasons. They had a plan in place for an evacuation, there were resources to help people they just weren't used, and if the circumstances were different it wouldn't have happened the way it did.
Media Coverage on Hurricane Katrina News of the devastating hurricane Katrina and its economic, political, social, and humanitarian consequences dominated global headlines in an unprecedented manner when this natural catastrophe struck the region of New Orleans in mid August 2005 (Katrinacoverage.com). As a tradition, large-scale disasters like Katrina, inevitably, bring out a combination of the best and the worst news media instincts. As such, during the height of Hurricane Katrina’s rage, many journalists for once seized their gag reflex and refused to swallow shallow and misleading excuses and explanations from public officials. Nevertheless, the media’s eagerness to report thinly substantiated rumors may have played a key role in bringing about cultural wreckage that may take the American society years to clean up. To begin with, anybody privy to the events in New Orleans that ensued after Hurricane Katrina struck knows that horrible things that had nothing to do with natural causes happened: there were murders, gunfire directed at a rescue helicopter, assaults and, courtesy of New Orleans’ city police department, a myriad other crimes that most probably went unreported (Katrinacoverage.com).
Some people decided not to evacuate prior to being told of the disaster heading their way. Other Americans chose to leave as early as a month in advance. Thousands of people had to be evacuated. You could see on the news reports of people on top of their rooftops, being swept away in the flooding of waters, sitting and waiting on help from responders or those that could help evacuate. Thousands of evacuees where African Americans who chose to hold on to faith beliefs, or riding out the storm, because they survived other hurricanes before. With these particular issues, some of the responses to Hurricane Katrina started to become racially motivated.The media focused on African-Americans and people in poverty. One proof that news medias were biased against African-Americans—one image showed a black person carrying supplies labelled as ‘looting’, while a white person in an identical situation was labelled as ‘finding’ supplies (Wiley & Sons 2007).
Long before the storm hit New Orleans there was already a divide in the city. The city seemed to be divided by race with affluent whites living in the cities nicer neighborhoods which unsurprisingly just happened to be located at higher altitudes. While less affluent African Americans tended to reside in neighborhoods at lower altitudes. According to a report titled Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Return Migration to New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina, the segregation in the city had been historically low compared to the rest of the country however “by 2000, the standard index of black–white segregation showed New Orleans to have reached, and even gone a bit beyond, the national average” (Fussell, Elizabeth) When the storm hit 2005 the effect that this seemingly unnoticed difference was magnified as it became apparent that the difference in altitudes would lead to extremely different outcomes for the residents in the different neighborhoods. Acco...
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating tragedies to ever hit North America. It claimed the lives of over 900 people from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Unfortunately, that is not why a majority of people in America remember. As many know, these three states in the heart of the Deep South represent some of the poorest in the country. After the storm, the government was disgracefully slow to respond to the cause. Health care was in an overwhelming shortage. Depending on where people lived, determined their chances for survival. Race and class are believed to be the main factors in determined who was put at the top of the priority list. The purpose of this essay to explain how these factors contributed to the pitiful response
Although structural racism exists throughout the United States among many different minority groups including Latino, Asian, Native American, etc., this preferential treatment and privilege given to the white community is best seen during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina between the black and white populations affected. In the aftermath of Katrina, there was a series of “unintended” consequences for the black community based on race and the historical advantages given to the white community.
Originally derived from a three lectures series delivered by Woodward in the mid-1950’s, this book summarizes the history of racial oppression that developed in the United States after Reconstruction and that has remained with us ever since. Woodward explains how perpetual racial animus was not necessarily the inevitable outcome to be expected at the end of the Civil War and Reconstruction, but instead, was the product of choices by opportunistic politicians who furthered their own ends by furnishing their frightened constituents with someone to hate, despise, denigrate and abuse (Woodward, 12).
Even though it is the responsibility of the federal and state governments to aid citizens during times of disaster, the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina were not effectively facilitated as according to their rights as citizens of the United States. The government’s failures to deliver assistance to citizens stem from inadequate protection systems in place before the storm even struck. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security were the two largest incumbents in the wake of the storm. The failure of these agencies rests on the shoulders of those chosen to head the agency. These directors, appointed by then president George W. Bush, were not capable of leading large government agencies through a crisis, let alone a disaster the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina. Along with the federal government, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans did not do enough to lesseb the damage caused by the storm, and forced thousands of poorer citizens to remain in cramped and unsanitary conditions for extended periods of time. The culmination of federal, state, and local government’s failures in suppressing and repairing the damage of Hurricane Katrina to a level acceptable for citizens of the United States is a denial of the rights citizens of the United States hold.
There comes a time in the world where the outcome of certain events can cause a huge social change, one of those events is Hurricane Katrina. The events that took place prior to, during and after Katrina although impact only a few places physically it was left in the minds of everyone in the world. There were many actions that could have taken place to prevent the damage of such a catastrophic event, however nothing was done. Hurricane Katrina, a category 3 hurricane struck Louisiana and parts of the Mississippi. New Orleans in particular, due to various reasons received the most damage. Katrina first started off as a small hurricane formed in the Bahamas as it moved towards Louisiana and Mississippi it became a category 5, which is the strongest it can become, then decreased to category 3 once it finally struck. The storm caused an incredible amount of damage that Hurricane Katrina was noted as the most destructive and costly natural disaster in US history. The death toll was 1,836 people with 200 bodies left unclaimed as well as over 700 people unaccounted for. Hurricane Katrina was a source of social change as people have learned from the impact it had on the mind and body of the citizens of New Orleans, the mismanagement and lack of leadership the government showed, and the substantial immediate and long term economic damage it caused the country.
August 23rd, 2005; Hurricane Katrina, formed over the Bahamas, hitting landfall in Florida. By the 29th, on its third landfall it hit and devastated the city of New Orleans, becoming the deadliest hurricane of the 2005 season and, one of the five worst hurricanes to hit land in the history of the United States. Taking a look at the years leading to Katrina, preventative actions, racial and class inequalities and government, all of this could have been prevented. As presented in the newspaper article, An Autopsy of Katrina: Four Storms, Not Just One , we must ask ourselves, are “natural” disasters really natural or, are they a product of the people, who failed to take the necessary actions that needed to be taken?
Whether we acknowledge it or not, I think that we all, to some extent, subconsciously judge others by what they look like, where they come from, or how they act. I believe that any kind of discrimination is morally wrong, and I am not trying to justify it by any means. However, I think there is a part of each of us that clouds our judgment and makes things like race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation impact our overall perception of how we see others. In the podcast that we were given to listen to, CEO Alex Blumberg of a new startup company called Gimlet, spoke with his only three non-white employees out of twenty-seven totally about diversity in the workplace and their different working experiences. The podcasts went on to address openness