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The consequences of hurricane Katrina
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Question 2 Conflict Theory is a theoretical approach that can be used to describe many of the events that unfolded in Hurricane Katrina. “Exogenous conflict refers to conflict that occurs between systems or from the external environment and is generally based on wars, cultural invasion, and ideology” (Robins, et.al. 2012,p. 61). Examples of conflict theory, as portrayed in the documentary, Trouble the Water, were many. The documentary chronicles some of the struggles of the predominantly African American population in New Orleans during the disaster. Race, class, and power played an intricate role in the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. This disaster brought forth a mass of media attention due to the magnitude of the hurricane and the …show more content…
He referred to the African-American community as the “historically disenfranchised” and described that disenfranchisement through the headlines of the last year. The phenomenon he described is an example of Marx’s conflict theory. The text explains this theory by stating it is “based on the premise that inevitable and continual conflict is caused by the inequality that results from the social class differences” (Robbins et. al.,2006, p. 62). This phenomenon was documented well in the movie Trouble the …show more content…
The family lived in a housing authority dwelling in a rough neighborhood. Their grandmother was the primary watcher of the children and expressed concern about their welfare. The narrator of the movie mentioned several times about needing to get out of the neighborhood and that insistence became more persistent after her cousin, Terrell, was shot to death. There were also a lot of drugs and violence that affected the neighborhood through outside forces. The most closely fitting neighborhood typology from the Warren and Warren (1977) model would be the anomic neighborhood. Because of the lack of neighborhood unity, threat to wellbeing, and the poor living conditions it would be a valid to state the neighborhood has no protective barriers and lacks the wherewithal to initiate
Rather than working with nature through multi-tiered flood control with spillways and reservoirs, levees disallowed the river to naturally flood, deteriorated the natural ecosystem, and ultimately weakened the city’s defenses against the hurricane (Kelman). Culture and society further interacted, as beliefs in man’s power over nature and racial discrimination promoted levee expansion and racial segregation, creating a city of racially differentiated risk (Spreyer 4). As a result, inundation mostly impacted the lower land neighborhoods that housed poor people of color. Society and nature interfaced in the application of levees that contained nature’s forces. Ultimately, nature won out: the hurricane overpowered the levees and breached the Industrial Canal, disproportionally flooding the mostly black, low-elevation neighborhoods of New Orleans (Campanella
Niman, Michael I. "KATRINA's AMERICA: Failure, Racism, And Profiteering." Humanist 65.6 (2005): 11. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
Rankine also shares the horrible tragedy of hurricane Katrina experienced by the black community, where they struggled for their survival before and post the hurricane catastrophes. She reports that the lives of black people in the disaster were of no cost for white administration and they delayed the help. She expresses this by writing, “I don’t know what the water wanted. It wanted to show you no one would come” (Rankine 94)(11).
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.
Hurricane Katrina has affected the lives of thousands of Americans. According to Anne Waple of NOAA’s National Climate Data Center, Katrina is “one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent US history” leaving “At least 80% of New Orleans…under flood water”. Film director, Spike Lee, in his documentary, When the Levees Broke, looks into the lives of the people of New Orleans that was affected by Hurricane Katrina. Lee’s purpose is to address racial disparities, political issues, and the discrimination against helping victims during the storm. He adopts a straightforward tone from the victims and outsiders in order to illustrate how the residents of New Orleans were affected by failures of the government for the duration of Katrina, before and after. Despite the government programs and their slow attempt to help, the government did not act quickly in the events of Hurricane Katrina because many residents of New Orleans did not receive the great amount of aid they were promised.
Finally, Frazier discusses the result of this displacement on the black middle class. Because the black bourgeoisie buys into the ideals of white America more and is simultaneously more exposed to its hostility, their sense of inferiority is compounded. They seek to fill this void in two ways.
"The Brown decision, the March on Washington, and the civil rights acts of the 1960's seemed like relics of a bygone era. A quarter of a century later the United States remained a racially divided and unequal society. The African American struggle had indeed made a difference. It brought significant changes and achieved substantial advancements. Yet the full promises of the movement had not been realized. Prejudice and discrimination, both subtle and blatant, continued to poison race relations."
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).
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters to happen in the United States. The storm resulted in more then US$100 billion in damage when the cities flood protection broke and 80% of the city was flooded (1). The protection failure was not the only cause for the massive flooding, the hurricanes clockwise rotation pulled water from north of New Orleans into the city. 330,000 homes were destroyed and 400,000 people from New Orleans were displaced, along with 13,00 killed (1). Although the population quickly recovered, the rate of recovery slowed down as the years went on leading us to believe not everyone
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
The vulnerability of the black communities due to segregation by the levees and the lack of aid given to the African-American households affected by Katrina are only two ways that showed how the events of Hurricane Katrina were shaped by structural racism. Hurricane Katrina in itself was a disaster for everyone in New Orleans, however, there was also a “second disaster” or “aftershock” that has gotten less publicity, and that was the disaster of structural racism.
Shah, Anup (2005, November 13). Hurricane Katrina. Global Issues. Retrieved from mhtml:file://F:Hurricane Katrina—Global Issues. mht
...ir social exploitation beliefs and even mentions a revolution. All this built up frustration in the black community assisted in such radical movements to improve race relations. Another connection as explained by James Connolly, is the rise of ethnicity in politics as a way to reach out and satisfy the “people”. This kind of innovation would never have passed earlier in history.
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.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free”. Which shows how even though the Emancipation Proclamation freed the African Americans from slavery, they still are not free because of segregation. He then transitions to the injustice and suffering that the African Americans face. He makes this argument when he proclaims, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”.