The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina brought about significant social, political, and economic shifts in New Orleans, especially for certain underprivileged groups. I will be discussing how two papers—“Why Katrina's Victims Aren't Refugees: Musings on a ‘Dirty’ Word” by Adeline Masquelier and “Who Dat?: Race and Its Conspicuous Consumption in Post-Katrina New Orleans” by Marc D. Perry—both deal with these developments. More specifically, I will discuss how they each examine the concept of “otherness” in New Orleans within the context of Hurricane Katrina. These two articles are similar in that they both delineate certain groups in New Orleans that are considered “other” by those in power (and are essentially talking about the same group), and describe similar ways in how the “other” are dealt with; they are different in that Perry’s article focuses on the changes post-Katrina, while Masquelier’s article uses Katrina to show how previous institutions were amplified. The original article, “Who Dat?: Race and Its Conspicuous …show more content…
The Perry article shows the distinction between the cultures of black New Orleanians and white New Orleanians, how one was exploited for profit, and how certain groups were judged on their abilities/functions in society and placed into two categories—useful or expendable—based on their being African American. In Masquelier’s article, she emphasizes that the victims were attempting to cling to the categories as part of their identities when everything else they had known had been swept away. This was part of the reason they rejected the term “refugee.” They felt that it was not part of their identity, and that being classified as such stripped them of their culture and specific history (Masquelier, 2006). In both cases, the classification of these groups based on certain categories was instrumental in making them the “other” in
Donald Worster introduces a framework for analyzing environmental history along the three dimensions of culture, social organization, and nature, which can be used to investigate how the ‘levees only’ approach to managing the waters of the Mississippi River set the scene for the disastrous effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana (4-5). The ‘levees only’ approach grew from and promoted certain cultural, social, and natural conditions in New Orleans, and each of these elements critically interacted to contribute to the human and environmental destruction unleashed by Katrina. Cultural, social, and natural elements of Worster’s framework individually shaped the essential preconditions of the Katrina disaster. Culturally, New Orleans’s
The. Niman, Michael I. "KATRINA's AMERICA: Failure, Racism, And Profiteering." Humanist 65.6 (2005): 11. MasterFILE Premier. Web. The Web.
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).
“Water is the driving force of all nature.” Leonardo Da Vinci simply stated that everything we experience in the natural world could be thought of as a result of water. This idea carries over to society as well. In man’s attempt to control nature, he must control water. This problem seems evident in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As New Orleans grew, the water management infrastructure led to racial segregation and a disproportionate exposure to risk being distributed to people of color. Campanella’s article “An Ethnic Geography of New Orleans” provides specific details attributing the city’s water management as the source of these problems related to racial inequality.
Wilson, William J. More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. New York: Norton & Company, 2009. Print.
In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount of damage and danger all throughout the city, officials claimed that there was work being done to restore the city of New Orleans as a whole but many parts, and even the people, of the city were overlooked while areas of the city with higher economic value, and more tourist traffic, were prioritized along with those individuals.
In the essay, I answer the question “What are some of the inherent cultural barriers and challenges that the refugees faced when coming to Clarkston? Are these challenges unique to this story or do they reflect the broader concerns and anxieties about immigration in America?” with supporting evidence from the book and outside sources.
According to Hurricane Katrina At Issue Disasters, economic damages from Hurricane Katrina have been estimated at more than $200 billion… More than a million people were displaced by the storm… An estimated 120,000 homes were abandoned and will probably be destroyed in Louisiana alone (At * Issue). For this perspective, “Hurricane Katrina change the Gulf Coast landscape and face of its culture when it hit in 2005” (Rushton). A disaster like Katrina is something the victims are always going to remember, for the ones the lost everything including their love ones. Katrina became a nightmare for all the people that were surround in the contaminated waters in the city of New Orleans. People were waiting to be rescue for days,
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 located 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.
The population of New Orleans was steadily decreasing, between the years of 2000 and 2005, 30,000 (6%) of the population left New Orleans in search for better lives (4). The declining population shows us that before Hurricane Katrina residence were already considering leaving the city, some push factors leading them away from the city include poverty and unemployment (5). Accord to the U.S 2005 Census Bureau around 23% of the residence lived in poverty, this can be a result of the nearly 12% unemployment rate (5). With an unemployment rate double the national standard and nearly one forth the population living in poverty, the city of New Orleans had many push factors against it resolution in a decline population prier to Hurricane Katrina. At the time of the storm nearly 400,000 residents were displaced from their homes too near by safe areas or other states. The population reming in the city as decreased to a few thousand (6). A month after the disaster when the levee breaches were repaired and the flood water was pumped out of the city, residence were allowed to return to what was left of their homes. The first reliable estimate of the New Orleans population after Hurricane Katrina was an ‘American Community survey’. The survey projected that by the start of 2006 around one third or 158,000 of the population returned. By the middle of f2006 the city
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
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.
Pictures keep on flowing onto every TV, phone, and tablet screen. At first glance, one might see pictures of boats zipping through the streets and think they are of a port city like in Venice. Then, pictures of roofs sticking out from insanely high water levels not present weeks ago pop up. Pictures of wreckage come up. It turns out to be pictures of Texas after one of the costliest hurricanes hit the area. Hurricane Harvey turned hundred of thousands of people’s lives upside down. As I heard about it over the summer, I was shocked. Every time I fly to and from Caltech, I usually make a stop in Texas. There are several people in my house that I’ve become close to throughout the years that are proud Texans and were affected by Hurricane Harvey. I even added Texas to my list of places to travel to after hearing stories of the amazing sites, people, and culture. So this natural disaster hit me a lot harder than some of the other natural
Kay, Joseph. "Hurricane Katrina: a calamity compounded by poverty and neglect." World Socialist Website. N.p., 31 Aug. 2005. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Hurricane evacuation is strongly enforced by police power and whether or not the governor or president puts the state on as state of emergency where people from all over and the military are called in to help. After katrina, it is now a crime to refuse because of lawsuits that arose. A big issue is getting the resources to help those that can’t evacuate. The issue with the superdome was their was no order so people fled there and were overcrowded which led to hazardous conditions. States change building codes,require that some places reopen as quickly as possible after a storm has passed, and have laws put into place about animals. Also some coastal states enforce curfews if bad weather is approaching.