Race, Hurricane Katrina, and the Aftermath

1124 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The consequences of hurricane Katrina

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” these are the words that Kanye West spoke during a Hurricane Katrina fundraising concert. Not only did the sentiment expressed with those words resonate with many Americans watching the concert that day, but observing the post Hurricane Katrina aftermath some would go a step further and argue that the United States government doesn’t care about black people. Although there were several events in the history of this country that would lead one to the same conclusion it was the disproportionate suffering and devastation experienced by African Americans in New Orleans not only during Hurricane Katrina but long after the storm had passed that leads many to conclude that the United States does not care for its African American citizens.
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...

... middle of paper ...

...r Katrina's Deadly Effects." Discover the Networks. 15 Feb. 2005. 27 Nov. 2013 .
Dreier, Peter. "Katrina: A Political Disaster." Shelterforce Online (2006). Spring 2006. National Housing Institute. 27 Nov. 2013 .
Fussell, Elizabeth, Narayan Sastry, and Mark VanLandingham. "Race, socioeconomic status, and return migration to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina." Population and Environment 31 (2010): 20-42. NCBI. Jan. 2010. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 27 Nov. 2013 .
Goodman, Amy, and Juan Gonzalez. "Disaster Profiteering: Purging the Poor in the New New Orleans." Democracy Now! 23 Sept. 2005. 27 Nov. 2013 .

Show More
Related

  • Donald Worster's Levees Analysis

    630 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Analysis of Dave Egger's Zeitoun

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    Niman, Michael I. "KATRINA's AMERICA: Failure, Racism, And Profiteering." Humanist 65.6 (2005): 11. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.

    Read More

  • James Lee Witt Effective Leadership of FEMA

    1945 Words  | 4 Pages

    Sobel, Russell S., and Peter T. Leeson. "Government's Response to Hurricane Katrina: A Public Choice Analysis." Public Choice 127.1-2 (2006): 55-73. ProQuest. Web. 3 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Hurricane Katrina: The New Orleans Levee Failures

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    Van Heerden, Ivor Ll. "The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System Following Hurricane Katrina and the Pathway Forward." Public Administration Review, 67.6 (2007): 24-35.

    Read More

  • Essay About Houston

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    Katrina is the costliest U.S hurricane, with estimated damage over $81 billion and costs over $160 billion.” The people that were affected the most was the poor people, children, the sick, and the elderly. Most of New Orleans was underwater; it was going to take a long time for the city to come back from this. “The The rescue and recovery efforts following Katrina became highly politicized, with federal, state and local officials pointing fingers at one another.” People didn’t get the proper warnings to evacuate. After the hurricane “Government officials have sought to learn from the tragedy and implement better environmental, communications and evacuation policies.” Ten years after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the city is still dealing with still trying to recover. The have lost a lot when the hurricane hit and it affected them financially, because of the popular areas that are in New Orleans. In all, almost everyone that evacuate from New Orleans fled to Houston which led to the population to grow, but also those that came to Houston had a different feeling about things. Houston has also had its fair shares has had 27 disasters- eight hurricanes, eight floods, six severe storms, three

    Read More

  • Genetic Drift In Katrina

    1112 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hurricane Katrina caused allele frequencies in New Orleans and the state of Louisiana to change which can cause the new population to be genetically different than the pre-Katrina population. There was a 75% out-migration of people in the “toe” of Louisiana once Hurricane Katrina hit, but there was an influx of in-migration to the in-land counties of Louisiana. The areas in the “toe” were hit the hardest by Hurricane Katrina due to the large amount of flooding from the levee failure causing a larger volume of people to out-migrate. The people that out-migrated caused their allele frequencies to be a lot lower than before because they won’t be present in that population anymore. The areas that had a large influx of people were inland from the areas hit the worse. This would cause the genetic variation to increase in the inland areas which can result in new mutations. In terms of specific racial groups more than 175,000 African Americans left New Orleans after the storm and 75,000 never returned. The allele frequencies present in the African American communities will be completely different due to the 75,000 people not returning which would cause a reduction of the population size. The reduced population size will have some effect on the allele frequencies. Some alleles may no longer be present in the population if they were present in specific African Americans that are not a part of the New Orleans’s community anymore. Figure 2 demonstrates the New Orleans population by race and ethnicity before and after Katrina. The African American population was the majority racial group and even though a lot of people from that group left the effect is not as large. On the other hand, the Caucasian and Hispanic population grew after Katrina hit and these areas would see a larger change due to the population size being small. A change that could

    Read More

  • Racism In Hurricane Katrina Essay

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hurricane Katrina Impact

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Media Coverage on Hurricane Katrina

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Impact Of Hurricane Katrina

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Racial Inequality in America

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Now that we have a black president, some people tend to believe that we can now move forward and forget about the past. Yes, we made ...

    Read More

  • Hurricane Katrina

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The History of Hurricane Katrina

    1811 Words  | 4 Pages

    Shah, Anup (2005, November 13). Hurricane Katrina. Global Issues. Retrieved from mhtml:file://F:Hurricane Katrina—Global Issues. mht

    Read More

  • Residential Segregation Essay

    1077 Words  | 3 Pages

    From slavery to Jim Crow, the impact of racial discrimination has had a long lasting influence on the lives of African Americans. While inequality is by no means a new concept within the United States, the after effects have continued to have an unmatched impact on the racial disparities in society. Specifically, in the housing market, as residential segregation persists along racial and ethnic lines. Moreover, limiting the resources available to black communities such as homeownership, quality education, and wealth accumulation. Essentially leaving African Americans with an unequal access of resources and greatly affecting their ability to move upward in society due to being segregated in impoverished neighborhoods. Thus, residential segregation plays a significant role in

    Read More

  • Hurricane Katrina: Causes, Effects, and Aftermath

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kay, Joseph. "Hurricane Katrina: a calamity compounded by poverty and neglect." World Socialist Website. N.p., 31 Aug. 2005. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

More about Race, Hurricane Katrina, and the Aftermath

Open Document