In a message dated 9/5/05 9:50:42 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> In response to the question that Dan raised about how to get people to > respond to issues, I truly feel that human nature, being as it is, once the > 'disaster' has passed, nobody wants to think about the 'issue' anymore. > > THE ISSUE The issue is the interest of poor people vs the control of those who have the power to do something. The issue has been around since the civil war. New Orleans was at one time, the one place in the south where a person of color, a black, or whatever could go to school and get an education. Back in the day, W.E. B. DuBois, and others were allowed to go to school and to learn. They tried to create an infrastructure of universities for others. Dillard, Xavier, Southern and many others.. But the thinking of the day, George Washington Carver was that blacks, should be educated to tend crops, do agriculture and animal husbandry, and to keep house, that kind of thing. The difference between the philosophies of the two clashed. New Orleans continued to support education, but gradually, the culture faded into the kind of readings, that are in Cane River. The struggle between mulatto, white, and black. Then other minorities, and nationalities became a part of the fabric. Read , the soul of Black Folks by W. E. B. Dubois... and think. When visiting New Orleans, I was always feeling plantation mentality, in that the blacks had so little , but there were so many of them. ( I am of color so don't write me about it.. my opinion. ) The place was of music, food, history, legacy, and a curious gumbo of ideological mythology which is in at least about 60 books about the struggles of" Black Folks ", mulatto daughters, " Black Indians.. and oh yes, the Jazz. It is , it was a different part of the world, never mind the French Quarters. There seemed to be a quiet acceptance of the status of what was and what is. There was a place to feel superior about something. There was a place that was a cradle of education for those of color. There was a culture that was primarily their own even if marketed and creating millions for others. It was the slow south, the never changed south in many ways. Few whites actually lived in New Orleans the city. But they were there in a kind of suspended harmony, poor, black, white , wealthy with a sprinkling of Vietnamese shrimpers, and Italian culture. New Orleans was unique. You could satisfy a person with food, music, dance , even a funeral was a celebration... but not this time. There is interesting reading. There are the crime statistics, there are the stories of the folks who chose to live there no matter what. Transportation was easy in the big easy until the fury of the storm. But the bottom line was and still is the existing patterns of segregation, quietly observed and practiced. Bonnie Bracey bbracey@ aol com _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
