As an instructor at Dillard University in 1968, at the peak of Civil Rights, even then New Orleans was almost pre-civil war. The anger in the rest of the country had just begun to dribble into a culture where the largest department store, Maison Blanche, had only recently converted it's "colored" branch from Maison Noir to a liquidator; where rank in a Mardi Gras club depended on shades of chocolate; and where I, as a yankee, had no idea whatsoever why my students and I couldn't get served in a restaurant.
What is very clear now is that New Orleans, in the intervening 35 years, had made little "progress," still tolerated an astonishing portion of the deepest poverty, and like Louisiana under Huey Long and Scarlett O'Hara herself, put things off to "think about it tomorrow." Now that there is no escape from the ruthlessness of classism and racism, and now that it's so visibly apparent that killing the poor is cheaper and easier than changing their poverty, New Orleans is emblematic of a politics of despair and a culture of selfishness. That emblem is all the more cruel in that, once again, charity has been co-opted to fulfill the functions of a corrupt, not just inefficient, government. We should not have to raise money to meet basic needs when there is a tax policy protecting the most wealthy. If "the right to life" has any meaning whatsoever, it is at least as much a right for children and adults as it is for a one celled organism, but, in New Orleans, this administration shows its incredible hypocrisy, and their supporters their astounding naiveté. We should not have to do fund raising for critical care medical services and basic food and shelter. When the media has more access to those needing triage than health, food, shelter providers try to deliver, the soft cushion of southern gentility has truly obscured the central questions of equity that are central to a democracy. New Orleanian rifle shots are not just similar to those in Iraq, they come from the same frustration, the same rage at empire and the same despair that no one cares. And caring is NOT a matter of and for charity, it's a matter of right. Enabling an empire contributes to its longevity, as New Orleans proves historically while so well documenting today. Unless we carefully monitor the $100,000,000,000 the region now needs for basic survival, the 21st Century Reconstruction will make the 19th Century version pale in comparison, both in its corruption, its cruelty, and its greed. And racism is the easiest, most visible means of acting out that corruption. Watch Haley Barbour. Joe Beckmann -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 12:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [DDN] Re: Red Cross may be slow, but... 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. _______________________________________________ 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.
