New Orleans Needed Us Even Before Katrina
Story by: Shana White

A week after hurricane Katrina struck, it looks like recovery will be slow in the making. I might get chewed up for writing this, but even before Katrina, cities like New Orleans and Birmingham had conditions that looked like other third world countries I've been to. The city has torn down apartment buildings, girls having babies at a very young age, and a huge amount of people unemployed. New Orleans and Mississippi needed our help even before Katrina, and because of our neglect, recovery is going to be harder than ever.

I was watching the news during the storm, and one reporter said that they estimated it might take two years for New Orleans to get back to somewhat normal. Since I have family in Louisiana, we called to see if they where ok. Luckily they were.

This past Labor Day my family and I spent the day with some relatives. We just call them Grandma and Grandpa instead of cousins because they are the elders of our family. My Grandpa is from New Orleans. He is the type of person who thinks people should be accountable for what they do, is all about education for our people, is extremely pro-Black, but thinks some Black folks act ignorant at times. He is a very interesting person. He told us his views of the South as an older person looking at the younger generation that will face rebuilding the city he grew up in.

Of course the topic of Hurricane Katrina came up. Since everyone is pointing the finger at how slow the government and Bush reacted, my Grandpa's response (which I should have seen coming) was of course that the government didn't help on time, but Black folks or poor people in those parts are also lazy. Wow! I tried to imagine why he said that. He didn't mean it to be harsh, but as someone who grew up in Louisiana seeing the only people to succeed being those who had to work extra hard to fight against cultural and economic discrimination. As the rest of my family somewhat agreed to some of what he said, most of us agreed that the government may see hurricane Katrina as a loophole for them to kick start a major city–wide gentrification, with the new New Orleans being a place without people like my Grandpa.

In this way, Katrina is very much like 9/11 – a wake up call to the country. Just like 9/11, Katrina will have its anniversaries, and probably people will be alert next time they even think they will have a hurricane. But we must not forget about the people who existed in poverty even before Katrina hit. We must not let the people outside Louisiana become numb to those realities my Grandpa grew up in and say, “That's too bad what happened to them.” I hope that when the water dries up and everything comes back to normal, the people of Louisiana are the ones who can re-envision their city, our country will support them.

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