Spring Break
Lessons forgotten
What Hurricane Katrina taught us about race in America
Steve Markley, Senior Staff Writer
Issue date: 2/24/06 Section: OpEd Page
Look, I'm white. I'm not particularly happy about it, and I'm certainly not proud of it, but back in '83 when my parents had that threesome, that's just the way things turned out. Maybe if the set-up had gone differently, I would have mocha-colored skin and my dad would be a guy named "JC Money" (to this day, my mom still has me call him "Uncle Money"). The point is, we all are what we all are, and the sooner we start acknowledging this and stop pretending like we live in a colorblind society where the intricacies of race stopped being a problem when Ronald Reagan was elected president, the better.
Still there exists this breed of candy-ass white people you'll find all over the federal government (not to mention Miami's campus), who think that if we just don't talk about the raging inequities wrought by the U.S.'s past (think slave-labor, Native American genocide, brutally repressive violence and American apartheid) on society today, then they won't exist.
Well, New Orleans is proof that this line of thought will only lead us down darker roads, and here I'm not only talking about the failed response to Katrina, but by the reconstruction going on as I write this. The social and racial inequities that played such a large role in the disaster in New Orleans continue to go unaddressed.
Although G-dubs may loudly proclaim that he is no racist, his actions speak differently. For instance, have you seen who is rebuilding New Orleans? It's basically a list of Bush campaign donors. You know what some of these companies are doing instead of hiring unemployed Louisianians? They're packing undocumented Mexican workers into trucks where they sleep on the floor between shifts of back-breaking labor that earns them less every day than what you and I spend on our Attaché meal plans at Bell Tower. Right now there are $300 million worth of trailers sinking into the mud of the Mississippi Delta while thousands upon thousands remain homeless. And has anyone within the administration, or even the Republican party, for a second suggested that perhaps it might be a good idea to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to help those who not only had nothing, but then had the nothing they owned washed away by Katrina?
So with all this on our plate - with all these considerations up for debate in America - what sparks controversy, discussion and outrage? It was New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin declaring that he wanted New Orleans to remain "chocolate." Forget social policy, did you hear what he said? Let's go after that motherf*****.
So we're all a bunch of racists. Some, however, are a little worse than others. Though Bush may have never uttered the "n" word in his life, his actions speak to an inherent prejudice that runs far deeper, a prejudice that can keep his conscience clean as the rich make a killing off tragedy.
Still there exists this breed of candy-ass white people you'll find all over the federal government (not to mention Miami's campus), who think that if we just don't talk about the raging inequities wrought by the U.S.'s past (think slave-labor, Native American genocide, brutally repressive violence and American apartheid) on society today, then they won't exist.
Well, New Orleans is proof that this line of thought will only lead us down darker roads, and here I'm not only talking about the failed response to Katrina, but by the reconstruction going on as I write this. The social and racial inequities that played such a large role in the disaster in New Orleans continue to go unaddressed.
Although G-dubs may loudly proclaim that he is no racist, his actions speak differently. For instance, have you seen who is rebuilding New Orleans? It's basically a list of Bush campaign donors. You know what some of these companies are doing instead of hiring unemployed Louisianians? They're packing undocumented Mexican workers into trucks where they sleep on the floor between shifts of back-breaking labor that earns them less every day than what you and I spend on our Attaché meal plans at Bell Tower. Right now there are $300 million worth of trailers sinking into the mud of the Mississippi Delta while thousands upon thousands remain homeless. And has anyone within the administration, or even the Republican party, for a second suggested that perhaps it might be a good idea to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to help those who not only had nothing, but then had the nothing they owned washed away by Katrina?
So with all this on our plate - with all these considerations up for debate in America - what sparks controversy, discussion and outrage? It was New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin declaring that he wanted New Orleans to remain "chocolate." Forget social policy, did you hear what he said? Let's go after that motherf*****.
So we're all a bunch of racists. Some, however, are a little worse than others. Though Bush may have never uttered the "n" word in his life, his actions speak to an inherent prejudice that runs far deeper, a prejudice that can keep his conscience clean as the rich make a killing off tragedy.
