We love drama
Looking back 2 years ago now as hurricane Katrina was pummeling the Gulf coast, I remember how the images of stranded individuals, folks who pleaded to the thousands of cameras for someone to find their baby and all the horror stories coming out of the Superdome that seemed to change almost daily. It was all of these images and others that stirred up a nation to look face to face at the plight of its poor– the Black poor.
If there is one thing that I understand about mainstream media, they do understand the power of race and will use it to their advantage as often as possible. As if viewers could not see the obvious, reporters like Shepard Smith repeated told viewers that most of the survivors were African-American while Wolf Blitzer stated the following to his viewers:”You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals, as Jack Cafferty just pointed out, so tragically, so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor and they are so black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story
unfold.” And of course as mainstream media sneezed, many Black Americans caught the fever of making this into a case of racial injustice. Blogs were created to track every bit of news coming out of New Orleans, non-profit organizations were popping up left and right in order to raise funds to send to folks who really needed it, and GASP!!!!! Local government was being scrutinized.
Now that the water has dried, homes being rebuilt and those who became the unofficial hype persons for the poor in a post-Katrina New Orleans have profited with free advertisement for their next book or documentary, New Orleans and its poor are slowly becoming yet another sad footnote in American history. Now that the drama of the storm has left New Orleans along with the attention of most of mainstream media, the fever most folks caught two years ago over the plight of the poor in New Orleans has also left.
Father Bill Terry of St. Anna’s Episcopal Church in New Orleans has kept what he calls a murder board posted outside of his church that lists the names of every individual who has been murdered in that city this year. Did you know that “…In the first 28 days of this month alone, the city witnessed 26 killings, according to the New Orleans Police Department. So far in 2007, police say 136 people have been killed. That puts the city on pace for roughly 200 slayings this year.” (source)? Unlike during the Katrina coverage, you will not see the uncovered bodies of these victims lying in the street—only names. That is 28 of mostly our young Black men who have been killed in one month and in one city. And yet, if mainstream media doesn’t make a big deal about it most of us follow right along and jump to more important things they deem important–like the rantings of Don Imus.
When government was slow to immediately respond to the monetary needs required to help that city, the Federal government became the favorite target of those who echoed the sentiments of Kanye West: “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people”. Since that time, the Federal government has responded. Check out this excerpt from Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune–
Although the Bush administration deserves the depressed approval ratings it received for its slow response to the Katrina emergency, we should not let inept state and local leaders off the hook for the sluggishness with which federal help reached those who need it.
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin point fingers of blame at each other and at federal bureaucracy for the city’s sluggish recovery. But the more time passes since Katrina, the less the hurricane can be used as an all-purpose excuse for inept state and local leadership.
Overall, Congress appropriated $94.6 billion for hurricane restoration. Most was spent on emergency relief and other short-term projects, such as debris removal and emergency funding. Just over 40 percent of the $35 billion appropriated for long-term rebuilding has been spent.
Of the $328 million that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has obligated for emergency response and to rebuild city-owned infrastructure, New Orleans reports that only $185 million of it has trickled down from the state. (source)
Once again, the drama factor is gone because no longer can the media continue to show a President patting the back of his FEMA director, Michael Brown praising him for doing a great job in the recovery while thousands were still left stranded in and around the Superdome.
As I mentioned on this site before, if we want to see the same level of concern for the Black poor in New Orleans as we did during Katrina, Mayor Nagin should be replaced with a klansman with a penchant for Black women on the side.
Now that’ll make a good story!
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