The ethnic cleansing of New Orleans

There is empty housing for the tens of thousands made homeless by Katrina - but the white elite have other plans

Naomi Klein
Saturday September 24, 2005
The Guardian

Wearing a donated pink T-shirt with an age-inappropriate slogan ("It's the hidden little Tiki spot where the island boys are hot, hot, hot"), Nyler tells me what she is nervous about. "I think New Orleans might not ever get fixed back." "Why not?" I ask. "Because the people who know how to fix broken houses are all gone."

I don't have the heart to tell Nyler that I suspect she is on to something; that many of the African-American workers from her neighbourhood may never be welcomed back to rebuild their city. An hour earlier I had interviewed New Orleans's top corporate lobbyist, Mark Drennen. As president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc, Drennen was in an expansive mood, pumped up by signs from Washington that the corporations he represents were about to receive a package of tax breaks, subsidies and relaxed regulations so generous that it would make the job of a lobbyist virtually obsolete.

Listening to Drennen enthuse about the opportunities opened up by the storm, I was struck by his reference to African-Americans in New Orleans as "the minority community". At 67% of the population, they are the clear majority; whites like Drennen make up 27%. It was, no doubt, a simple verbal slip, but I couldn't help feeling that it was also a glimpse into the desired demographics of the new and improved city being imagined by its white elite. "I honestly don't know, and I don't think anyone knows, how they are going to fit in," Drennen said of the city's unemployed.

New Orleans is already displaying signs of a demographic shift so dramatic that some evacuees describe it as ethnic cleansing. Before the mayor, Ray Nagin, called for a second evacuation, the people streaming back into dry areas were mostly white, while those with no homes to return to are overwhelmingly black. This, we are assured, is not a conspiracy; it is simple geography - a reflection of the fact that wealth in New Orleans buys altitude. That means that the driest areas are the whitest: the French Quarter is 90% white; the Garden District, 89%; Audubon, 86%; neighbouring Jefferson Parish, where people were also allowed to return, 65%.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/hurricanes2005/story/0,16546,1577415,00.html

I am too numb even to get angry. :cry:

...sadly, most of us here on the DU, knew this was coming. So sad.

i really wonder abt ppl who pick a time when we should be pulling together to try to create race war

i know plenty of white ppl who lost their homes, my friend who died was white

if it's ethnic cleansing for hurricanes to preferentially knock down cheap poor homes, i suppose it's eugenics when hot weather & hurricanes preferentially kill older ppl

jeez, is there no common sense any more

i'm numb too, i'm tired of being told that it only hurts to lose yr home if you're the right color, it only hurts to lose yr friend if yr the right color, guess what, it hurts no matter what yr color

if you want to do something useful to bring ppl back to new orleans, bring JOBS & fight to the last bone any effort to give those jobs to illegal immigrants, but standing there going "oh woe" & trying to stir up race hate is not going to accomplish anything positive

use yr head, ray nagin is a black man, do you seriously think he is going to stand there & allow his voting base to be permanently dispossessed, give the man credit for self interest even if you refuse to give him any credit for having even the tiniest bit of brain

After eight days and Nagin left screaming for help from the US gov a lot of folks thought this could be a class thing if not a racial thing. Whatever it was it was SHAMEFUL and *bushes numbers reflect that.

:hug:

However, color me surprised if the rebuilding of New Orleans doesn't have a big push for "gentrification" at its core. And yes, I think it's a class thing.

I really don't know where people go when they are pushed out of neighborhoods they can no longer afford. What happens to them?

and the lack of effort put into bringing back the original population. The lack of effort put into get the original populace involved in the rebuilding. That is where the ethnic cleansing comes in.

The reason Snidely Whiplash is twirling his moustache and rubbing his hands is because he stands to make loadsa money off the disaster, through massive tax breaks and tax credits, rules waivers and the ability to pay anyone he hires less than the going rate for the area and no bid contracts, and his solution do not involve poor people or black people in any fairly paid task. There's not as much money to be made there, with fair bidding and fair wages.

Naomi Klein is a good journalist. Read the article.

I am sorry you lost your friend. That is tragic. It doesn't matter to me whether he/she was black or white. I am sorry that NOLA was left to founder.

The idea that socioeconomically disadvantaged people can cohabitate in a tourist area is anathema to those with influence, inferred privilege, and wealth. Conveniently forgetting this population is the one they depend on for all those service jobs to keep them fed, their loos and beds clean, cars fueled, streets cleaned, etc.

Sure they can wipe out those communities, but where do they think they will find the workers for those jobs? Hmmm? Didn't they forget many of these evacuated during Katrina were unable to leave NOLA because they didn't have transportation? So how would they get back in to work if they are supposed to live somewhere else?