Post-Katrina Problems: What They Didn't Tell You
Hurricane Katrina came and devastated New Orleans on August 29th, 2005. I remember buying small bracelets and pins to support relief efforts there. There was a massive movement, nation-wide, to help those hurt and left stranded by the storm. After researching what that money went towards I regret giving my money to a cause without fully understanding how it would be used.
The levies broke the worst in the inner city and poorer districts. There was widespread devastation and damage to homes in those areas. A lot of the money collected across the country and given to city officials for relief efforts was put into rebuilding those areas but the officials saw this as a chance to improve the city by changing the zoning laws associated with those communities with low income and high crime rates. Instead of building homes or lower income housing in that area they zoned it as nicer apartments and highrises. The income level necessary to live in these places was on average $10,500 more than the income level of those in the communities beforehand. The largely minority communities. This problem makes you wonder where these people went.
A majority of the minority New Orleans population that left the city went to the nearby city of Dallas before the hurricane hit. However when their communities and homes became unaffordable to them after the rebuilding had been completed there was a record amount of homelessness, crime, and poverty in not only Dallas, but many other cities who had taken in the refugees. This led to greater racial inequality economically, socially, and with regards to education.
So while the new zoning laws after Hurricane Katrina did not directly target blacks, the evidence of institutional racism and residual Jim Crow mentalities are readily apparent through them.
This is a good post on how institutional racism works in practice. I wrote a blog post about environmental injustice in the U.S. and how Black communities and Hispanic communities often get the short end of the stick just like how you pointed out. I feel like the massive imbalances in resources, healthy environments and access to opportunities is so obvious, yet it's as if everyone in the media was educated through a system of new racism..Actually, now that I think about it, the way we are taught probably plays a large role in what we believe after we leave high school.
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