I doubt I would be alone among my peers if I observed my personal difficulty in keeping the intellectual detachment necessary to productively assessing the substance of this text. Perhaps the most difficult is the furiously entitled "levees and lies" chapter, where the administrations' declarations of ignorance give way to paragraphs' worth of citations from a panoply of sources warning of impending catastrophe months and years before Hurricane Katrina, much like the evidence of 9-11 preexistent to the event. This is punctuated with the sly divulgence that our democratically elected executive representative, in addition to not reading any of the "popular" and "academic" journals therein referenced, does not even read newspapers--a disgrace the most cynical critics couldn't've guessed--and then a coy mention of Fox News' "docudrama" of the same substance. What can be gathered from all this angry tautology is that Katrina--, as the chapter titles "Unnatural Disasters" and "Supernatural Disasters" make unambiguous,--was by no means "natural" but the direct result of the overarching logic of the system that did nothing to stop the destruction of, aid or restore New Orleans. Isn't this why Capitalism is referred to as a "supersystem"? its will before the will of that which constitutes it? but it would be difficult to say how or if this has "helped" (at least American) free markets. But, purely logically, there is no "disaster" if there is just a natural hurricane, but there is if there's a city left vulnerable to a hurricane. As was observed by someone, I forget who, in the culture of calamity, (I paraphrase) if a earthquake happens in the desert, underneath a series of huts or wigwams, no skyscrapers, superdomes or bridges collapse on thousands. It is our willful disregard of nature's presence, everywhere, that puts us in such conflict with nature. Another point worth mentioning is Dyson's notice of the complicity between "laissez-faire philosophy" and postmodern christian readings of "fatalism" and "God's will" or, as the Greeks said "theosdike"--: the past tense is key.
(I am confused however, by either Dyson's or Rothstein's, and maybe this is the wrong class to ask this, use of the letter "xi" when every time I have seen the word "theos" his "xi" has been an "epsilon." Perhaps the Panglossian Rothstein thinks "xi" looks like "E" when in the lowercase, but it is the consonant sound "X" to the best of my knowledge. Surely Rothstein had a Greek bible with him?)
In “Come Hell or High Water” the author Michael Dyson writes about the political, economic and social issues related to Hurricane Katrina. George Bush underfunded FEMA and appointed an inexperienced administrator, Brown, to head the department. Bush cut funding for affirmative action and food stamps which had a disproportionately negative effect on African Americans, but his decision to “cripple” FEMA actually ended up killing African Americans in large numbers. Over one thousand people, mostly African Americans, died during hurricane Katrina. Michael Dyson believes George Bush’s indifferent response was partly due to racism and classism. He feels that if a group of rich white people in the wealthy coastal towns in the Hamptons were trapped, the government would have rushed in to save them. According to Dyson government officials knew about the levee problem in New Orleans, but the officials choose to put the problem on the back burner. When Katrina hit the levees collapsed in a number of locations. They were designed to handle a category one or two storm. Katrina was a category 3 storm and the levees to collapsed. Scientists warned government officials about the weak levees, but they did not allocate funds to fix it. This is another example of race and class related indifference.
I enjoy the straight forwardness of this book. The author presents his point of view clearly and without any hesitation. One of the points that Michael Eric Dyson repeats is the idea that “the question shouldn’t be whether race played a role, but what role it played. How can race possibly be quarantined from consideration of Katrina when it so thoroughly pervades our culture- the choices we make, the laws we adopt and discard, and the social practices that are polluted by its pestering ubiquity?” (Dyson 19). It makes one ask questions like was it race that actually kept humans from helping other humans in need? Could people really be that shallow? A lot of people are really quick to answer yes and others not so much. I find a problem with comparison of September 11th to Katrina. I don’t really think it is fair to claim that everyone in New York was helped that day because the majority of them were white. How do we deal with the comparison between terrorism and natural disaster? Is one worse than the other? If anything, I believe that the same amount of care and help needs to be distributed no matter if Mother Nature or Osama Bin laden is at fault. Reading the facts and statistics about poverty before Katrina even hit makes me extremely frustrated and depressed. Let us just hope that if another natural disaster were to occur we will have a better president to handle the situation.
In general Dyson’s book serves as a useful investigation of the ineffectiveness of the procedures done before and after Hurricane Katrina, even more so the lack of help. The author explores all the procedures and resources that could have been used but frustratingly did not come through to help the people of New Orleans. Would the local and federal government have provided more sources for evacuation is white communities have been endangered? Regardless of race, the government’s neglect of the people in need shows the country’s weakness in handling national crisis to the international community.
Dyson argues that it is human agency, not God's anger or nature's random cruelty, that defined Katrina as a true catastrophe. "The hurricane has been humanized," he argues (citing Edward Rothstein), backing up this claim with immense evidence of the bureaucratic response (or failure to respond) to Katrina. The extent to which the hurricane affected the survivors in the Gulf Coast was placed entirely in the hands of politicians, most of whom were tragically incompetent and, Dyson suggests, wildly prejudiced towards poor blacks--prejudiced, or simply indifferent and dispassionate. The two are obviously linked: detaching oneself from a situation as dire as Hurricane Katrina is essentially just as damaging as active hatred directed at members of a specific race or class--in this case, impoverished African Americans. Dyson explores the complex connections between race and class in America in a manner I think is significantly interesting, especially in lieu of our Thursday discussion. Some students argued that race was largely uninvolved in the government's dealings with hurricane rescue and relief, suggesting instead that it was class (not race) that spawned the inefficient response to the storm. But it seems self-explanatory that in this situation, as well as countless others throughout America, that race and class are interminably intertwined. One of the harshest truths that Katrina brought back into the forefront of sociological discussion was this: race continues to be a marker of class in America, despite our historical attempts to resolve the crisis. Both race and class contributed to the plight of Katrina's survivors, and the denial of either is a blind-spot that such a significant and shattering disaster should have, if anything, helped us to overcome.
Though at times slightly sloppy in organization, Come Hell or High Water is surely a book that everyone ought to read if there is ever to be a more honest consensus of what happened in New Orleans, 2005. I thought that author Michael Eric Dyson did a phenomenal job in presenting a lot of factual content in a clear, concise manner while all the while maintaining the reader's interest. Like Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke, CHHW is chronologically structured to outline the events that took place before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. The book opens by giving an historical framework of not only Louisiana and other Delta states, but also of the gross inequities that plague poor, disenfranchised communities. The acknowledgement of policy wrongdoings on the behalf of the federal government is integral to Dyson's argument as to why there was such a slow, inadequate, and altogether terrible response that turned a natural hurricane into a cultural disaster. The essence of the book culminates in a few sentences found in the chapter "The Politics of Disaster". Dyson writes, "The Bush administration's problems were philosophical and ideological: they harbor hostility for the public sector, and for the active role of the government in aiding its most vulnerable citizens. At the heart of the administration's response to Katrina was the grossly inneficient FEMA. Their botching of Katrina led, arguably, to the loss of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives" (p36). The devastating aftermath of Katrina was avoidable and unnecessary; to deny the part that racism and classism played in the appaling response would be irrispobsible and ignorant. Dyson also points out that it was not only poor blacks that were so negatively affected by Katrina, but other racial minority groups like Mexicans and the American Indians. Personally, I was also very interested at Dyson's mention of how the hip hop (and other artistic communities) responded to the devastating effects of Katrina and the solidarity shown among so many of them. Conversely, it was hard for me to read such a large section devoted to the more theological concerns of the disaster. All in all, however, a very powerful book that I would highly recommend.
Dyson’s “Come Hell or High Water” was a very informative piece of work and I appreciated the clarity with which Dyson writes. This book really opened the door toward thinking about racism in that it still exists in all areas of our world. I do believe Dyson when he rhetorically asked if those who were pleading for food and water, or those on their rooftops begging to be saved, or those bodies that were left to decompose for days, were white people would they have received help much faster? Even though the answer to this question cannot be set in stone, I do know that if the people who lived in the areas around the levees were great contributors to the economy and if the area in which they lived was prime real-estate, the government would have fixed those levees long before Katrina hit in order to protect those people and their property from harm’s way.
Last year in my evolutionary psychology class we discussed whether “racism” is a evolutionary trait. Some scientists say that during our human evolution we developed a trait that instilled in us a fear of anything or any other creature that looked different in order to protect our own species. This is said to be the beginning of what we know call “racism.” I don’t really believe this theory but it seems to make sense when you look at our current situation and the situation with Katrina.
This book made me incredibly angry. It's amazing how people who lack competence and even the necessary experience for a certain job can get the job and are PRAISED for their work by the president. According to Dyson, five out of eight of the top officials of FEMA did not have what it took to do their job correctly. In fact, the remaining three had the most experience but held positions not related to disasters. It's great to know what our government's priorities are. This book only made me deeply believe that the failure of FEMA to respond in an efficient manner was based on the race and class standing of the victims of Katrina. President Bush gave his best buddies these important jobs that left many lives in their hands just because they were his best buddies. If you are friends with the president, you have some standing(I don't count Condoleezza as proof of Bush's care for black people.) But the victims of Katrina had no connection to Bush. They barely had a connection to society. I'm not surprised that they were left behind. In addition, Dyson walked us through the history of the Federal government's effort to create disaster relief programs and prevention. At first, as with most things, they weren't doing a good job. But when Witt took over FEMA, he molded it in such a way that when they faced a cluster of natural disasters, FEMA was successful. FEMA only lacked plans for terrorist threats. When Bush took over, he completely destroyed what Witt had built. When 9/11 occurred, he was more focused on the terrorist preparations, which is understandable. But his main focus on terror took away the strength FEMA had with natural disasters. According to the book, this sounds like the very beginning of FEMA. It's amazing how history repeats itself so frequently in Bush's presidency...
Dyson's book chronicles the sheer and utter failure that the US government and FEMA showed during Hurricane Katrina. A lot of what was in the book i had heard before, but it reaffirmed n of what happened, and more of a clear map of the what happened before during and after the Hurricane. I personally agree with Dyson however when he says that if the people on dont the roofs would have been rescued faster. I would agree if he said if they were not lower class poor citizens they would have been saved quicker, but i dont believe it was race, call me and optimist, but thats just the way i see it.
In "Come Hell or High Water" Dyson sheds light on the numerous reasons why Hurricane Katrina was as devastating as it was including the inequity of wealth distribution, incompetence, ignorance, and bad race relations. While many are quick to blame the current administration (Dyson and myself included) many of Katrina's contributing factors have stemmed from ideologies that have existed for decades, and even centuries for that matter... I was especially struck by how Dyson interpreted Kanye West's comment "George Bush doesn't care about black people"-- he broke down the words "Bush" and "care" to mean George Bush as a political entity, not in his personal behavior, and also interpreted "care" as political care. Personally, I found this interpretation to be true, but I also think interpreting things like this in such away makes politicians less accountable for their actions (or inactions). I think that if you "cared" about someone even just empathetically or personally, and you were in a position to provide such a person things that could help them out, and you didn't, then you DON'T CARE. It doesn't matter how care is defined-- personally, or politically-- it's all the same.
What separates a natural disaster from a man-made one? Klein rightly points out that bombs fall clearly in one category, and earthquakes in another. She also implicit suggests that the increase in anthropogenicly-influenced crisis remains passively permissible - even desirable - by the disaster industry that is so poised to profit dramatically from it. Are we to assume that the (economic) powers that be are knowingly, actively, maliciously complicit with forces like global warming? This is a harrowing thought that requires correspondingly strong evidence to support it. Klein's piece is so damning that her substantial research efforts seem ... incomplete.
Dyson’s discussion of covert propaganda and the way in which the media tests the nations collected sense of reality—a subject previously explored by Rozario—seemed particularly relevant to this class. According to Dyson, Katrina illuminated the preexisting severe poverty in New Orleans, but it did so without impinging on our [normal] sense of reality or awareness (5). For most Americans, poverty is a “latent reality”—a burden we don't want to think about or take the blame for. And our surprised, outraged, and disgusted reactions to Katrina allowed us to remain removed and deliberately naïve. Poverty played a huge role in the devastating effects of Katrina—many people were simply unable to leave before the storm hit because they did not have vehicles, others were disabled or sick, and still more lived in already weak and damaged homes. Perhaps most importantly, it can be argued that race and class played a large part in the amount of time it took for relief and outside aid. Further illuminating the racial divide, according to a poll after Katrina, 60% of African Americans felt that race caused a delay in relief while only 12% of whites agreed. A natural disaster like Katrina was not a direct result of human failure, thus it allowed the public to be aware of, and angered by, the catastrophe without acknowledging their role in the victims suffering. Dyson explains that by being outraged, we appear compassionate. Society blamed the government and, importantly, they blamed God. This reminded me of the colonial view of the disaster as a form of punishment from a higher force. Also, Dyson later recounts Cumming’s conversation with Bush in which he stated: “God cannot be pleased with our response” (97). This brought to mind the Puritan concept of salvation and reformation coming from tragedy, something which did not seem to occur after Katrina. I was also disgusted by the account of the 700 fed, well dressed, clean and dry guests of a hotel that were escorted to the front of the bus line by the National Guard while the sick and wounded evacuees from the superdome were held back.
Dyson's history gives a detailed account of how the destruction caused by Katrina was a result of conditions that preceded the hurricane itself. He starts by breaking down the factors that contribute to racial inequality in the U.S. and shows how these constraints took particular hold on the poorer communities of New Orleans. In this way, race played an undeniably formative role in the disaster by staking out who would be able to help themselves and who wouldn't. Furthermore this vulnerability, permitted by racial inequality, is doubled by the cutbacks in social service programs Dyson recounts over the past decade. Dyson connects pre- and post- Katrina failures by providing clear evidence of how the weakening of the welfare state led to both the racial makeup of the victimized population and the incompetence of the government relief response
13 comments:
I doubt I would be alone among my peers if I observed my personal difficulty in keeping the intellectual detachment necessary to productively assessing the substance of this text. Perhaps the most difficult is the furiously entitled "levees and lies" chapter, where the administrations' declarations of ignorance give way to paragraphs' worth of citations from a panoply of sources warning of impending catastrophe months and years before Hurricane Katrina, much like the evidence of 9-11 preexistent to the event. This is punctuated with the sly divulgence that our democratically elected executive representative, in addition to not reading any of the "popular" and "academic" journals therein referenced, does not even read newspapers--a disgrace the most cynical critics couldn't've guessed--and then a coy mention of Fox News' "docudrama" of the same substance. What can be gathered from all this angry tautology is that Katrina--, as the chapter titles "Unnatural Disasters" and "Supernatural Disasters" make unambiguous,--was by no means "natural" but the direct result of the overarching logic of the system that did nothing to stop the destruction of, aid or restore New Orleans. Isn't this why Capitalism is referred to as a "supersystem"? its will before the will of that which constitutes it? but it would be difficult to say how or if this has "helped" (at least American) free markets. But, purely logically, there is no "disaster" if there is just a natural hurricane, but there is if there's a city left vulnerable to a hurricane. As was observed by someone, I forget who, in the culture of calamity, (I paraphrase) if a earthquake happens in the desert, underneath a series of huts or wigwams, no skyscrapers, superdomes or bridges collapse on thousands. It is our willful disregard of nature's presence, everywhere, that puts us in such conflict with nature. Another point worth mentioning is Dyson's notice of the complicity between "laissez-faire philosophy" and postmodern christian readings of "fatalism" and "God's will" or, as the Greeks said "theosdike"--: the past tense is key.
(I am confused however, by either Dyson's or Rothstein's, and maybe this is the wrong class to ask this, use of the letter "xi" when every time I have seen the word "theos" his "xi" has been an "epsilon." Perhaps the Panglossian Rothstein thinks "xi" looks like "E" when in the lowercase, but it is the consonant sound "X" to the best of my knowledge. Surely Rothstein had a Greek bible with him?)
In “Come Hell or High Water” the author Michael Dyson writes about the political, economic and social issues related to Hurricane Katrina. George Bush underfunded FEMA and appointed an inexperienced administrator, Brown, to head the department. Bush cut funding for affirmative action and food stamps which had a disproportionately negative effect on African Americans, but his decision to “cripple” FEMA actually ended up killing African Americans in large numbers. Over one thousand people, mostly African Americans, died during hurricane Katrina. Michael Dyson believes George Bush’s indifferent response was partly due to racism and classism. He feels that if a group of rich white people in the wealthy coastal towns in the Hamptons were trapped, the government would have rushed in to save them.
According to Dyson government officials knew about the levee problem in New Orleans, but the officials choose to put the problem on the back burner. When Katrina hit the levees collapsed in a number of locations. They were designed to handle a category one or two storm. Katrina was a category 3 storm and the levees to collapsed. Scientists warned government officials about the weak levees, but they did not allocate funds to fix it. This is another example of race and class related indifference.
I enjoy the straight forwardness of this book. The author presents his point of view clearly and without any hesitation. One of the points that Michael Eric Dyson repeats is the idea that “the question shouldn’t be whether race played a role, but what role it played. How can race possibly be quarantined from consideration of Katrina when it so thoroughly pervades our culture- the choices we make, the laws we adopt and discard, and the social practices that are polluted by its pestering ubiquity?” (Dyson 19). It makes one ask questions like was it race that actually kept humans from helping other humans in need? Could people really be that shallow? A lot of people are really quick to answer yes and others not so much. I find a problem with comparison of September 11th to Katrina. I don’t really think it is fair to claim that everyone in New York was helped that day because the majority of them were white. How do we deal with the comparison between terrorism and natural disaster? Is one worse than the other? If anything, I believe that the same amount of care and help needs to be distributed no matter if Mother Nature or Osama Bin laden is at fault. Reading the facts and statistics about poverty before Katrina even hit makes me extremely frustrated and depressed. Let us just hope that if another natural disaster were to occur we will have a better president to handle the situation.
In general Dyson’s book serves as a useful investigation of the ineffectiveness of the procedures done before and after Hurricane Katrina, even more so the lack of help. The author explores all the procedures and resources that could have been used but frustratingly did not come through to help the people of New Orleans. Would the local and federal government have provided more sources for evacuation is white communities have been endangered? Regardless of race, the government’s neglect of the people in need shows the country’s weakness in handling national crisis to the international community.
Dyson argues that it is human agency, not God's anger or nature's random cruelty, that defined Katrina as a true catastrophe. "The hurricane has been humanized," he argues (citing Edward Rothstein), backing up this claim with immense evidence of the bureaucratic response (or failure to respond) to Katrina. The extent to which the hurricane affected the survivors in the Gulf Coast was placed entirely in the hands of politicians, most of whom were tragically incompetent and, Dyson suggests, wildly prejudiced towards poor blacks--prejudiced, or simply indifferent and dispassionate. The two are obviously linked: detaching oneself from a situation as dire as Hurricane Katrina is essentially just as damaging as active hatred directed at members of a specific race or class--in this case, impoverished African Americans. Dyson explores the complex connections between race and class in America in a manner I think is significantly interesting, especially in lieu of our Thursday discussion. Some students argued that race was largely uninvolved in the government's dealings with hurricane rescue and relief, suggesting instead that it was class (not race) that spawned the inefficient response to the storm. But it seems self-explanatory that in this situation, as well as countless others throughout America, that race and class are interminably intertwined. One of the harshest truths that Katrina brought back into the forefront of sociological discussion was this: race continues to be a marker of class in America, despite our historical attempts to resolve the crisis. Both race and class contributed to the plight of Katrina's survivors, and the denial of either is a blind-spot that such a significant and shattering disaster should have, if anything, helped us to overcome.
Though at times slightly sloppy in organization, Come Hell or High Water is surely a book that everyone ought to read if there is ever to be a more honest consensus of what happened in New Orleans, 2005. I thought that author Michael Eric Dyson did a phenomenal job in presenting a lot of factual content in a clear, concise manner while all the while maintaining the reader's interest. Like Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke, CHHW is chronologically structured to outline the events that took place before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. The book opens by giving an historical framework of not only Louisiana and other Delta states, but also of the gross inequities that plague poor, disenfranchised communities. The acknowledgement of policy wrongdoings on the behalf of the federal government is integral to Dyson's argument as to why there was such a slow, inadequate, and altogether terrible response that turned a natural hurricane into a cultural disaster. The essence of the book culminates in a few sentences found in the chapter "The Politics of Disaster". Dyson writes, "The Bush administration's problems were philosophical and ideological: they harbor hostility for the public sector, and for the active role of the government in aiding its most vulnerable citizens. At the heart of the administration's response to Katrina was the grossly inneficient FEMA. Their botching of Katrina led, arguably, to the loss of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives" (p36). The devastating aftermath of Katrina was avoidable and unnecessary; to deny the part that racism and classism played in the appaling response would be irrispobsible and ignorant. Dyson also points out that it was not only poor blacks that were so negatively affected by Katrina, but other racial minority groups like Mexicans and the American Indians. Personally, I was also very interested at Dyson's mention of how the hip hop (and other artistic communities) responded to the devastating effects of Katrina and the solidarity shown among so many of them. Conversely, it was hard for me to read such a large section devoted to the more theological concerns of the disaster. All in all, however, a very powerful book that I would highly recommend.
Dyson’s “Come Hell or High Water” was a very informative piece of work and I appreciated the clarity with which Dyson writes. This book really opened the door toward thinking about racism in that it still exists in all areas of our world. I do believe Dyson when he rhetorically asked if those who were pleading for food and water, or those on their rooftops begging to be saved, or those bodies that were left to decompose for days, were white people would they have received help much faster? Even though the answer to this question cannot be set in stone, I do know that if the people who lived in the areas around the levees were great contributors to the economy and if the area in which they lived was prime real-estate, the government would have fixed those levees long before Katrina hit in order to protect those people and their property from harm’s way.
Last year in my evolutionary psychology class we discussed whether “racism” is a evolutionary trait. Some scientists say that during our human evolution we developed a trait that instilled in us a fear of anything or any other creature that looked different in order to protect our own species. This is said to be the beginning of what we know call “racism.” I don’t really believe this theory but it seems to make sense when you look at our current situation and the situation with Katrina.
This book made me incredibly angry. It's amazing how people who lack competence and even the necessary experience for a certain job can get the job and are PRAISED for their work by the president. According to Dyson, five out of eight of the top officials of FEMA did not have what it took to do their job correctly. In fact, the remaining three had the most experience but held positions not related to disasters. It's great to know what our government's priorities are.
This book only made me deeply believe that the failure of FEMA to respond in an efficient manner was based on the race and class standing of the victims of Katrina. President Bush gave his best buddies these important jobs that left many lives in their hands just because they were his best buddies. If you are friends with the president, you have some standing(I don't count Condoleezza as proof of Bush's care for black people.) But the victims of Katrina had no connection to Bush. They barely had a connection to society. I'm not surprised that they were left behind.
In addition, Dyson walked us through the history of the Federal government's effort to create disaster relief programs and prevention. At first, as with most things, they weren't doing a good job. But when Witt took over FEMA, he molded it in such a way that when they faced a cluster of natural disasters, FEMA was successful. FEMA only lacked plans for terrorist threats. When Bush took over, he completely destroyed what Witt had built. When 9/11 occurred, he was more focused on the terrorist preparations, which is understandable. But his main focus on terror took away the strength FEMA had with natural disasters. According to the book, this sounds like the very beginning of FEMA. It's amazing how history repeats itself so frequently in Bush's presidency...
-Jacqueline Gallerson
Dyson's book chronicles the sheer and utter failure that the US government and FEMA showed during Hurricane Katrina. A lot of what was in the book i had heard before, but it reaffirmed n of what happened, and more of a clear map of the what happened before during and after the Hurricane. I personally agree with Dyson however when he says that if the people on dont the roofs would have been rescued faster. I would agree if he said if they were not lower class poor citizens they would have been saved quicker, but i dont believe it was race, call me and optimist, but thats just the way i see it.
In "Come Hell or High Water" Dyson sheds light on the numerous reasons why Hurricane Katrina was as devastating as it was including the inequity of wealth distribution, incompetence, ignorance, and bad race relations. While many are quick to blame the current administration (Dyson and myself included) many of Katrina's contributing factors have stemmed from ideologies that have existed for decades, and even centuries for that matter...
I was especially struck by how Dyson interpreted Kanye West's comment "George Bush doesn't care about black people"-- he broke down the words "Bush" and "care" to mean George Bush as a political entity, not in his personal behavior, and also interpreted "care" as political care. Personally, I found this interpretation to be true, but I also think interpreting things like this in such away makes politicians less accountable for their actions (or inactions). I think that if you "cared" about someone even just empathetically or personally, and you were in a position to provide such a person things that could help them out, and you didn't, then you DON'T CARE. It doesn't matter how care is defined-- personally, or politically-- it's all the same.
On Naomi Klein's essay:
What separates a natural disaster from a man-made one? Klein rightly points out that bombs fall clearly in one category, and earthquakes in another. She also implicit suggests that the increase in anthropogenicly-influenced crisis remains passively permissible - even desirable - by the disaster industry that is so poised to profit dramatically from it. Are we to assume that the (economic) powers that be are knowingly, actively, maliciously complicit with forces like global warming? This is a harrowing thought that requires correspondingly strong evidence to support it. Klein's piece is so damning that her substantial research efforts seem ... incomplete.
Dyson’s discussion of covert propaganda and the way in which the media tests the nations collected sense of reality—a subject previously explored by Rozario—seemed particularly relevant to this class. According to Dyson, Katrina illuminated the preexisting severe poverty in New Orleans, but it did so without impinging on our [normal] sense of reality or awareness (5). For most Americans, poverty is a “latent reality”—a burden we don't want to think about or take the blame for. And our surprised, outraged, and disgusted reactions to Katrina allowed us to remain removed and deliberately naïve. Poverty played a huge role in the devastating effects of Katrina—many people were simply unable to leave before the storm hit because they did not have vehicles, others were disabled or sick, and still more lived in already weak and damaged homes. Perhaps most importantly, it can be argued that race and class played a large part in the amount of time it took for relief and outside aid. Further illuminating the racial divide, according to a poll after Katrina, 60% of African Americans felt that race caused a delay in relief while only 12% of whites agreed. A natural disaster like Katrina was not a direct result of human failure, thus it allowed the public to be aware of, and angered by, the catastrophe without acknowledging their role in the victims suffering. Dyson explains that by being outraged, we appear compassionate. Society blamed the government and, importantly, they blamed God. This reminded me of the colonial view of the disaster as a form of punishment from a higher force. Also, Dyson later recounts Cumming’s conversation with Bush in which he stated: “God cannot be pleased with our response” (97). This brought to mind the Puritan concept of salvation and reformation coming from tragedy, something which did not seem to occur after Katrina. I was also disgusted by the account of the 700 fed, well dressed, clean and dry guests of a hotel that were escorted to the front of the bus line by the National Guard while the sick and wounded evacuees from the superdome were held back.
Dyson's history gives a detailed account of how the destruction caused by Katrina was a result of conditions that preceded the hurricane itself. He starts by breaking down the factors that contribute to racial inequality in the U.S. and shows how these constraints took particular hold on the poorer communities of New Orleans. In this way, race played an undeniably formative role in the disaster by staking out who would be able to help themselves and who wouldn't. Furthermore this vulnerability, permitted by racial inequality, is doubled by the cutbacks in social service programs Dyson recounts over the past decade. Dyson connects pre- and post- Katrina failures by providing clear evidence of how the weakening of the welfare state led to both the racial makeup of the victimized population and the incompetence of the government relief response
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