Hurricane Katrina: the Black nation's 9/11!(Black Struggles for Justice) (Essay)

• Author: Muhammad, Saladin

The magnitude of the destruction and human suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina to the people and communities of the Gulf Coast Region, while not the result of an act of "terror," is directly a result of a profit-driven system of capitalist exploitation reinforced by the national oppression of African-American people in the US South, a region where the majority of Black people live and where the conditions of oppression, poverty and underdevelopment are most concentrated.

As anti-imperialists and activists engage in work to build support for the Gulf Coast survivors, we must have an analysis and political context for properly understanding the reasons for this crisis and the contradictions surrounding its aftermath. The response to this human tragedy must be more than a humanitarian response in order to deal with the magnitude and complexity of issues, international political ramifications, the legal aspects, and the various levels of local, regional, national and international coalition and network building and mobilizing that must take place to build a powerful movement for social justice.

There is much talk about how to define the main social impact of Katrina: Whether it is mainly a major disaster for Black people or for working class and poor people in general. This attempt to separate race from class when dealing with issues where those workers affected are majority African-American is no accident. It seeks to divide the character and content of the working class responses.

Thus, it is important to define the race and class character of the crisis and to call on the larger working class to unite with its most oppressed section--the African-American working class which is also the predominant basis of an oppressed nation and nationality historically denied real democratic rights and subjugated by US imperialism.

The government's failure to correct this danger, known far in advance, that led to the continuously unfolding massive human tragedy, helps all to see the racist nature of the US capitalist system and how the system of African-American national oppression is in violation of human rights and guilty of crimes against humanity.

African-American national oppression

African-American national oppression was/is a major factor contributing to the magnitude of the disaster caused by Katrina. As more than 90% of Black people throughout the US are workers, African-American national oppression places its primary emphasis on the exploitation and oppression of Black workers and their communities. More than two-thirds of New Orleans' inhabitants were African-American. In the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood that was one of the hardest hit, more than 98% were Black.

The slow US federal and state government responses to natural disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Floyd in North Carolina in September 1999 that greatly impacted predominately African-American working class communities, make clear that the value of Black and working class life is subordinate to capitalist property and profits.

The racist economic, social and political policies and practices of the US government and capitalist system shape society's attitudes about the reasons for the historical oppression of African-Americans. It seeks to isolate, criminalize and scapegoat African-Americans as social pariahs.

The characterization of the Black working class in this way is a part of the continuous ideological shaping of white supremacy that gives white workers a sense of being part of another working class, different from the Black working class. This often leads many white workers to act against their class interests, discouraging them from uniting with the Black working class in struggling to seek common, equal and socially transformative resolutions to their class issues.

The media provided different descriptions of acts of desperation and survival by Blacks and whites in obtaining food and supplies following Katrina; an example is "looters" and "finders." The police and National Guard were ordered to stop looking for survivors and to stop "lawlessness." Bush's statements about getting tough on "looters" made clear that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were becoming areas of military occupation.

The refusal by thousands of mainly Black people to leave their homes was initially described by the media as the main problem related to the slow evacuation efforts--blaming the victims. No one initially mentioned the low wages, level of poverty and high rates of unemployment that prevented people from leaving.

After it took almost a week for the government evacuation effort to begin, leaving people to fend for themselves without electricity, food and water, it became shamefully clear and unavoidable for the media to hide that the government had made no provisions for a major evacuation. The acts of heroism by the people themselves in rescuing their neighbors, although not emphasized by the media, could be seen throughout its coverage.

The "looting" and "lawlessness" must be addressed and placed in proper context. When it became clear that there was...