CNN will air an hour-long special report Thursday, Nov. 1 called The Noose: An American Nightmare, probing the recent resurgence of incidents such as the one here at Teachers College. The show airs at 8 p.m. ET. Click here for more information.
In many ways, the Southern California wildfires are eerily reminiscent of Katrina: the scenes of nature’s fury consuming homes, evacuees huddling for safety in a sports stadium, and the tireless energy of first responders fighting an uphill battle to contain the damage and rescue those in danger all remind us of what New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast experienced two years ago.
No doubt, the fires and the fallout from them provide a wonderful “teachable moment” in which educators can help their students make more meaningful connections between these two disasters. But it’s critically important that we as educators help our students look past the obvious similarities and engage in a deeper analysis of where the similarities begin and end. The truth is the California wildfires are quite different from Katrina in many important ways – as devastating as these fires are to the affected populations, the damage has mainly been to property, and the loss of life has been minimal (fewer than ten people have died as a result of the fires, compared to more than 1,500 in Katrina). Click here for a short but powerful critique of the comparison between the fires and Katrina.
With that in mind, here are ten ideas for helping students evaluate the comparison between the fires and Katrina:
1. Students can easily do a statistical comparison of the two disasters with resources from the Internet. Ask them to compare such figures as the size of the geographic area affected, the number of homes damaged or destroyed, estimates on the dollar amount of property damage sustained, the number of people killed/injured, the number of people forced to evacuate their homes, etc. Such basic information will go a long way toward helping students put the two events into perspective.
2. How has the interplay of the federal response with state and local agencies been different in the fires than after Katrina? California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has gotten overwhelmingly good press in the past several weeks; Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s popularity ratings sank so low after Katrina that she didn’t even run for re-election. (President Bush last week commended Schwarzenegger by saying, “It makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead.” To which Blanco reportedly responded, “I don’t take potshots at the president, and I don’t appreciate potshots being taken at me, either.”) Do party politics – i.e., the fact that Schwarzenegger is a Republican, albeit one who has clashed with the Bush administration in the past, and Blanco a Democrat – play a role?
3. Ask students to compare the populations affected by the fires and Katrina. In Katrina, the affected population was largely poor and African-American, while most of those affected by the California fires are middle-class homeowners. Do the differences in populations affect the government’s response, or is such a conclusion unwarranted? How might the effects of losing one’s home be different for a home-owner whose home is insured than for a renter?
4. Has FEMA learned anything from Katrina? Some press reports indicate that FEMA appears to be doing a better job in the immediate aftermath of the fires than they did after Katrina, though others are still skeptical. On the other hand, much of the media coverage of FEMA has related to its embarrassingly inept attempt to fake a press conference – an attempt that has led its director of external affairs, Pat Philbin, to lose his new job as spokesperson for the Director of National Intelligence.
5. Does global warming have anything to do with these two events? Click here for a sober, even-handed article addressing this highly-charged question. Ask students to research how climate change may be increasing the magnitude of Atlantic hurricanes and increasing the vulnerability of southern California to wildfires.
6. Both these events are largely considered “natural disasters,” but are they really? Can both be viewed as human-made disasters? In the case of Katrina, it was not the hurricane itself but the failure of the levees that devastated New Orleans. There is now considerable evidence that at least several of the so-called wildfires were actually set by arsonists. Do we let ourselves off the hook when we simply blame mother nature for these events?
7. In both Katrina and the wildfires, the efforts of first-responders – both professionals, such as firefighters and members of the Coast Guard, and local residents – have been credited with keeping these disasters from becoming even worse. Using these responders’ efforts as a starting point, this would be the perfect time to teach the lesson “Am I My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper: Personal and Social Responsibility in Times of Crisis” from the Teaching the Levees curriculum book, pp. 69-71. (Click here for a link to download the curriculum book if you do not have one.)
8. How have both these disasters affected the most vulnerable populations in their respective regions? While the number of poor people affected by the wildfires does not begin to approach the number affected by Katrina, it is still important for students to recognize the disproportionate impact these events have on those most vulnerable. In the case of the wildfires, for example, a significant number of illegal immigrants who came to Southern California as migrant farm workers may be reluctant to seek help because of their immigration status. Click here for a related article.
9. Both events raise important questions about the propriety of rebuilding in geographic areas vulnerable to natural disasters. Should the most flood-prone areas of New Orleans be rebuilt? Should the vast hillside areas of southern California – which will almost certainly continue to be vulnerable to fast-spreading brush fires – continue to be the site of suburban development? Click here for an insightful analysis of this subject from the Los Angeles Times.
10. As mundane as it may seem to the average high-school student, the topic of insurance – and the political power of the insurance industry – plays a vital role in the aftermath of any natural disaster. Ask students to research how insurance coverage differs when one’s home is destroyed by a fire and when it is destroyed by flooding, and whether or not those distinctions are justified. Ask students to consider whether or not insurance companies should be required to provide coverage for people who choose to live in geographically vulnerable areas and, likewise, if people who choose to live in such areas should bear the brunt of the responsibility for their property if and when disaster strikes.
We would love to hear from you about any discussions you may have in your classrooms comparing the wildfires to Katrina. And please let us know if you have any additional teaching ideas, either by responding to this blog or posting them on the “Share Your Lesson Plans” link on this website.
NOTE: CNN will air an hourlong interview with Genarlow Wilson Monday, Oct. 29, at 8 pm eastern time. Click here for more information.
* * *
Genarlow Wilson will soon be a free man.
Wilson is the young man, now 21, who has spent more than two years in prison for a 10-year-sentence for “aggravated child molestation” committed when he was 17. In this case, “aggravated child molestation” meant receiving oral sex from a 15-year-old girl. The key evidence in the case, a video tape of the incident, indicated that the girl was a willing participant, and no other evidence has surfaced to suggest she was anything else.
This morning, the George Supreme Court – on a 4-3 vote – labeled Wilson’s sentence “cruel and unusual punishment” that was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime, and ordered his release. Even though the Georgia legislature changed the law under which Wilson was convicted early in 2006, it did not apply retroactively to his case. Wilson had repeatedly turned down plea-bargains because all would label him a child molester even after his release, a label that carries such consequences as not allowing him to live in the same home as his underage sister. In June, 2006, a judge voided Wilson’s sentence and reduced his conviction to a misdemeanor (the same as we would have received if he had been sentenced under the new law), but the Georgia Attorney General, Thurbert Baker, appealed the decision. So Genarlow Wilson stayed in prison.
By most accounts, Genarlow Wilson was (indeed, is) a decent kid, a star football player who had a 3.2 GPA and was being recruited by several top-flight colleges when he was arrested. He was Homecoming King at Douglas County High. He was planning to take the SATs the same day he was arrested. He did not have a police record. Then he went to a New Year’s Eve party with some friends at a motel, a party full of sex and booze, and the trouble began. The following morning, a girl at the party said she had been raped; several boys were arrested. Everyone except Wilson accepted a plea bargain. Wilson stood trial for the rape, but nothing on the videotape or in the victim’s testimony convinced the jury that any rape had taken place, and he was acquitted. But the jury did convict him of the child molestation charge, because under the letter of the law the act shown on the tape was considered a felony because the girl was under the age of consent.
Despite widespread media attention – the story aired on such shows as PrimeTime Live, Good Morning America, on sports entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s cable network; The New York Times editorialized that the state should “Free Genarlow Wilson Now” — Wilson stayed behind bars. Until today.
So what does the Genarlow Wilson case have to do with the levees? Let’s put it this way: one of the unsettling questions raised by the aftermath of Katrina was whether or not there are still two Americas, “two societies, one Black, one White – separate an unequal,” in the words of the 1968 Kerner Commission. (Check out the lesson called “Are There Two Americas?” in the Teaching the Levees curriculum book, pp. 58-61). Katrina begs us to consider whether the government’s hopelessly inadequate response to the floods in New Orleans were shaped by the fact that so many of its victims were black and poor. The incident in which victims fleeing the floodwaters in the aftermath of Katrina were stopped at gunpoint from crossing the Gretna Bridge forces us to consider whether or not there are still physical spaces in this country that are off limits to people of color. In a nutshell, Katrina demands that we examine the possibility that even in today’s America one set of rules applies to whites and another to blacks.
Similarly, it is impossible to separate race from the Genarlow Wilson case. When a Georgia jury sends a 17-year-old black man to jail for 10 years for doing what millions of American teenagers do every day, you can’t help wonder if all those old sexual stereotypes about African-American men are still simmering just below the surface. Prosecutors have discretion in the cases they bring. Charging Wilson with “child molestation” for getting oral sex from a 10th-grade-girl is at best irrational. At worst, it smacks of a society and legal system that is all too ready and willing to believe that a young black man is a sexual predator. Critics of racial profiling by police in many jurisdictions argue that when African-Americans are stopped more frequently than whites for routine traffic violations they are really guilty of “driving while black.” Likewise, you have to wonder if Genarlow Wilson wasn’t simply guilty of “having oral sex while black.”
At a press conference last week, Jesse Jackson demanded the government stop its “over-prosecution of young black men,” according to today’s story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Genarlow is a symbol of a system that’s out of control.”
(This is, of course, the same set of issues raised by the Jena 6 case, which will be addressing in this blog in the near future.)
“The image of a bright future dimming with each passing day is what infuriates so many people,” writes Wright Thompson in a piece about Wilson called “Outrageous Justice” on EPSN.com. “Wilson should be held up as an example of a kid who was making it. His life should be protected by society, not destroyed. He was a good student, with a 3.2 grade point average. He was popular, the school’s homecoming king, liked by students and teachers. He never got into any trouble with the law. He was a track and football star.”
Interestingly enough, Wilson seems to be the first person to admit that he is no candidate for sainthood. In numerous interviews, he has admitted that going to the New Year’s Eve party was a mistake, and he hopes one day to have the chance to convince other kids to take responsibility for their behavior.
Congressman John Lewis (D-Atlanta) recently visited Wilson in prison, and told reporters that “his head was on straight. He’s smart. He realized he had made mistakes. He said, ‘Congressman, I’m a good person. I want to get out and make a contribution.’”
In the ESPN story, Thompson describes a young man sitting in prison taking stock of the life he led before he landed behind bars:
“It’s embarrassing to me,” he says. “You see yourself….’Man, I acted like that?’”
Wilson’s lawyer, B.J. Bernstein, says her client is committed to encouraging teenagers to behave responsibly. “Genarlow is going to be committed to talking and working with young people to spread the message that he made a mistake that night and doesn’t want it to happen to anyone else,” she was quoted as saying this morning in the Journal-Constitution.
Funny, I don’t recall hearing that kind of admission from other athletes who have unfairly found themselves in serious legal trouble after attending similar parties.
Genarlow Wilson now has the opportunity to do a lot of public good. According to a poll in this morning’s Journal-Constitution, more than 95% of respondents agree with his release (interestingly, a much higher percentage than that of the Georgia Supreme Court). Maybe, at long last, justice in this case has been served.
UPDATE:
Genarlow Wilson was released from prison about 5:30 pm Friday afternoon. Click here to see a video of the release.
If you have been following the national news at all, you probably know that Bobby Jindal, the newly-elected governor of Louisiana is (a) 36 years old, (b) of Indian descent, and (c) a Republican. But you probably don’t know much else about him. The national media seem fixated on the fact that he is very young (yes, he will be the youngest governor in the nation, although Louisiana had a younger governor when Huey Long took office at the age of 35), the first U.S. governor of Indian descent, Louisiana’s first non-white governor (at least since Reconstruction, when an African-American served briefly in the role). That’s all very intriguing, but it doesn’t tell you much about what kind of governor he will be.
No doubt, Jindal’s personal story is impressive: he is a native Louisianan, born in Baton Rouge in 1971 to parents who came to the U.S. for graduate study (his mother was studying nuclear physics at LSU), graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors (in biology and public policy) from Brown University, went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, became the state’s Secretary of Health and Hospitals at the age of 24, served as president of the University of Louisiana system from 1999 to 2001, and served in the federal government as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation from 2001 to 2003 (by which time he was all of 32). He is no stranger to Louisiana politics, either: despite winning the initial gubernatorial primary in 2003 with 33% of the vote, he lost in the final election to Kathleen Blanco. He then went on to win the Congressional seat vacated by David Vitter (of prostitute scandal fame) when he ran for Senate, and won the seat in a landslide. He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 2006.
What people outside of Louisiana don’t seem to know about Jindal is that he is a staunch conservative who won the governor’s seat Oct. 20 by earning more than 50% of the vote in the open primary (avoiding a runoff on Election Day) on the combined strength of his anti-corruption platform and the support of what is commonly called the “bubba vote.” He is an ardent supporter of the Iraq war, opposes all abortions, supports a constitutional amendment against flag-burning, opposes stem cell research, supports the teaching of Intelligent Design in public schools, opposes gay marriage, voted to give federal courts jurisdiction in the Terri Schiavo case, and so on. (You can see his voting record in Congress by clicking here.) His gubernatorial campaign focused on cleaning up corruption in Louisiana, of which there seems to be a great deal. Much to the disappointment of many New Orleaneans, hurricane recovery did not appear to be a major issue – although it was clearly subtext in the race. (Blanco did not run for re-election, in large part because of the blame she received for the post-Katrina mess, and other major Democrats declined to run.) Jindal does offer a rebuilding plan on his website (Click here to see the details).
Bobby Jindal is certainly a fascinating political creature, unlike any other in American politics. He is an intellectual who appeals to working-class rural voters. Though his ancestry is obvious to anyone who looks at him, he seems quite determined to be the all-American boy, from his conversion to Christianity (from Hinduism) as a teen to the story that he decided himself to change his name from Piyush to Bobby at the age of 4 after watching The Brady Bunch on TV. The New York Times reported that his first words to supporters on election night were about LSU’s victory over Auburn.
But what Bobby Jindal means to the future of New Orleans is entirely unclear at this point. The state no longer has Kathleen Blanco to blame, rightly or wrongly, for its misfortunes. The Times-Picayune endorsed Jindal, arguing that Louisiana needs “a governor who transcends conventional politics, is sharply focused on a better future and offers a decisive break from a past mired in underachievement and corruption. We believe Bobby Jindal is that person.” The endorsement said “Jindal brings keen intelligence, discipline and creativity at a time of great need. By instinct, he is a rare combination of policy analyst, people person and problem solver. He has a record of being inclusive, of attracting talent without regard to party or ideology.” (Click here to read the full endorsement.) After his victory, the paper called his election “a momentous step forward for our state… Mr. Jindal is now entrusted with the hopes Louisianians have for their beloved but struggling state. Making them come true is a tall order. We believe Mr. Jindal is up to it. Failure is not an option for him – or for the rest of us.” (Click here to read more.)
Jindal takes the oath of office on January 14. Stay tuned.
In When the Levees Broke, Wynton Marsalis speaks of Katrina as a “signature moment,” a critical juncture in our history when we will finally be forced to come to terms with who we are as a nation. Indeed, Spike Lee seems to end his film on the cautiously optimistic note that the final word on the entire episode has not yet been written.
Now that all the hype of the Katrina second anniversary has come and gone, it’s time to take a sober look at exactly where New Orleans stands in its recovery. Tracking the rebuilding and recovery as it unfolds is a critical part of the Teaching the Levees curriculum (see Lesson 3 of the college curriculum, “Should New Orleans Be Rebuilt as a ‘Chocolate City’?”, and Lessons 1 and 3 of the geography curriculum, “Land Use Patterns and the Future: To Rebuild or Not to Rebuild?”, and “’I Want to Go Home!’ Refugees in the United States?”).
Fortunately, for those who are interested, the Brookings Institution has been doing a remarkable job of tracking the Katrina recovery. In collaboration with the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, Brookings has been issuing detailed monthly reports on New Orleans and the surrounding areas, tracking 40 different socioeconomic indicators – everything from the unemployment rate to the number of building permits issued and the number of buses up and running.
Using data through the end of August, Brookings recently issued its much-awaited second anniversary report. Some of the news is good, but much of it is, well, sobering.
First, the “good” news:
At the same time, however:
There is, of course, important information unavailable in the Brookings reports: for example, there is no indication of how the racial makeup of New Orleans today compares with that of pre-Katrina days, nor, for that matter, what percentage of city residents are living below the poverty level. The report does hint at a change in racial makeup: it notes a slight decrease in the share of African-American students in the city’s public school population, noting that this likely represents a shift in the larger population.
As is usually the case with statistics, a few things can be read between the lines. Hotels may have re-opened and New Orleans may be filled with tourists, but with so few public buses running, so few day care centers open and rents doubling, it isn’t hard to take an educated guess about which third of the population hasn’t yet returned to New Orleans.
We’ll be following these trends as the Brookings Institution continues releasing its monthly reports. It is probably still too soon to say what the final signature on Katrina will look like, but these reports provide an invaluable tool for helping us watch it come more and more into focus.
These reports also provide an invaluable resource for teachers. They are available free of charge, are clearly-written and presented in an exceptionally straightforward, user-friendly format. They also include numerous Data Tables (offering statistics on everything from population estimates to employment levels to school population figures) and a Map Gallery that can easily be incorporated into lesson plans. The Recovery Index reports are updated monthly, allowing students to continually track progress or compare current statistics with any given point in the past two years. If you are interested in helping your students gain a greater understanding of exactly what is happening in New Orleans right now, this is a wonderful place to start.
Former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev raised a few eyebrows earlier this month when he toured the Lower Ninth Ward and hinted that New Orleans may just be working its way up to some sort of revolution.
Gorbachev was quoted by the Associated Press as saying (in Russian, through an interpreter) that “If things haven’t changed by our next visit, we may have to announce a revolution.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune quoted him as saying, “We will be coming back. If this pledge is not fulfilled, we will start a new revolution in New Orleans.”
Gorbachev was visiting as Chairman of Green Cross International, an environmental group promoting sustainable development that he founded in 1993, and which held is biannual General Assembly in New Orleans. Green Cross is a coalition of 30 organizations that promote environmentally-friendly construction, including Global Green USA, which is promoting the building of “green” homes in the Holy Cross section of the Lower Ninth Ward. Click here to read more about Global Green’s efforts in New Orleans.
Gorbachev seemed a bit more rhetorical than serious when uttering the “R” word in New Orleans. He told the crowd that revolution should only be used as a last resort. “We shouldn’t want another revolution,” he said, according to the Times-Picayune. “We should do our best in every (other) way.”
Still, one wonders just how far the people of New Orleans will have to be pushed before something like a revolution happens. After watching the 48 Hours Mystery special, “Storm of Murder” (see blog of 10/12; click here for a complete transcript of the show), I felt a real sense of despair about what is now happening in that city. This hour-long show was the most relentlessly depressing thing on New Orleans I’ve seen in quite a while, ending with the vague suggestion that while Katrina may not have been able to destroy the city, the soaring crime and murder rates just might. The show focused on the senseless murders of Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill, two exceptionally giving and talented individuals, and the inability of the city (thus far) to bring anyone to justice for them. We saw Hill’s husband, Paul Gailiunas, and young son Francis living as far from New Orleans as they can get. We saw Shavers’ young son D.J. facing the prospect of growing up without a father.
And we saw a massive rally of thousands of New Orleaneans, black and white, demanding the city do something about its crime problem. But that was last January, and the city’s murder rate has not substantially declined since then. One wonders just how bad things have to get before polite rallies turn into something more.
Gorbachev may have been delving into a bit of hyperbole when he suggested a revolution in New Orleans, but he got it right when he said, “The future of the city is still not decided.” He told the crowds in Holy Cross that he’ll be back in 2011 if the promise of rebuilding isn’t fulfilled. That should be an interesting visit.
Tomorrow night (Saturday, October 13) at 10 pm EST, the CBS series 48 Hours Mystery will devote a full hour to the soaring murder rate in post-Katrina New Orleans and its effects on the city as it struggles to rebuild. “Storm of Murder” will focus on the slayings of Harvard-educated filmmaker Helen Hill and drummer Dinerral “Dickie” Shavers, a member of the Hot 8 Brass Band who was featured prominently in When the Levees Broke.
Both Hill and Shavers were shot dead within a week of each other during the 2006-07 holiday season. Both had committed themselves to staying in and helping rebuild New Orleans despite its many problems after the levees broke. Hill was shot while asleep during a break-in at her home in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood; her husband survived after being shot three times protecting their young son, who was unharmed. Shavers was killed by a gunshot to the head as he drove with his wife and two children; the bullet apparently was intended for his 15-year-old stepson, who was involved in a dispute with the 18-year-old gunman.
No one has yet been charged in Hill’s murder. The prosecution of Shavers’ assailant has become emblematic of the city’s dysfunctional criminal justice system. Police, acting on the accounts of several eyewitnesses, initially arrested David Bonds, for second-degree murder. But by late June, they had dropped charges against Bonds, citing the unwillingness of a 15-year-old girl, a key witness, to testify. In August, Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan announced that Bonds would stand trial after all, and that a grand jury had issued an indictment against Bonds. It is still unclear if and when a trial will actually take place.
This was not the first time Jordan’s office had dropped charges in high-profile cases because of uncooperative witnesses. Numerous press accounts have highlighted serious problems within the New Orleans police department and district attorney’s office – problems that many observers say well predate Katrina. (Click on these links to read articles from USA Today, The New Orleans Times-Picayune, and The Washington Post.). During its extensive coverage of the second anniversary of Katrina, CNN aired a live interview with former New York Supreme Court Justice Leslie Crocker Synder, who was working as a consultant to the New Orleans’ District Attorney’s office on a Justice Department fellowship. Snyder told Anderson Cooper of systemic problems of “leadership, coordination…and responsibility” in the New Orleans police and criminal justice systems that had led to convictions in only 3 of the 162 murders in the previous year. For a transcript of this candid interview, click here. 
Meanwhile, it remains a very open question whether there will ever be justice for Helen Hill or Dinerral Shavers. If there is anything positive to be seen in their senseless murders, it is that they seem to have done a great deal to bring the tired city of New Orleans together and give it a new will to fight for survival. Soon after the murders, citizens of New Orleans began protesting loudly and demanding an end to the violence. The violence has not ended, but the commitment to demanding better from the police and local government seems to have continued gaining strength.
And at the very least, it is wonderful to see programs such as “Storm of Murder” focusing at least part of their energies to celebrating the lives of these exceptional New Orleaneans and not simply to the brutal manner in which their lives were taken. We’d like to make a small contribution to doing the same. Click here to see a memorial page devoted to Helen Hill, which includes not only photographs and family reminiscences, but examples of her marvelous work in film and animation. (The 48 Hours Mystery website also has a link to Hill’s film, Tunnel of Love. Click here to read a memorial page for Dinerral Shavers. Or, better yet, watch When the Levees Broke to see the Hot 8 Brass Band perform its wonderful music and hear Shavers speak eloquently for himself and his city.
The media are swarming across the Teachers College campus today. CNN, Fox News, vans with press plates, cameras, microphones, the whole bit. If you somehow managed to miss the news that an ugly, racist incident took place here yesterday, you will certainly know by the time the evening news hits the air. It seems that someone – and no one is quite sure who at this point — placed a noose on the door of an African-American professor’s office here at TC. The New York Times has identified the victim as Madonna Constantine, a professor of psychology and education who has written extensively about racism.
People on campus are visibly angry: notices in the elevator are calling for a walkout at 2 pm, and the college itself is planning a town meeting later this afternoon to discuss yesterday’s events. And while the anger is certainly justified, the swarm of media attention raises more than a few questions about how we discuss racism in this country. To be sure, a noose, the long-standing symbol of the lynch-murders of African Americans, is something no right-minded person or institution should tolerate. But is the placing of a noose in a doorway – a gesture that the perpetrator clearly knew would generate tons of attention – really the worst problem with race we face in the United States? Do we genuinely believe that someone is threatening to lynch Prof. Constantine?
Why do the media (and general public) only seem to respond to the most egregious, outrageous, over-the-top demonstrations of racism? Where are CNN and Fox News when the subtler, more entrenched and institutionalized aspects of racism are plaguing our society? The press and the public react to the symbols of racism, but their record on reacting the realities of racism leaves a lot to be desired.
And it seems to me we have a lot bigger problem with race in the United States right now than people flaunting racist symbols that they know will generate attention. The real threats come from people who know that they can get away with unfair treatment of people of color because no one is watching. Where, for example, are the CNN vans when more than half the prison population of the United States consists of people of color? (According to the Department of Justice, there are currently 3,145 African-American males serving prison sentences per 100,000 black males in the overall population, while there are only 471 white males in prison per 100,000 in the population.) Where are the media when people of color are denied a decent education or housing or a ride in New York City taxi? Where are they when African-Americans in New Orleans, forced to evacuate their homes after Katrina, are not allowed to return to their public housing units even though they are still habitable (we will be writing more about this issue in this blog in the coming days)?
Yes, it’s nice that CNN and Fox and all the other media outlets hovering around the TC campus today because racism reared its ugly head. My question is: where they will be tomorrow, when the quieter and arguably more insidious forms of racism continue unabated? The American public often seems to believe that as long as no one is hanging a noose on a doorway or shouting the “n-word” or making someone sit at the back of the bus, we don’t have a problem with race in this country. And the media feeding-frenzy that takes off when incidents such as the one here at TC take place (particularly when compared it the near-deafening silence the rest of the time) only reinforces that impression.
Let me be very clear: I am in no way downplaying the threat of lynching and violence against African-Americans, which sadly remain very real. And even though no one was physically hurt in the incident here at TC, the psychological wounds inflicted by a noose run very deep as well. But knowing nothing more about this incident than what I’ve read in the papers, I’d be willing to bet that whoever placed the noose on that office door was as much desperately trying to gain attention as to make a statement about race in America. Because this person knows that we have a tendency to react more to superficialities and symbols than to substance. There is far more to racism in the United States than nooses and people slinging the “n-word.” That is why so many people worked so hard developing the Teaching the Levees curriculum. Katrina tore the lid off many of the realities of race in this country, and we want to be part of educating and training a generation of citizens that understands and confronts racism in all its depth and complexity. We want to help create a generation that does more about racism than simply shake its head and say, “tsk, tsk” when incidents like the one at TC occur.
Because the sad truth is that nothing in this country will change until we as a society – and that includes the press, which plays a vital role in protecting our freedoms – starts paying as much attention to the hidden realities of race in this county as we do to the symbols.
On my way in to work today, I heard a recording of Fats Domino’s “I Want to Walk You Home,” performed by Paul McCartney and Allen Toussaint, on the radio. It’s hard not to feel a little bit better about the world after you hear a Fats Domino Song. “I Want to Walk You Home” is one of 30 remarkable tracks on a new album entitled Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, which features everyone from John Lennon to Elton John to Neil Young to Norah Jones to B.B. King to Willie Nelson performing Fats’ music, in an effort to raise money for the rebuilding of his New Orleans home and local community programs. Fats Domino stayed in his Lower Ninth Ward home during Katrina and was widely presumed to have died in the floodwaters. Though he and his family were rescued by the Coast Guard, much of his personal musical memorabilia was lost. Over the summer, the Recording Industry Association of America and Capitol/EMI Records have decided to present Domino with reproductions of twenty sales awards (gold records, in layman’s terms) originally won for such megahits as “Ain’t That a Shame” and “Blueberry Hill.” Capitol also recently released a new retrospective, Greatest Hits: Walking to New Orleans (yes, that’s Fats singing the song of the same name on the closing credits of When the Levees Broke). The album features 30 tracks, including all of Domino’s biggest hits from the 1950s and ‘60s.
The truth is there is never a shortage of good New Orleans music available for purchase, but the past couple of months seem to have been a particularly fruitful time for fans of the Big Easy sound, with the release of three particularly noteworthy recordings. Though each represents a distinctly different musical genre, all three bear the imprint of Katrina and are impressive reminders of the city’s extraordinary ability to respond creatively to tragedy.
Trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, a longtime collaborator of Spike Lee who helped score When the Levees Broke and is interviewed extensively in the film, has composed A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina), along with members of his band. The 13-movement recording features four tracks based on music from When the Levees Broke and additional compositions, including “Ghost of Congo Square,” “In Time of Need,” and “Ghost of 1927.” Writing in The Washington Post Geoffrey Himes calls A Tale of God’s Will “a triumph, an extended jazz suite that maintains continuity from section to section, evokes a tragedy without words and inspires emotions worthy of its subject.” Nate Chinen in The New York Times calls the album “a melancholy suite that fees both intensely personal and broadly cinematic.” (Chinen notes, by the way, that the cover picture of Blanchard playing his trumpet was photographed on the roof of his mother’s newly rebuilt New Orleans home, the same home that provided one of the most touching moments in When the Levees Broke as Wilhelmina Blanchard first saw the ruins of the house after Katrina.) You probably won’t feel the world is a better place after you listen to Blanchard’s recording, but you will certainly feel a great deal.
Marva Wright, the “Blues Queen of New Orleans,” lost everything in her New Orleans East home to Katrina. Shortly after the levees broke, Wright sang at her own benefit concert in Baltimore, borrowing clothes for the occasion because her performance outfits were all lost in the flood. Almost two years later, Wright is out with a new recording, After the Levees Broke, which features two tracks, “The Levee is Breaking Down” and “Katrina Blues” written by her bass player, Benny Turner. “When I say ‘I lost everything,’ I mean everything,” Wright said in a recent interview. “Every stick of furniture, every piece of clothing. I don’t even have a photograph of my mother and father anymore. The reason After the Levees Broke is so important is first of all to show people that I’m back and still singing. Secondly, I want to draw attention to New Orleans and what happened here. Nobody can fully appreciate the devastation until they come here and see it for themselves.” For a video of Marva performing live at the legendary Tipitina’s, click here.
By the way, if you’re looking for an interesting way to incorporate New Orleans’ musical heritage into your classroom, check out Lesson 1 of the College Curriculum in Teaching the Levees (“A Cultural Gem,” pp. 55-58). The lesson asks students to investigate the cultural heritage of the city — in particular its critical role in the development of jazz — to the nation, the role of music and art in the healing process after Katrina, and prospects for the survival of New Orleans as an important cultural center in the aftermath of the destruction caused when the levees broke. We welcome your comments and suggestions if you have the chance to use the lesson.
Shortly after posting “Remembering Serena” (9/27), which highlighted a ceremony to honor the children who died after the levees broke, I came across an article by Marilyn Elias in USA Today that reminds us all that the damage done to children by Katrina is still very much alive and kicking.
“Trauma Shapes Katrina’s Kids,” which appeared on August 16, prominently features New Orleans pediatrician Corey Hebert. You may recall that Hebert was one of the doctors interviewed in When the Levees Broke, warning of the dire mental health consequences many Katrina survivors would likely face down the road. (See Act III, Chapter 6, “Despair, Depression, Anxiety.”)
In the USA Today article, Hebert is quoted as saying that in pre-Katrina days about 5% of the children in his practice exhibited mental health problems, but the figure is now 50%.
The article also reiterates some of the findings of an important study conducted by Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health in April, 2006, entitled “On the Edge: Children and Families Displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Face a Looming Medical and Mental Health Crisis.” That report warned of a second crisis for hurricane survivors in which “incipient mental health issues will overwhelm patients and providers.” It noted that nearly half the parents surveyed in the study indicated that “at least one child in their household had emotional or behavioral difficulties that he or she didn’t have before the hurricane, such as feeling sad or depressed, being nervous or afraid, or having problems sleeping or getting along with others.”
The USA Today piece suggests the crisis is here. Children with mental health issues before Katrina face a severe shortage of services. Children with no mental health problems before the storm are finding it equally difficult to get help. In an accompanying article entitled “Gulf Coast Kids of Every Class Affected by Katrina,” Hebert notes the 14-year-old who had been an excellent student before Katrina who was now “disheveled” and smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Another of his patients, a 15-year-old who moved back into a rebuilt home in the suburbs, suddenly began exhibiting behavior problems at school. It was quickly learned that the child felt so lonely and abandoned that he had been cutting himself with a razor blade.
None of this should be news to those who have followed the Katrina story from the beginning. Spike Lee devoted a significant chunk of When the Levees Broke to this looming mental health crisis. Who can forget the tortured face of Will Chittenden reciting the litany of medications he has taken to combat the stress of life in New Orleans post-Katrina?
The question is whether the New Orleans health care system, already severely depleted by Katrina, can cope with the onslaught of mental health issues — particularly among children.
“We have to take care of these kids somehow,” Hebert concludes in the USA Today piece. “We have to get them treatment and put the community back together.”
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