Weather Crash Moment

OK, so with so much talk about Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans (and other places along the Gulf Coast) and racism, I wanted to take a moment to sound off.

It's obvious that there are discrepancies in responses in the wake of this monster storm. Based on all reports - media outlets, congressional reports, and online sources - those who are poor and black (for the most part) were left behind when help finally came to the region. Even now, months later, it seems like those who were left out in the elements, if you will, are still suffering from abandonment. Many of these are displaced children living in cities hundreds of miles from home.

But the news reports got me thinking...if race wasn't the primary reason for a poor response, why are so many of the faces and voices African-American? It finally struck me while this looks like active racism (and I'm NOT subsrcibing to conspiracy theories at the moment), maybe it's something else, something closely related to racism. I've never known Mother Nature to just pick on the darkest among us, although that tsunami of a year ago didn't strike any American suburbs...

Anyway, what struck me was the idea of the legacy of racism, which is the flip-side of the white privilege coin (for interesting and in-depth discussion about owning white privilege, take a look at Tim Wise's work). In most parts of the country, maybe the world, waterfront property is the bastion of the wealthy. Not the case with New Orleans and southeastern Louisiana. Why? Well, think about it. Why would the wealthy not want to live close to the water? Reminder: the water we're talking about is the Mississippi River -- lifeline of the east, and shipping lane and dumping ground of industry. All of this ends in delta lands -- land that is muddy, below sea level, and a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other disease-carrying vectors. In other words, land unfit for rich folk (that's code, by the way) but great for working poor (more code). As time passes, and laws change, New Orleans' role in the slave trade as well as its development of a community for free African-Americans allowed for many Blacks to settle here, so that by the 2000 Census, more than 67% of all New Orleans residents are African-American and 20% of all residents are below the poverty line. Now imagine you can't afford insurance (so you don't want to leave your valuables behind), you can't afford to leave, or, if relocated, won't be able to afford to return. I'm neither a mathematician nor a statistician, but if one were to run the numbers, you'd see a correlation. In the end, given the history of this country around race and class, it was not surprising that the majority of the visible victims of Katrina were black.

One can expect the public outpouring of compassion to wane now that we're several months away from the event. Wonder if it will disappear completely with this week's news that Hurricane Katrina was more than likely a Category 3 storm and not at Category 4 as originally believed...

Weather Crash Moment






more to follow...

Crash Moment -- In Memoriam

Rosa Parks 1913-2005

On 24 October 2005, Mrs. Rosa Parks died at the age of 92. She was in her home in Detroit, Michigan. Mrs. Parks is most known for her refusal to give up her bus seat to a White person in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. This action is widely regarded as the catalyst that sparked the American Civil Rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a direct result of Mrs. Parks' refusal and subsequent arrest. While there are many African American men who are synonymous with the struggle for racial equality in this country, Mrs. Parks has attained an almost iconic stature as a figure of resolve and non-violent resistance. In later years, she received many accolades and much public recognition (including the Congressional Gold Medal) for her ongoing work as a civic leader and community organizer.

On a personal note, I had the honor of hearing Mrs. Parks speak, and the greater honor of meeting her. In her remarks, she referenced the reasons for her staying in her seat in 1955 -- she particularly addressed the one circulating which reported that she didn't get up because she was 'tired' from working all day as a seamstress (she was also employed by the Montgomery NAACP, and became the plaintiff of this important test case). She said she was tired every day, but mostly because she was tired of giving up or giving in. As our nation pauses to remember Mrs. Parks, I hope that her life, and her legacy, inspire all of us to continue to fight against the social injustices that continue to challenge our communities.

If you'd like to learn more about Mrs. Parks, please feel free to visit:

www.naacp.org

http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/parks01.html

Famous words attributed to Amistad captive Joseph Cinque.

To learn more about the Amistad Incident, go here: Amistad America, Inc.

Location of one of America's greatest Crash Moments -- Freedom Schooner Amistad.

More Qualified to Comment...

Now that I've seen the film.

OK, it's been almost 24 hours since I've seen "Crash", and I still haven't completely recovered from the experience. Abusive, relentless, and, in the end, both marginally hopeful and hopeless -- all in all, an assault on the emotions around race. But it was so much bigger than that.

I left the theater feeling like I had been beaten, helped up by my oppressor, and then beaten again. I know that interpersonal conflict in America can't be all based on racism, but this film underscored the point that Cornel West (and others) have made over and over again -- race does matter. It matters a lot in a country where for centuries, skin color determined much of your lot in life. Not every Black man walking down the street should be feared -- we're not all looking to cheat, mug or carjack you, but, sometimes a cigar is a cigar. And sometimes, in another part of town, it's a White man or an Asian man or a Latin man who should be stepped away from.

Like any film about the human condition, more questions than answers abounded. But here's one that I struggle with still: Why did the Persian woman buy a gun for her father and load it with blanks? I know that the bullets are a pivotal plot point, and this is not a criticism of the film, but why blanks? We know that she requests 'a box of the red ones' when she purchases the gun, but didn't she notice they were blanks when she loaded them? What if the store had been robbed and her father thought he'd be defending himself with real bullets? Was this a metaphor for something else (yeah, yeah, of course it is).

I am sure that I will write about this again, this series of Crash Moments. If you haven't seen the film, I STRONGLY encourage you to find it and see it. But with all the known high-star-power talent in this movie, don't be tempted to take the whole family. This is not a kids film, nor one for the faint of heart or for those who can't take foul language or straight talk. Like the bully who tortured us as kids, this film pulls very few punches. It would suck if it held back.

Playground Crash...

So, my wife was at the playground recently with the kids, who were playing nicely, first by themselves, and then with other kids at the park. Now, it's important to note that she is White, I am not, and our kids' skin is pretty brown. As the kids played, she engages in conversation with another woman who is supervising kids at the playgorund. It's important to note that this woman (listed below as OW) is also White. Here's a liberally-transcribed version of the conversation:

OW "Wow, the kids are really playing well with each other."
Wife "Yeah, they pretty much get along well with everybody."
OW "Are they your kids, or are you the nanny?"

OK, from both Black-power and level playing field perspectives, I would LOVE to say that my dark-skinned children have a White nanny! How George Jefferson would THAT be? But alas, my chosen career field, which keeps me emotionally and socially happy, prevents me from hiring a nanny of any race or ethnicity.

So here's the essential question: Why does a mother at a park with children who don't phenotypically resemble her have to be the alternate (i.e. non-parental) caregiver? Why do we, especially in this part of the country (the Northeast), where there is a prevalence of bi- and multi-racial children (not to mention trans-racial adoptees), still assume that children have to share the same melanin concentration as their parents? It's amazing to me that White privilege rears its head in so many unexpected places.

So, yeah, while there was no violence, I'd call this a crash. Wish I was there when my wife said to this person - "No, they're mine; do they not look like they're mine?" - so I could see how many shades of red this person turned.

A "crash moment" has been defined by some as a moment in time where you feel or realize that you've been discriminated against based on your race/skin color. This idea has been popularized by the film "Crash" and by Oprah Winfrey's recent experience at Hermes in Paris.

I am hoping to create a space where we can discuss our crash moments with maturity, honesty, and a little humor. As of now this will be a mildy moderated blog, with hopes of keeping it that way.