This is not the argument I’d make, but I find it interesting and want to know your thoughts:
The New Orleans Fetish: The Real Reason New Orleans got no help after KatrinaI like it when people list reasons to save New Orleans:
1.It’s morally the right thing to do
2.It’s the government’s obligation to protect it’s cities and citizens
3.Because New Orleans is so specialThe third reason, perhaps the most compelling argument to some, is actually what is hurting the systemic relief effort the most.
This is not because New Orleans is not special or not unique; it is because those who don’t give a d@mn about New Orleans have made it seem so special, so unique, so un-ordinary that it’s something that’s “nice to have, but not necessary to keep.” It’s too Black. It’s too French. It’s too “cultural.” That’s all B.S. code for it’s not really American.
On this 2nd anniversay of Hurricane Katrina, I am getting sick of people like G. W. Bush talking about how “special” New Orleans is. When they do relief the right way after hurricanes in Florida and other places, they don’t do it because Florida or Floridians are so special. They do it because the people of Florida are actually considered Americans.
Think next time before you so quickly agree that New Orleans should be saved because it’s special.
When I was young, they told us in school to refer to the developmentally disabled as “special” and not “retarded.” It soon became a joke among the less special children, a taunt to use when teacher was listening. One big problem with American racism is the paternalism. Brown and Black people are viewed as helpless children, adorable animals, what have you. The malicious side of that is the point SuperSpade seems to be making. “Special” —> “unique” —> “different” —> “dangerous” —> expendable.
At its core, Authoritarianism requires conformity. For everyone, even you.
…and as I said to the author of this post, I’d frame Katrina/NOLA differently. I believe they are evil enough to have seen it as an opportunity to expand the gravy train (open ended, no bid contracts where nothing is actually ’reconstructed’), and witless enough to believe that like them, most Americans wouldn’t care about the cost in (Black) human life.
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+1, +100, +1000 CD
Well quoted:
The firefighters and the people of New York were “special” too. Especially when they were breathing toxins the EPA told them it was OK to breathe.
Not minimizing NOLA at all, just applying Xenophon’s concept of “the differential.”
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
it's very simple
New Orleans would have tons of federal money pouring in except for one problem… The flooding was caused by they Army Corp shoddy construction. It wasn’t a natural disaster (I mean it was, but the flooding wasn’t caused from storm surge, but rather long after the storm died down, the levy broke)
So all the flooded areas are technically a federal responsibility, not homeowners insurance, not state funds, but just like the US spends billions to rebuild Iraq after the bomb it to smitherines, the US should be rebuilding NOLA after the Army Corp used 5 billion gallons of liquid napalm to wipe out the city.
My point being that money would have been coming if it wasn’t for the federal guilt and liability.
NOLA is finished. It will be the next Vegas.
New Orleans was/is Murka's own private Haiti
the place where white-folks’ cruises stopped to savor that unique, Caribbean experience.
Gambling, prostitution (any kind), drunkenness, debauchery (a franch word), and all without having to actually leave the US.
when disaster strikes elsewhere in the caribbean, Murkins don’t care, either.
IIRC, the 17th Street level broke...
… exactly where the funding ran out.
I can’t find the link, but I remember vividly blogging it at the time, I think from the Times Picayune.
If anyone has the link, that would make it quite clear where accountability should be placed.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
irregardless (my favorite non-word)
If a federal dam broke and washed away a city the feds are responsible. This happens all the time along the Mississippi and it’s a federal disaster zone. NOLA is some how a natural disaster zone, and naturally they will wait out the naturalized natives until they go away. Then they will build Rio-NOLA and Belagio II and Southern Disneyland.
They GOTTA Leave Some Po'Folx Behind
to supply the serving class: waiters, whores, dishwashers, drug-dealers, and the like.
One thing about N’Awlins you don’t hear much about was how vicarious were most of its tourist thrills. The Quarter, and especially Bourbon Street, were mainly mere disneyfied avatars of the real apache/bohemian life they pretended to. Disneyland with liquor-to-go. with the wealthier, better connected ones on the balconies shouting “Show us your tits” to the proles in the streets below.
Dead. Solid. Perfect.
That’s why it’s easier for the Right to enjoy all those poor, but unique individuals, being crushed through life in one of the most racist cities in the US, Houston, TX. Texas, alone, is the symbol of the ’different’ they like: Rich, fat on corporate welfare, smug, brutal.
No state should have to be ’different’, to receive the benefits inherent in the compact it made to be part of the United States: Contribute to the common welfare and defense, and the US will take care of any needs after a disaster strikes. Didn’t we learn this lesson with NYC, the most distinctive big town in the country, almost collapsed, because outsourcing businessmen and the Feds wanted it to?