Managing Editor's Comment
September
15, 2005
The
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, being the destruction of the inadequate levees
in New Orleans, has traumatized innumerable members of our community. Those members of our community unable to leave that city, and
who have survived, are going through a horrendous life-changing experience.
They
have lost family, friends, and neighbours; homes, jobs, and schools; family
keepsakes and photos, financial records, treasured music, clothing, favourite
toys, school projects, books, stereos, gardens…everything.
Everything that makes up the environment called home.
It
was bad enough that money requested to improve the outdated levees was denied by
the federal government; bad enough that the watery demise of New Orleans was
forecast years ago by experts who knew the levees were inadequate to withstand a
severe hurricane.
It
was bad enough that the privatization of surrounding wetlands allowed
construction which resulted in their subsequent draining; for those wetlands
were part of a vital ecological balance which absorbed excess water.
It
was bad enough to be poor and black and unable to leave New Orleans; bad enough
that the buses stopped running the day before the hurricane struck; bad enough
that no level of government made provisions for those folks who did not have
vehicles to transport themselves out of the city.
It
was bad enough that no government agency supposedly could get into the same city
where apparently numerous reporters and camera personnel could.
The latter group broadcast the images of our helpless brothers and
sisters, our elders, our youth, waving from rooftop islands, begging for help.
Wade
in the water…wade in the water children…wade in the water…
Those
who obediently went to the Dome were no better off, and in some ways worse off,
than those who stayed in their homes. It
was bad enough that they left all they had and waded through waist- and
chest-high water to go where they were supposed to be safe and instead
experienced lack of food, lack of water, lack of toilet facilities, lack of
respect, lack of security, lack of first aid, etc.
All
that, and more than I can describe, was bad enough.
But the media assault on the dignity of our family, the demonizing of
people trying to survive, the denigration of mothers and fathers trying to
protect their children and their parents, not only re-traumatizes those already
under assault but has traumatized our entire community.
Over
the past few weeks I have received many calls and emails from people on the
verge of panic or a breakdown. That
a government could act so callously that its government leader would go to a
barbeque and fundraiser while people were dying for lack of federal involvement;
that police and military personnel who should be assisting those in need instead
behave with breathtaking cruelty toward the weak and vulnerable; that the media
would describe white people who took what they needed from stores as desperate
but call black people doing the same thing as looters, has shaken many black
people to the core of their being.
Many
of us, too many of us, did not know just how much we are despised.
In
every country on this earth which is controlled by people of European descent,
Afrikan populations within their nations are perceived as the other. We are not considered worthy to be treated as equal to whites
and we are not treated equal to whites. This
is the collective dynamic between the two people-groups.
It
has been this way for hundreds of years. Europeans
and their descendants, wherever they have setup shop have been very
consistent in how they have collectively behaved toward their Afrikan
populations. (In fact, it is a
consistency toward all melanin-dominant or coloured people.)
Yet,
time and time again, we delude ourselves into thinking things have changed. We are bamboozled by individual behaviours and ignore
collective actions. We confuse the
sight of a few more of our people in television commercials, or receiving
Academy Awards, or becoming multi-millionaires as some kind of proof that racism
has disappeared.
And
when white supremacy rears it ugly head in an open and crude fashion, our
illusions are shattered and we feel hurt, betrayed, angry, and frightened.
Again. The emperor reveals
his naked self after we have doggedly convinced ourselves that his fantasy
wardrobe is real. Again.
We
not only suffer from extremely poor vision; we suffer from amnesia, too.
We
continue to place our lives, and the lives of our children and the lives of our
elderly, into the hands of a people who by their very history and contemporary
behaviour toward us, should neither be trusted nor depended upon by us.
Will
we learn from these events? This
time, will we stay angry enough to change our ways?
Will this finally push us into recapturing our right Afrikan minds?
As
taxpayers and citizens we have rights, and deserve a certainty of service from
governments on all three levels: municipal;
provincial/state; and federal. However,
we need a strong unity amongst ourselves to ensure that we get those services
and we need the ability to do much on our own when we don’t receive those
services, especially when our very existence is threatened.
And it will be.
We
must do for ourselves. We must keep
our dollars circulating within our community as much as possible.
We must build our community infrastructure so that we manufacture and
create the things we need, distribute the things we need, sell, buy, and repair
the things we need.
We
must care for our children and our elderly, our physically and developmentally
challenged. We must control and
provide the services we need in education, healthcare, finance, law,
entertainment, spirituality and religion, arts, politics, and defense.
We
must create functioning communities where we own and control the grocery stores,
the laundries and dry cleaners, the corner stores, the bookstores, clothing
stores, local gyms, community centres, apartment buildings, educational
institutions, auditoriums, auto repair shops, internet cafes, gas stations etc.
That
is a real community, as opposed to a neighbourhood in someone else’s
community.
We
cannot depend on others, friend or foe, to care as much or more about us than we
care about ourselves.
We
all know the Afrikan proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
Look into that adage deeply and you will understand that it also takes a
village to sustain the parents of that child.
Once you have understood that, you must also see that it must be the
village which holds aloft, honours, and cares for its elders.
Let
us build and sustain our villages wherever we are.
Let us link our villages, cities to regions to nations and on to
continents. We are a family one
billion strong! We need not be
dependent on anyone for anything.
We
have organizations within our community who have been on the ground working in
Louisiana while the various levels of governments were still twiddling their
thumbs. The big name organizations
seldom appropriately help our people, despite what the media and public
relations firms tout. Here are some
ideas for donations to help our family:
1.
Tom Joyner’s organization, BlackAmeriaWeb.com has established a website
for contributions to those who are housing or otherwise assisting families
displaced by the evacuation. Donations
of money or needed items by web or mail.
or P.O. Box 803209, Dallas,
TX, U.S.A. 75380-3209
2.
The Sparkplug Foundation’s website has an excellent list of grassroots
organizations operating in Louisiana.
3.
The Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the affected areas as
well as community colleges there have been closed indefinitely or severely
damaged. You can make contributions
to the United Negro College Fund online or by mail.
or UNCF, Accounts
Receivable, 8260 Willow Oaks, Corporate Drive.
P.O. Box 10444, Fairfax, VA U.S.A. 22031-8004
4.
Musicians in New Orleans, who essentially are the ambiance and flavour of
that city are not paid much at all. Most
were in the category of working poor. Many
have lost their instruments and their only means of earning a living.
Visit the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra website at www.thenojo.com.
5.
The Baptist Churches in Louisiana are very much involved, especially the
Fourth District Baptist Association in Baton Rouge, which is adjacent to New
Orleans.
6.
The Nation of Islam, which has always worked on behalf of our entire
community will also accept donations and materials.
Visit their website.
The
well-known relief agencies will always get the big bucks and the attention of
the media, but we have no control over where the money would go.
(For example, families who have taken in evacuees, many of them on the
lower rungs of the economic ladder have already been told they would NOT receive
any money from those agencies!)
Black
professional
tradesmen from New Orleans volunteered their services to help rebuild
their city. They were turned down
and the work was contracted out to white firms who will pay white
tradesmen. The money donated to the
familiar big name agencies are often going to end up being used in this manner.
Is that how you want your dollars spent?
Let
Hurricane Katrina be a wakeup call to us all.
Let us be wise. Let us keep
those painful images of abandoned and helpless family members in our memories.
Let us build our villages out of the brick and mortar of strong
relationships and focused economics, so we will be strong enough to withstand
the storms ahead.
No
more…no more…aint’t gonna study dependence no more!
Tiki Mercury-Clarke is the managing editor of www.dafrobeanexpress.com in Toronto, Canada.
