Day 141: Dream Of A Better New Orleans

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land …

I have a dream today … This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., August 28, 1963

This speech is especially meaningful for me after having lived in the American south for a number of years and having seen firsthand the extent to which reconstruction did not sweep its golden hand across some of its parts. Not in the way of blatant oppression, but in the overall economic malaise of the urban south. The struggle is still on in the form of:

a) the gap – a few successful professionals versus the many instances of bad schools and political corruption,
b) latent white-on-black and black-on-black racism, and
c) the very fine line between laid-back and apathetic.

An increasing number of young urban people who live with nothing left to lose, in a predominantly non-white southern city, does not a fulfilled citizenry or a great gross domestic product make. (Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away, either, just so you know.)

Unfortunately, Katrina sharpened the edge. From a lonely island of poverty to lonely islands surrounded by floodwater, poor New Orleanians did have something to lose – home. Some, including me, have argued that Katrina gave a lot of New Orleanians a way out – they have (access to) better jobs, schools and lives elsewhere. But, the pull of home – even small ones in neighborhoods in the Ninth Ward and New Orleans East, that should never have been envisioned, engineered and developed – is a strong one. Homes held in families for generations – turf, neighborhood, property – those that didn’t live in the projects had that. New Orleans is the first place outside of India that I have seen where communities lived and grew in complete poverty. Even with nothing, they had each other, with no need for the nuclear-family system or independence.

But, that was then. Where do whole families, from great-grandma to little baby, go to live in this nation when their gathering ground has been wiped out? Also, knowing that it can happen again, would you rebuild in the same spot and subject yourself and your children to the same tragedy through which you barely made it? What do you do? Where do you go? Whom do you rely on?

This is why education is key to the south. Without good schools and the prioritization of learning, the little baby cannot grow up to become a productive adult , capable of taking care of him/herself outside the known cocoon of a community. As disasters such as Katrina have shown, the comfort of community only goes so far, especially when you cannot locate its members after a mass exodus. It is time for the youth of the depressed south to live on their own mercy – take that sense of self and community, demand better schools, learn to think critically, grow aware of the world around you and give back to that which made you.

And even if you don’t become a doctor, lawyer, engineer or politician, you will have that which is key in the modern world – a way out. A backup plan. A path on which to go on with life. That way, when the next act of god forces you out of home and job, you will not find yourself an exile, a CNN sob story, in your own land, your nation of America. Show them that you’re not a handout, but a productive American who has earned the right to live on this land. For those of you who lost family, friends, homes, churches and everything in New Orleans, don’t let yourself be fooled again, by nature, government and, most importantly, yourself.

I’m not worried about the projected future face of New Orleans, that it may be predominantly white. There is no such thing as a rich, white city that does not also run on rich, non-white people and, more importantly, the less-wealthy base of the pyramid. [Just wait until they have to pay for $8 burgers at McDonalds.] The city will self-equilibrate and welcome back those who have the need to live there and can simultaneously fulfill the city’s needs. Until then, may peace, social justice and racial and class equality, which comes from strong schools and open minds, bloom here in place of all the injustice and sadness that has come to pass. If you’re going to do it, come back to a better New Orleans.

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Update: Nagin, “New Orleans Will Be ‘Chocolate’ Again” It’s so hard for me to tell whether Nagin means what he says, is saying it out of a sense of mayoral responsibility or wants so badly to be re-elected. Who got Nagin elected the first time? Are a lot of those people still in NO? And, of course, the most important question: Does this make me mocha?