The C.O.W.S. KATRINA: AFTER THE FLOOD Part VII

The Context of White Supremacy hosts the seventh study session on Gary Rivlin’s Katrina: After The Flood. Mr. Rivlin is a White man; while working for the New York Times he covered the infamous engineering failure and negligence that ravaged New Orleans in August of 2005. His 2015 bestseller audits a decade of lopsided “recovery.” To be blunt, ten years of black New Orleanians being racially dislocated and purposely impeded from rebuilding their lives. Rivlin examines all areas of people activity: the institution of charter schools, the destruction of public housing, and the looting of funds designated for flood victims. Last week’s session described the challenges residents faced returning to discover what – if anything – remained of their houses. Armed soldiers restricted access to the Lower 9th until December 2005 – months after the storm. White areas like Lakeview got electricity restored months before most black residents. While many Black residents struggled to get a FEMA trailer or permission to return to their neighborhoods, Joseph Canizaro and others plotted the future of a smaller, taller and whiter Crescent City. We hope this text will offer a more complete understanding of Hurricane Katrina and it’s aftermath as a meticulously planned campaign of genocide against black New Orleanians.