Hurricane Katrina

This fact sheet summarizes research on the political participation of vulnerable Gulf Coast communities after Katrina, as well as national trends in electoral participation.

This fact sheet focuses on opportunity barriers related to employment, wages, and contracting, and highlights workplace policies that can expand opportunity for all.  

This fact sheet examines the state of health care in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region prior to and after Hurricane Katrina.

In the days just before and after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 80th birthday, I had the opportunity to visit two places that are integral to his modern day legacy: Washington, DC and the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. As I witnessed the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president, I thought of Dr. King’s admonition, in his 1963 I Have a Dream Speech, that “we cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.” Despite some continuing problems at the ballot box, this was an election about which Dr. King could be truly satisfied; African Americans turned out in record numbers to elect the nation’s first African-American president.

In the same speech, Dr. King reminded the nation that “when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable Rights’ of ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’”

For anyone who’s visited the Gulf Coast recently, it is obvious that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as the people of the Lower Ninth Ward—overwhelmingly poor and African-American—are concerned. The world witnessed in 2005 how our government left the region’s people to drown in their homes and suffer unspeakable conditions in the New Orleans Convention Center and Superdome. More than three years later, that abandonment continues.

Yesterday was the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a ground-breaking document initiated and championed by the United States and Eleanor Roosevelt.  Frank Knaack of the ACLU Human Rights Program writes about the significance of the Universal Declaration in the United States and where we are today in fulfilling the promise of "the foundation of the modern human rights system":

The UDHR laid the foundation for a system of rights which are
universal, indivisible, and interdependent. The UDHR does not
differentiate between civil and political rights on one side and
economic, social, and cultural rights on the other. It realizes that in
order to properly enjoy one set of rights, you must also be able to
enjoy the other. As is often noted, one cannot properly exercise their
right to vote, think, or live if they have no food, housing, or basic
health services. It is from these principles that the modern human
rights treaty system (international human rights law) was born.

[...]

While much of the focus on the human rights record of the U.S.
government is in the context of foreign policy and the so called “war
on terror,” including the rendition, torture, and indefinite detention
of foreign nationals, and vis-à-vis its high rhetoric on spreading
freedom and democracy throughout the globe, it is of equal importance
to look at the state of human rights at home. From the government’s
inadequate response in the wake of hurricanes  Katrina and Rita;
to pervasive discrimination against racial minorities in the areas of
education, housing, and criminal justice, including death penalty; to
imposing life sentences without the possibility of parole on juveniles;
to abhorrent conditions in immigration detention facilities, it is
clear that the U.S. government has failed to abide by its international
obligations.

While the struggle for universal human rights is far from over,
there has been great improvement in the fight to bring human rights
home. More and more non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and
individual activists in the U.S. are utilizing the human rights
framework in the domestic advocacy and litigation. At the latest
session of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial  Discrimination
(the treaty body that monitors state compliance with the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination), there were more
than 120 representatives from U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) in Geneva, Switzerland, who briefed the Committee members and
provided additional information to counter the misrepresentations and
omissions of the official U.S. government report on the state of racial
discrimination in the U.S. This information, in turn, led the Committee
to conclude that the U.S. should make sweeping reforms to policies
affecting racial and ethnic minorities, women, indigenous people, and
immigrants. The Committee’s recommendations garnered domestic and
international media attention, and were followed by a three week
official visit to the U.S. by the U.N.  Special Rapporteur on Racism.
This visit by the Special Rapporteur further opened up opportunities
for domestic NGOs to utilize the international human rights framework,
as was evidenced by the successful public education and media outreach
campaigns conducted by local NGOs throughout the US during this visit.
As this shows, human rights advocacy has become an effective tool for
social justice advocates in the U.S. to use to press for change and
enhance the protection of basic human rights.

The Opportunity Agenda is dedicated to bringing human rights home.  We are proud to work with coalitions such as the U.S. Human Rights Network and the Human Right to Health Capacity Building Collaborative to build the national, state, and local will to make human rights a real and effective tool for realizing American opportunity.

U.S. Human Rights Reports and Tools from The Opportunity Agenda:

• Human Rights in the U.S.: Opinion Research with Advocates, Journalists, and the General Public
• Unequal Health Outcomes in the United States: A Report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• Policy Brief: Healthcare, Opportunity, and Human Rights at Home

• Louisiana news station WDSU is offering a live video feed from the New Orleans City Council meeting on the impending demolition of public housing.  In addition to those speaking at the meeting, hundreds of people are standing outside City Hall in protest of the lack of affordable housing in the region since the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina two years ago. Present-day inequities in New Orleans are often framed with respect to human rights; the demand for affordable housing is just one aspect of ensuring that residents have the social and economic security needed to provide for their families with dignity.

• Bloggernista has reported that Congress has lifted a nine-year ban on using public funding to support needle exchange programs in Washington, DC.  Despite the fact that syringe exchange programs have proven effective in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, this ban had held firm while the capital city has the developed the highest rate of HIV infection in the nation, a true modern epidemic noted for its immense racial disparities.

• The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog reposted an Associated Press article entitled 'State supreme court rules counties are liable for inmates' care,' including conditions that existed prior to imprisonment. It's great to see a court ruling in favor of the responsibility of the community to provide a basis level of health care for those in custody without other options -- this is a good step towards the recognition that all Americans deserve access to health care.

Justices voted 8-0 on Tuesday in favor of HCA Health Services of
Oklahoma, the parent company of OU Medical Center. The hospital sued
Oklahoma County commissioners and Sheriff John Whetsel over $2.2
million in medical payments for treating prisoners in the jail from
February 2003 through September 2006.

The county's argument was that much of the expense was to treat
conditions that predated the prisoners' arrests, Justice Marian Opala
wrote in the court opinion.

• The DMI Blog analyzed a recent New York Times editorial on Arizona's new law intended to crack down on undocumented immigrants, offering praise for what it refers to as an 'example of smart immigration policy.' Author Suman Raghunathan expounds:

I am, in fact, waxing poetic on a stellar editorial in yesterday’s  Times.  This gem of a piece outlines in plain, centrist-liberal-speak why
going after employers who employ undocumented immigrants instead of
enforcing existing labor law makes for poor immigration policy.

What’s more, Arizona’s law (and believe me, there are many more in
the works across the country) will do nothing to address our nation’s
desperate need for smart and fair policies that welcome immigrant
contributions into our economy. Worse yet, it does nothing to bring
undocumented workers out of the shadows with a legalization program to
level the playing field on wages and labor conditions for all workers –
documented and undocumented, green card holders and US citizens.

Meanwhile, the Presidential election campaigns continue to work themselves into a fevered state, trying to say as little as possible on immigration policy (pick a party, any party) while sounding tough on undocumented immigrants (again, pick a punching bag, any punching bag). 

Here’s to hoping those high-falutin’ political operatives take a page from the Times’ editorial board’s playbook when they think about immigration. 

• The Facing South blog has provided us with an update on the impending demolition of public housing developments in New Orleans. According to Monday's Times-Picayune, a city committee has refused to approve the demolition of
  one of the four public housing complexes slated for destruction by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The matter will now go before the city council. At Monday's meeting, protesters were seen holding banners that said "Housing is a human
  right."

• Prometheus 6 has also posted a wealth of information on the housing crisis in New Orleans. As the public housing battle rages on, bloggers are referring to a 2005 Washington Post article which reported that Representative Baker of Baton Rouge was overhead saying "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." Additionally, there's a new video out on YouTube which does a great job of illustrating the housing conflict:

• Jack and Jill Politics also mentions that the organization Color of Change (known for their work with the Jena 6) has posted an online petition to support a Senate bill that would reopen housing in New Orleans, guarantee a right to return for public housing residents, and provide housing assistance to renters. Curiously, Louisiana Senator Vitter is responsible for blocking this bill.

• The ImmigrationProf Blog posted a great article on the work that the University of Texas Immigration Law Clinic is doing to improve conditions for children living in the Hutto immigrant detention center.  Other than last week's holiday toy drive, the clinic has filed a series of lawsuits to ensure that children are housed in "the least restrictive conditions possible" and that the facilities meet certain basic standards in their care and treatment.

• And in today's pop culture news, from the LA Times blogs, a popular character in children's books will be featured in a new television series that will also educate kids about immigration issues:

After a three-decade-long hiatus, Paddington Bear
will return to children's lit only to find he's not as welcome as he
was in 1958. In a new set of stories by 81-year-old Paddington creator
Michael Bond, the refugee bear will face questioning by British
immigration authorities. But Bond promises that all will turn out well
in the end for Paddington who is, of course, a model immigrant,
regardless of his legal status.

• The Huffington Post published an opinion piece yesterday on health equity entitled The Katrina of Public Health. Author Jayne Lyn Stahl begins:

Some alarming, awe-inspiring, news today out of Washington, D.C., and
no, it's not Trent Lott's resignation. The results of a study, the
first of its kind, of HIV cases in the nation's capital are out, and
they show that AIDS has reached "epidemic" proportions in D.C. (WaPo)

In the five-year test period in question, ending in 2006, while
African-Americans comprise roughly 60 percent of the city's population,
they account for more than 80 percent of the more than 3,000 HIV cases
that have been identified. Ninety percent of women residents who tested
positive for the disease are African-American. And, nearly 40 percent
of reported cases were among heterosexuals showing, in the words of a
District administrator, that "HIV is everybody's disease" in D.C.

The presence of an epidemic of this magnitude so close to 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue can't help but make one wonder if federal policy,
or non-policy is at the nucleus of this health catastrophe. Yet, where
is the public outrage that a campaign of misinformation,
disinformation, or information/education blockade should claim the same
demographic casualties as that of Hurricane Katrina.

Stahl continues to cite the government policies that have contributed to DC's epidemic, public health negligence compounded by the absence of needle exchange programs in the area:

On this administration's watch, more than $100 million in grants have
been allocated for abstinence-only education programs. The president
pressured the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to eliminate,
from its Web site, anything that might promote the efficacy of using
condoms to prevent STDs, and AIDS. Roughly 90 percent of the $15
billion set aside for fighting HIV globally has been made available to
domestic groups for use in their ongoing worldwide campaign to promote
abstinence, and to discourage the use of condoms in the fight against
HIV/AIDS.

• The Republic of T has highlighted a recent decision by Florida's Palm Beach Community College to provide health insurance coverage for employees' pets but not their domestic partners.  With the rationale that “Your pet is a member of your family — his quality of life is important to you,” the college trustees have provided employees with a 5 percent discount and
  group rates on a range of health insurance plans for their pets, covering "wellness care, vaccinations, X-rays,
  surgery and hospitalization (although pre-existing conditions may not
  be covered)." Yet in August the college opted not to extend the same affordable benefits to same-sex partners of their employees, despite the fact that it would not have cost them anything to do so.

• Immigration News Daily discussed a new trend in which foreign consulates have begun providing health care services for immigrants in the US without medical insurance. Both the Salvador and Mexican consulates in Washington, DC are offering medical services, and are expanding the health programming around the country in collaboration with the Hispanic Institute for Blindness Prevention.

• Immigration News Daily has also reported on a new initiative by Latino organizations in the US to register one million new Latino voters before the 2008 elections.  The coalition is hoping that current affairs such as the health care, education, the Iraq war and immigration will drive many voters to the polls for the first time.

• Latina Lista has posted about Mexican TV network Azteca America's decision to produce and include English classes in its US programming.  The Spanish-language network does not intend to imply support for an English-only America but to recognize the benefits of a multilingual society. According to Luis J. Echarte, chairman of Fundación Azteca America and the Azteca America network:

Spanish-language television is often a first-stop and
point-of-reference for information for recently arrived immigrants. Our
community looks to us for guidance on immigration, legal changes, and
natural disasters, to name a few examples.

There’s no doubt that our community can better assimilate
themselves and increase their economic and political power with
increased linguistic skills.

• The Happening Here blog has a new post up on a newly-announced hospital closure in San Francisco's Mission District.  While a hearing will be held next week on the plan to shut down St. Luke's Hospital, author Janinsanfran notes:

"Opponents of the closure quickly discovered unearthed evidence that the impact
of CPMC's plan would be to dump most of their Black, Brown and charity
care patients. CPMC wants to build yet another North of Market Street
hospital on Cathedral Hill, while leaving the South of Market area
entirely to the care of the over-crowded, under-funded county hospital."

Decreasing access to medical care for communities of color and low-income communities is a reality in New York City as well, as illustrated by our google map mash up Health Care That Works. This process continues despite the fact that the majority of New Yorkers agree that health care is a human right.

• Feministing has blogged about a recent Kansas City ruling on women's access to contraception, in a lawsuit in which women had alleged discrimination because AT&T refused to provide health insurance coverage for birth control for female employees. The appellate court ruled that "contraception was not 'related to' pregnancy for purposes of the law" and therefore AT&T's actions did not comprise discrimination.

• The Sentencing Law and Policy blog has featured an innovative new website created by the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition ("CCJRC").  The site includes a Drug War Clock depicting the millions of dollars spent yearly on the war on drugs, the Think Outside the Cage blog, and a series of devastating statistics on modern mass incarceration such as "65% of women in prison are mothers of children under 18 years old."

• The Facing South blog has posted about the recent introduction of the Gulf Civil Works bill in Congress, legislation aimed at addressing the problem that "there are still about 100,000 fewer jobs in the Gulf than there was pre-Katrina." In the spirit of the New Deal construction works, the program would create these jobs working on much-needed public infrastructure projects. According to Stephen Bradberry,
  head state organizer of ACORN Louisiana, the region’s largest
  association of low and middle income families,

“Communities across the Gulf Coast suffer from crumbling roads and
water systems, ill constructed flood protection, and closed police
stations, fire house, schools and hospitals...We have an opportunity
to jumpstart the recovery by empowering communities with the resources
they need to lead.”

• Finally, Ezra Klein has written an insightful piece on Affluence vs. Security.  Discussing whether or not American living standards are getting better or worse, Klein says:

"I haven't quite worked this theory out yet, but my sense is that economic status has been cleaved free of economic security.
So the sort of goods that signal affluence -- iPods and iPhones and
laptop computers and plasma televisions -- are becoming much cheaper,
more broadly accessible, and thus more widely owned. Lots of people,
particularly young people, can thus claim economic status. The
trappings of our wealth are all around us.

Yet economic security is quite a bit further from reach. It's
impossible for me to imagine how I'll ever buy a home. Further
education for me and eventual education for my kids are far beyond what
my salary seems able to bear. And let's not get into health care. Point
being: The affluence I can easily purchase into my 20s seems liable to
crash right into the security I discover is out of reach in my 30s.

Meanwhile, from where I sit, the American Dream is a pretty weak force.
White picket fences aren't the culturally transmitted vision of
prosperity. Electronics are. Awesome stuff
is. We're seeking goods, not security. And we can buy goods. Which
makes us feel prosperous. And if you feel prosperous, if you consider
yourself affluent, you can't merge that self-conception with economic
insecurity, and thus it's hard to consider yourself part of a coalition
in need of economic reform, or more advantageous public policy. By
offering status without security, folks lose the class discontent that
would turn them into a constituency for the security. And so they don't
get it."

Do we agree that true economic security remains elusive for our younger generations? What can we do to bolster the American Dream, to promote policies that will create opportunities and stability for everyone in America?

• The DREAM Act legislation which would provide undocumented students the means to stay in the country legally if they attend college or join the military is up for a vote today in the Senate. The Border Line reports that it remains unclear if enough Senators will come out in support of the bill, measure which would provide many students who arrived in the US legally as young children with access to federal funding for continue their education in hope of giving back to their communities.
• As the wildfires continue to rage in Southern California, Immigration News Daily has posted that about fifty undocumented immigrants have turned themselves into border patrol agents out of fear for their safety. Various bloggers such as Prometheus 6 are starting to draw comparisons between the immense devastation of the wildfires and that of Hurricane Katrina, and how the socio-economic status of the displaced populations has affected the care and attention each received.
• RaceWire has done a piece about Blackwater's new bid to get involved with security on the US-Mexico border.  Author Seth Wessler explains how problematic this situation would be, despite apparent bipartisan support in Congress:

"Given Blackwater’s 'shoot first' policy, enacted with bloody clarity in Iraq and on the streets of New Orleans after Katrina,
the plans to expand to the border region do not bode well. With
vigilante groups like the Minutemen already taking their racist,
nationalist stance to the front lines, guns in hand, the addition of
Blackwater to the scene would only mean more dead immigrants with less
accountability.

In a political climate where the rhetoric on immigration employs the
lexicon of war, the possibility of Blackwater’s entry into the border
security scene seems to fit the frame. As if it were not enough that
the United States is building a wall along
the border and the the total number of deportations has increased by
over 400% in the past ten years, the border itself may be handed over
to private firms whose interests could not be less in line with the
common good."

• The Unapologetic Mexican has joined the ranks of those reporting on a coalition of major newspapers and television networks who are petitioning to gain access to Jena Six member Mychal Bell's sealed criminal trial.  Bell's lawyer seems to agree that the media presence may help temper further questionable rulings by District Attorney Reed Walters, and that the case has been publicized enough to date that Americans have a right to know what is going on.
• The Republic of T is spreading the news about the just-announced date of next July's 'Blogging While Brown' conference.  In a blogosphere in which people of color remain the minority, it is tremendously important for bloggers of color to organize themselves in order to maximize potential to publicize issues of import such as the Jena Six case.
• Feministing posts that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spoke this past weekend about the Roe v. Wade abortion ruling, about how she doesn't forsee the ruling being overturned in the next few years.  She added, however, that if it were overturned, abortion would always be available to 'women of means' who could afford to travel to other states, but "would have a devastating impact on poor women."

• Our friends at Immigration Orange have written a very powerful post featuring the stories of two undocumented Brazilian men who have recently died while in detention.  25-year-old Maxsuel Medeiros died of a heart attack yesterday after being held by Massachusetts Police for a traffic incident.  And last month, the following occurred, also in Boston:

"Edmar Araujo, who is epileptic, died from a seizure after he was pulled over for a routine traffic stop.  Needless to say, psychological or physical stress is what causes a seizure.
Worst of all, his sister claims to have tried to bring his epilepsy
medicine to the local police that picked him up, but that information
was not used to save his life.  It's been over a month and we still
don't have answers as to whether or not Araujo's death could have been
prevented, and who is to blame."

That anyone should be living in this kind of extreme fear within the US is just devastating.  But to deny medical care to those being held is a tremendous violation of human rights and one which should weigh heavily on our national conscience.

• Just News
  included a piece about a lawsuit just filed by the United Food and
  Commercial Workers International Union that seeks to collect damages as well as to put an end to a series of six
  raids of Swift & Co. meatpacking plants by Immigration and Customs
  Enforcement (ICE).  The union claims that "agents unlawfully detained
  workers and violated their constitutional rights," threatening even US
  citizens.  This sort of blanket crackdown on American workers can only lead to more violations of our rights.
• Firedoglake
  has covered the "Hands Across El Rio" protest which lasted for sixteen
  days across the Texas border.  The protest was organized to show community
  opposition to the construction of a wall along the Mexican border, and included
  the display of a human chain which stretched the length of the river.
• Both Racialicious and Resist Racism have noted the resurgence of noose imagery in the media and in public happenings.  Even a recent MSNBC Sports headline implies a lynching.  That's not just a bit distasteful, especially given current events.

• Just News also mentions a study released in the LA Times which reveals that blacks have "borne the brunt" of Hurricane Katrina, as New Orleans' black population fell 57 percent a year after Hurricane Katrina while the white population only declined 36 percent. There is also a noticeable pattern in where blacks and whites have tended to resettle, with the former choosing to locate themselves in poorer, urban areas.
• Finally, Afro-Netizen has posted about new data on racial segregation in nursing homes in the US.  Interestingly, facilities in the South have been found to be more integrated than those in the Midwest, but where segregation exists, differences in the quality of care are also evident.

• Over at the LA Times, Ron Brownstein is talking about "Sanctuary Cities" and our immigration policy.  It's only in the last two weeks that I've begun to notice the term "Sanctuary Cities" creaping into the public discourse.  The term seems to be the anti-immigrant movements' frame of choice, designed to not only focus on actual immigration laws, but to act as a club for Republican Presidential candidates to beat up Democrats.  The way it is being deployed by folks like Romney and Tancredo, Sanctuary Cities = Progressive Urban Centers = Democrats.  Am I reading too much into that?
• Progressive Blogger Digby is moonlighting over at The Big Con and opens her new gig with a must read piece about Race and the response to Katrina 2 years ago.
• If you haven't read it yet, Time Magazine recently profiled some high school students who used FaceBook and MySpace to organize on behalf of their friends, whose parents are undocumented workers facing deportation.
• The American Immigration Law Foundation has an interesting piece about local ordinances seeking to curb immigration in the face of the Federal Government's failure to pass a comprehensive reform bill:
  

  Regardless of why anti-immigrant ordinances are metastasizing across
  the country, the ordinances themselves, and the arguments of their
  supporters, are based on false assumptions. Take Culpeper County, where
  champions of the resolution complain that new immigrants aren't
  "assimilating." Missing from this complaint is an understanding of the
  fact that "assimilation" (or integration) occurs over the course of
  generations, not within a few years of a person's life. While most of
  our immigrant forefathers probably achieved at least a basic mastery of
  English after several years in the United States, like Latino
  immigrants now, they certainly did not become linguistically or
  culturally "American" in any meaningful sense within their lifetimes.
  And neither will today's immigrants. But their children and
  grandchildren will, just as we did.

• DMI Blog reports on the problems with the new face of immigration
  reform: employer sanctions for hiring undocumented workers. Author Suman Raghunathan explains that these sanctions are an underhanded approach to sidestep the main issue, which is not that employers hire undocumented workers, but rather that they exploit those workers with poor labor conditions and low pay.  Raghunathan cites numerous examples of employers that
  force undocumented immigrant workers into low wages, employer harassment, and
  no labor protection, a situation that is equally bad for undocumented workers and native born workers alike.
  • Our view: Holding employers accountable is important, but let's be
    clear about the real issues and make sure the frame of this debate doesn't
    shift away from what is important – that we're all in this together: African Americans,
    immigrants, native born workers and undocumented workers. If we improve working conditions for one
    group, they will be improved for all groups. Focusing on the worker sanctions Raghunathan highlights can only divide
    us and pit one group against the other. If we want to see real change, we need to work together. For more information about immigrants and
    their contributions to the workforce, check out our immigration reform fact
    sheet.
• Our friends at the Sentencing Project have released a new report: Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by
  Race and Ethnicity (pdf).  This report compares the
  racial and ethnic disparities in incarceration in all 50 states, including
  prison and jail populations. Highlights
  include
  • African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six (5.6) times the rate of
    whites and Latinos at nearly double (1.8) the rate of whites.
  • There is broad variation among the states
    in the ratio of black-to-white incarceration, ranging from a high of 13.6-to-1 in Iowa to a low of 1.9-to-1 in Hawaii.
  • States with the highest black-to-white
    ratio are disproportionately located in the Northeast and Midwest, including
    the leading states of Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Wisconsin.

For more information about racial disparities in
incarceration populations, check out our Criminal Justice fact sheet or visit The Sentencing Project.

• Facing
  South reports that John Edwards' Poverty Tour stopped
  in New Orleans,
  where the Senator spoke about his plan to create "50,000 stepping stone jobs"
  in places like schools, libraries and community to help revitalize the community
  and build a "work ethic."

• We continue to learn many lessons from Hurricane Katrina, nearly two years after the storm struck the Gulf Coast, chief among them the consequences of misplaced governmental priorities.  In a case where we most needed a strong and positive governmental role, instead we witnessed a monumental failure of will and dodging responsibility.  For example, Facing
  South reports that federal agencies responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
  gave the startling amount of $2.4 billion in contracts guaranteeing profits for
  big companies, according to a Center for Public Integrity investigation. FEMA, which has seen its support consistently cut and its core mission altered over the past seven years, was responsible for nearly 94% of these
  contracts. The tragedies in Hurricane Katrina should have provided an opportunity
  for the government to act as a positive resource, but many reports show many
  poor decisions, increasing suffering for the victims. Check out the Center for Social Inclusion’s
  

• Facing
  South reports on the People’s Freedom Caravan, a regional group leaving New Mexico on June 25 with plans to travel to New Orleans to build solidarity with grassroots groups and
  highlight the government’s unfair treatment of survivors of
  Hurricane Katrina. This event is a
  precursor to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta next week. The organizers explain that
  “Post-Katrina life in New Orleans has shown that
  there is no real recovery of the Gulf Coast, but only a massive
  privatization scheme that takes away our homes, communities, and human
  rights.” Bringing public attention to
  this devastated region is the only way to promote action in an area where after
  a year, only 18% of the public schools had reopened and 60% of the homes had
  electricity service. For more
  information, check out previous postings, Katrina "report cards", and fact sheets.
• Prometheus
  6 is also blogging New Orleans, focusing on the Army Corps of Engineers recent report on many neighborhoods in New Orleans' extreme
  vulnerability to future storms. Large
  areas of the city would still be flooded in the event of a major storm, and the progress is
  slower than expected. Residents can
  study the city on a new website on a block-by-block basis for different kinds
  of storms.
• Immigration Equality Blog reports on
  a recent Migration Policy Institute report (pdf) about the results of a Senate bill
  proposal and how it affects family members trying to immigrate. The
  report highlights the change from a system that “allocates about two-thirds of
  permanent visas to family members and less than one-fifth to employment-based
  immigrants, to a system that eventually allocates perhaps less that half of all
  visas to family members and about two-fifths to points-based immigrants.” The report also shows the current age and
  education demographics of the immigrants in 2005, and extrapolates how the new
  policy would effect immigration.
• Yolanda Ochoa tells another touching immigration story as part of the Dreams Across America videos. After immigrating, Yolanda went back to school to learn English and study to start her career as a nursing assistant.  Her dream is to eliminate all children witnessing their parents being deported, and is committed to immigration reform.

Over at TomPaine.com, Kevin Whelan and Toni McElroy have a great op-ed about the President's disappointing lack of commitment to rebuilding New Orleans - vividly symbolized by his failure to mention New Orleans or Katrina even once in his State of the Union Address - and what the state of the Gulf says about our nation.  Some good excerpts:

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, it exposed
America’s dirty little secret—that poverty not only still exists, but
is an intergenerational way of life for many of the country’s
residents. It would have been inconceivable that tens of thousands
could be left behind to fend for themselves in the storm, except it
played out on live television. For a time, public discussion again
focused on the fact that the poverty of New Orleans, far from being an
isolated situation, exemplifies a national problem.

The reasons such poverty still exists in a rich country aren’t
really hard to find. Years of under-funded public services, low wages
(10 years and counting without an increase in the federal minimum
wage), unaffordable housing, troubled public schools and suppression of
union-organizing have contributed to the decline in earning power of
working families and the rise in poverty.

The article goes on to note the many challenges facing the residents of New Orleans in rebuilding their lives.  These barriers to opportunity that many New Orleans residents - those still displaced and those who have returned - are starkly illustrated in the new Rebuilding Report Card put out by the Center for Social Inclusion.  Readers may remember that last month we posted the first of what will be monthly reports cards grading the rebuilding process.  The new report is out (pdf), and unfortunately (though not unexpectedly) the situation has not improved:

• 17 months after Katrina, the Lower 9th Ward is the only planning district without full electric and gas service .
• The Recovery School District turned away 300 students due to a lack of facilities
• After promising 500 grants a day in January, the Road Home Program has averaged fewer than three approvals per day.

16 months into the rebuilding process, (and just a few hours into the New Congress's first "100 hours"), it's important to take stock of our progress in the Gulf.  Our friends over at the Center for Social Inclusion are keeping their eye on that ball, and have issued the first of what will be monthly "Report Cards"  (pdf) grading our progress in restoring opportunity - or even the most basic of services - to those communities that were devastated by the storm.

So how are we doing?  Unfortunately, the answer seems to be "shockingly bad." Overall, CSI gives the reconstruction of only two neighborhoods (Uptown and the Garden District) better than a C average, and almost 75% of the city gets a D or F.  Homeowners in all sections of the city seem to be fairing much better than renters and with the notable exception of Lakeview, communities primarily of color are faring much worse than mixed communities.  Health, education, and economic indicators are graded with an "F" in almost every neighborhood.

The report also indicates that in the last 6 months, overall scores for each district have changed little, with most progress coming in owner occupied households located in Central City/Garden District or Uptown/Carollton.  Particularly troubling is the report on the public school system.  Nearly half of all damaged or destroyed public schools will be left unsalvaged, and only two new public schools have opened since the storm.

In light of these findings, Rep. Barney Frank's words at the start of the new congress seem particularly relevant and poignant.  CSI will be updating these report cards every month, and we'll blog them as they are released.

I just want to add one thought to the great piece that our executive director currently has posted at TomPaine.com (which you should all go read). 

Alan makes the point that this election wasn't just about Iraq, but about the economy broadly defined as the opportunity for every American to get their shot at the American Dream:

Voters have clearly shown a yearning for a new domestic agenda. This
time, it’s not just the economy on voters’ minds, but something deeper
and more profoundly American: opportunity.

While the economy, narrowly defined,
may be relatively healthy, more and more Americans see our national
promise of opportunity—the idea that everyone in our country should
have a fair chance to achieve his or her full potential—moving farther
out of reach.

A recent CNN poll found
that 54 percent of Americans feel “the American dream has become
impossible for most people to achieve.” And 55 percent say they’re
dissatisfied with “current opportunities for the next generation to
live better than their parents.” A poll of American workers commissioned by Change to Win found that 81 percent believe “no matter what you hear about the economy, working families are falling behind.”

This rising sentiment is not only about economic conditions, but
also about national values like fair treatment, a voice in decisions
that affect us, a chance to start over after misfortune, and a sense of
shared responsibility for each other.

I think this is right, and just wanted to point out that it was also the main message in some of the Democrats more surprising pick-ups this November.  Jim Webb, who beat out George Allen, just published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal calling for fairness in the economy.  Here's some excerpts:

This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind. A troubling arrogance is in the air among the nation's most fortunate. Some shrug off large-scale economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of the "rough road of capitalism." Others claim that it's the fault of the worker or the public education system, that the average American is simply not up to the international challenge, that our education system fails us, or that our workers have become spoiled by old notions of corporate paternalism.

...

Most Americans reject such notions. But the true challenge is for everyone to understand that the current economic divisions in society are harmful to our future. It should be the first order of business for the new Congress to begin addressing these divisions, and to work to bring true fairness back to economic life. Workers already understand this, as they see stagnant wages and disappearing jobs.

...

With this new Congress, and heading into an important presidential election in 2008, American workers have a chance to be heard in ways that have eluded them for more than a decade. Nothing is more important for the health of our society than to grant them the validity of their concerns. And our government leaders have no greater duty than to confront the growing unfairness in this age of globalization.

Hopefully Webb is right - and his colleagues take his concerns seriously.  The American people voted for change. They voted for a restoration of opportunity and the American Dream.  It's the responsibility of our newly elected leaders to make that happen.

The New York Times is running an article today about violence in Louisiana schools: After the Storm, Students Left Alone, Angry.  The article reports on a surge of  violence in Louisiana high schools, and provides an instructive look at why proper framing of issues matters for those of us looking to achieve positive social change.

Focusing on the John McDonogh High School in New Orleans, the article paints a picture of students gone wild, many living without parental supervision and lashing out during school.  An ominous lead clearly sets the stage and cast of characters:  A school that sounds more like a prison, populated by students who are obviously criminals:

NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 31 — John McDonogh High School has at least 25
security guards, at the entrance, up the stairs and outside classes.
The school has a metal detector, four police officers and four police
cruisers on the sidewalk.

In the last six weeks,
students at McDonogh, the largest functioning high school here, have
assaulted guards, a teacher and a police officer. A guard and a teacher
were beaten so badly that they were hospitalized.

While this is clearly not an action to be condoned, by leading with the most inflammatory piece of the story, the writer sets up a dynamic whereby the individual students - rather than the devastation of the Hurricane and the failure of local, state, and national government to properly rebuild - bear the brunt of responsibility for the conditions in which they find themselves and which are the root cause of the school violence.   

This is a traditionally conservative framework - that of individual responsibility - and it permeates the rest of the piece. As we read further down, blame is laid on absentee parents, with little comment on the barriers that keep them away from their children:

Mr. Jackson said many parents whom he had spoken to were in Baton
Rouge, Houston or elsewhere. “That’s the question that’s buzzing in
everybody’s heads,” the McDonogh curriculum coordinator, Toyia
Washington Kendrick, said. “How could you leave your kids here, that
are school-age kids, unattended?”

The answer is as various as the
fragmented social structure, which the hurricane a year ago made even
more complicated. Some students describe families barely functional
even before the storm. Others say pressing economic necessity has kept
parents away.

Rachelle Harrell was living in Houston, working
as a medical assistant and trying to pay off a $1,300 electricity bill
in New Orleans. But she yielded to her son Justin and his cousin
Kiante, both 16, and sent them back to New Orleans on a Greyhound bus
while she stayed in Texas.

While individual responsibility is important, and students should be
punished for their actions, the real problems described by this article
are systemic in nature and do not lend themselves to easy solutions that address the actions of individual students.  While the story does make passing references to systemic
problems with the school system, for the most part it shirks all
responsibility to examine root causes, preferring instead to
focus on the more limited narrative of students run amok:

If the causes are complicated, the consequences seem evident to school
officials: a large cadre of belligerent students, hostile to authority
and with no worry about parental punishment at home. 

Punishing students and ratcheting up security in an ever expanding cycle will neither return missing parents, nor free those
parents from the obligations that keep them away.  It
will not bring new books to the classroom or new teachers into the
schools. In its framing, the article moves readers away from positive solutions to what are clearly systemic problems in Gulf Coast communities.  Worse, it lays blame for those problems solely on the survivors of the hurricane because it is easier to point fingers than to confront serious failures on the part of public institutions.

A well-framed story would have focused on the systemic, root causes of these problems and how public institutions could help Katrina survivors back in their feet.  It would have delved into those "complex causes," to create a greater understanding of the problem in the mind of the public.  With this piece, the Grey Lady had a chance to help the victims of Katrina and move the public forward in its understanding of the effects that the storm continues to have, and the role that public institutions can and must play if we are to truly help the Gulf Coast recover from the disaster.

Instead, they chose to highlight the negative actions of a few bad apples in a framework that completely isolated those actions from their causes.  As a result, the public will be less informed than it could be, and we're that much farther from making real progress in the Gulf.

In an article with stunningly bad framing, the AP manages to blame poor african americans for getting ripped off by the insurance companies.  While the overall framing leaves much to be desired, the article does convey some important information, and a quote by our own Alan Jenkins, buried near the bottom, clearly states what should have been the story's principle message:

Alan Jenkins, a former Justice Department official in the Clinton
administration who lobbies for minority opportunities, said AP's
analysis reinforces a little-discussed reality exposed by Katrina.

"The
promise of opportunity isn't equally available," he said. "Race and
income has made a big difference in people's ability to start over."

Jenkins said state and federal agencies need to adopt different techniques to reach historically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The Republic of T has about 5 great posts up analyzing the New Jersey decision on civil unions/gay marriage.  BlackProf has some good stuff on this issue as well.

Radio Open Source ran a fantastic show this week about identity politics in the '06 elections.  Listen to the podcast (mp3).

Finally, the Economic Policy Institute released a paper analyzing minimum wage research and trends.  The findings include:

There is a growing view among economists that the
minimum wage offers substantial benefits to low-wage workers without
negative effect. Although there are still dissenters, the best recent
research has shown that the job loss reported in earlier analyses does
not, in fact, occur when the minimum wage is increased. There is little
question that the overall impact of a minimum wage is positive, as the
following facts make clear:

If the minimum wage were increased nationally to $7.25:

• 14.9 million workers would receive a raise,
• 80% of those affected are adults age 20 or over, and
• 7.3 million children would see their parents income rise.

Episode 6 of our podcast, Opportunity Radio, is now available.

After the Storm: A Conversation with Author David Dante Troutt

In this edition of Opportunity Radio, Creative Director Phoebe Eng talks with Rutgers law professor David Dante Troutt about his new anthology, After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina  (The New Press).  The author discusses forced migration, geographic disparities, his views on Spike Lee's HBO documentary, and what will be required to rebuild New Orleans as a city of true opportunity.  Also featured: music by singer/songwriter Jonah Smith (30 min).

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Today's Guest Blogger is Father Vien thé Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church in East New Orleans.

One cannot describe America without illustrating
this country with the ideas of “free” or “opportunity.”  The reality of
this picture lies largely in the promise that our government will keep
us safe, listen to our concerns and provide us a fair chance to move
forward.  When that promise is fulfilled, we all rise together.  When
it’s broken, the entire country suffers.  So what do we, as the people,
do when the fulfillment of that promise is not on the right path?

Right now, we are suffering.  This is especially
apparent here in New Orleans where we are attempting to recover from
one of the country’s worst disasters.  After experiencing a
disappointing response effort that left many people behind and rarely
sought the input of the people affected most, I will admit that I have
lost some faith and trust in the government.  Ultimately, the success
of our rebuilding effort depends on repairing our partnership with our
government, at all levels, and in reinvesting in its ability to serve
us well and protect our safety and opportunity.

As a member of the Vietnamese community in New
Orleans, the promise of opportunity is particularly important to
me—especially for a person who has escaped deliberate communism to the
land of the free.  It drew us all to this country.  We took advantage
of the resources available, and because of it, our community has grown
and thrived for over 30 years.  We have built homes, businesses,
churches and a full sense of community.  We’re proud to call the city
of New Orleans and this country home.

After Hurricane Katrina, we were one of the first
communities to return.  Our leaders came back, took stock, and
determined the needs of the community.  As a result of this work, we
are making great strides toward recovery.  In the East New Orleans
community, over three quarters of our businesses have reopened.  Our
church offered rent-free land for 199 FEMA trailers that are filled
with residents anxious to return and rebuild their lives.  We are on
our way.

However, the efforts of the business and faith
sector have not been matched by the government.  We need the
government’s full partnership to address the barriers to our
community’s full restoration.  For instance, while we enthusiastically
welcomed the arrival of our FEMA trailers, only 65 of 200 interested
households have been approved for occupancy.  Also, almost a year
later, FEMA still has not assigned a site manager for maintenance
care.  At the same time, not enough schools have reopened to
accommodate our children’s need to stay on track educationally. Our
water pumps and the entire infrastructure of East New Orleans still
need to be repaired as well. There is plenty of work to be done.

Despite the return of more than half of the Vietnamese-American
original population and many others, no hospitals are open in East New
Orleans, making it unsafe for many elderly or ill community members to
return.  Meanwhile, the health issues that plague the city were
recently exacerbated here with the opening of a landfill at the edge of
our community to accommodate debris from the clean-up; we were silenced
in the decision of the opening of the landfill.  In addition to
threatening our air quality and groundwater, the potentially toxic
contents of the dumpsite could also seep into the canals that feed our
gardens.

While these disappointments have certainly given me pause, I know that
we can be successful in restoring the promise of the land of
opportunity.  Recent events have shown us how badly we all suffer when
that promise is compromised.   When the government doesn’t listen to
us, doesn’t step forward when it’s needed, and when years of
disinvestment in its infrastructures cause the kind of failures we’re
witnessing today, the consequences are dire.

America’s history shows that when we ensure a
voice for everyone in public decisions and invest in effective
government systems that serve all communities fairly, everyone
benefits.  In our case, that means more transparent and inclusive
decision-making, amplified public resources and staffing, and a more
equitable distribution of the burdens and benefits of the rebuilding
process.

Impediments of the past year have made clear how
important it is to invest in our government, to work on our
partnership, to consistently strengthen our democracy so that, when
another Katrina comes along, we can all rise and move forward together.