Community and Resistance from Katrina - Essay Example

?The book Floodliness: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six by Jordan Flaherty and Amy Goodman is a trustworthy source reflecting onthe way people of New Orleans behaved during and after the natural disaster. In fact, it is a story to take for real as it goes apart with what official news outlined at the moment. Different stories told by eyewitnesses highlight the severity of the New Orleans police department with lots of malfeasance they committed against civilians. This and many other episodes from the city after Katrina hurricane are well emphasized in the paper aiming at the main concepts and empirical studies the authors managed to collect in the book under analysis. Thus, the hurricane Katrina manifested the worst and most monstrous side of the city and the American society on the whole. First and foremost, one should bear it in mind that New Orleans is an outstanding city in the state of Louisiana. Located in the south of the country, it is bound to the historical roots of segregation and desegregation accordingly. Thus, one of the paramount concepts underlined in the book is racial biases. It comes that the common disaster should unite people of the city. In case with New Orleans, it was quite different as the prejudices of such a kind increased eventually. The question is that during the reconstruction of the city many workers of Latino and Black decent were widely abused, discouraged, and discriminated by the white co-workers and supervisors (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). It was a direct violation of people’s rights due to the location of the city and so-called structural racism in America. Notwithstanding, New Orleans was always marked as a city of pleasure and hedonism where people are chilling out just enjoying their life. Katrina showed another side of the story off. Privilege of whites was always at the core of the conflict. There was no point of social equation, even though too many people lost their houses and used to temporary live in the refugee lodgings where too many people of different ethnicities were gathered until the federal help came. A shocking list of violence happened at that time in New Orleans is well supported by the statements of eyewitnesses and victims of the beat-downs done by the police officers (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). It was a terrible time of unequal distribution of power when everyone was in need of safety and human regulations to keep the order on the spot. On the other hand, minor layers of New Orleans, such as Black folks all over the city, had to defend themselves from the police cruelty and abuse (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). This is why the news was far from the reality. The authors devoted the whole chapter to ruminate on this significant issue. Insofar, the conditions of the levees and the way the emergency came into the city were quite obscure and did not actually match with what had happened in reality (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). Meanwhile, the racial discrimination bubbled over on the part of white civilians and the police officers. With the advent of the natural tragedy in New Orleans, the authors of the book admit that the people living in the city are still in need of the brightest future for them, although there was an apparent disconnect between what has been shown by the news agencies and what had happened in reality. Thereupon, the concept of mistrust to the agenda-driven news is well outlined in the book. To say more, it is the bodies of the law enforcement that were responsible for sawing the seeds of mistrust in people who could hardly believe in another scenario at the place. Along with them, the tourists and immigrants were also suffering from misleading actions of the officials. It is especially reflected on the deeds of the Gov. Kathleen Blanco who instead of making more efforts to strengthen the levees, called for a day of prayer (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). It is embarrassing, as the human lives were seriously threatened under the wave of disaster. In this vein, the documented discussion on the hurricane Katrina and its aftermath is a challenge for everyone living in the USA and is unaware of the segregating approaches in the southern states and in Louisiana, in particular. Ignorance of mass media to pay attention to the ostensible terror on the streets of New Orleans with policemen as criminals was felt during the emergency operation in the city (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). It was done to lessen the overall shock after seeing such chronicles. Once again, the concept of “floodliness” is taken by the authors in order to describe the interrelation between community of people with different cultural backgrounds and their resistance (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). Notably, the civilians did not bow down before the white oppression and disintegration of justice in the area. However, not only this, but the author is inspired to show how people were resistant and courageous in their decision to stay in New Orleans thereafter (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). It was a sign of the highest devotion to the place where people lived before along with all terrible things around. Thus, the concept of resistance is also underlined by the authors. The stories incorporated in the book are all behind the headlines of TV shows and news programs. Strange as it may seem, the violence touched upon all layers of such a multinational city as New Orleans. Mardi Gras Indians are among those who faced a severe opposition coming into repression of the New Orleans police (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). The next in the line were Arabs and gays who were also oppressed and violated by the police hordes (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). This row of victims was really huge before and after Katrina came to the place. Thus, there is an assumption by the authors that the roots of the social problem are deep in the cultural and historical analysis and that no one among officials seems to be eager to solve the problem so obvious in the US today. All in all, the problem of New Orleans has identified the problem of the United States at large. It is just a single report on dividing people into us and them characterizing the picture of the overall discrimination and hatred (Flaherty and Goodman 2010). The idea is that beyond the news reels there was the holistic tragedy of humane and sound-mindedness of people urged for showing their privileged against someone’s non-privileged position in the conflict. In other words, it was an arena of mayhem and uncontrolled crime. Thus, the scenes from New Orleans discovered and well observed by the book authors require a reader to keep an eye open to the real intrinsic danger of social and racial inequality which makes the points of democracy challenging for independent observers. Everything evident in New Orleans after Katrina and reflected in the book has become one more justification of a lack of federal and state control and verification of the official law enforcing bodies, i.e. police. To say more, the hurricane Katrina manifested the worst and most monstrous side of the city and the American society on the whole. It was the time of rape and revenge that came to being taken for granted by whites in the majority of cases. However, it was also an evidence of how people did not bow down before the malfeasance of the police and other officials in their attempts to come back to New Orleans. Reference List Flaherty, Jordan, and Amy Goodman. 2011. Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six. Washington, DC: Haymarket Books. Read More