Class confronts race and poverty in the wake of Katrina

By Anne Strehlow

Amid horrific images and seething rhetoric, Katrina and its aftermath continues to capture the attention of Americans seven weeks after the hurricane reached shore on Aug. 29. Headlines splash accusations: "The Other America," "Race and Katrina: Lessons of a National Shame," "Our Homegrown Third World."

Katrina has become a story of race and poverty in America—two topics that have become virtually ignored in the mainstream public discourse.

But Katrina has blown the discussion wide open, and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) is using the opportunity to offer a four-session lecture series to address the issues. Confronting Katrina: Race, Class and Disaster in American Society, which is open to students and to the public, was launched Monday, Oct. 10, to a standing-room-only crowd. Discussions focused on the foundations of neglect—poverty, segregation, educational disparities—that played a hand in the Gulf Coast disaster.

"Throughout the country and here on the Stanford campus, people are struggling to understand what went wrong and why," said Lawrence Bobo, professor of sociology and director of CCSRE. By deepening our understanding of the demographic, social, historical and political underpinnings that contributed to Katrina's aftermath, "one hopes that this calamity, at a minimum, can be a clarifying moment, perhaps even an inspirational and redemptive moment."

In addition to a death toll topping 1,000, Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands more Gulf Coast families and created the largest number of homeless people in U.S. history, said Al Camarillo, professor of history and co-director of the Research Institute of Comparative Studies of Race and Ethnicity. New Orleans' predominantly black city center suffered the most damage from flooding associated with the storm.

One of the most racially segregated cities in the United States, New Orleans is two-thirds African American, with a full 27 percent of its residents below the poverty level. Surviving on family incomes of less than $15,000 per year, the city's most impoverished residents lacked the means to evacuate in the face of 145 mph winds and rising waters that swirled through their neighborhoods.

Federal relief did not come for four days.

"Nothing reveals more how these people were viewed and treated as marginal Americans than the evacuation plans at the local, state and federal levels," Camarillo said. "The failure of the institutional response was not merely because of bureaucratic inadequacies or failures of leadership at every level—though they were obvious—but because institutions and the people that run them do not take into consideration Americans on the margin."

According to Luis Fraga, associate professor of political science, the "crisis of governing" Katrina laid bare resulted not only from widespread ineptitude of the current administrations but from decades-old government apathy as well. Fraga asserted that scores of presidents, senators and representatives, who repeatedly failed to allocate resources for the repair of worn levees, ultimately contributed to the catastrophe. Embankments date back to the late 1800s along some stretches of the Mississippi River, and New Orleans' current levee system, designed decades ago, was never intended to withstand a storm of Katrina's strength.

Bridging the divide between the races and classes in America depends not only on recognizing the "linked fate" of all citizens but also on "each of us holding our public officials to higher standards than just appealing to our narrow self-interests," Fraga said. "Because, at one level, if there is a crisis in political leadership, we only have ourselves and a community of voters to blame."

While California is unlikely to be struck by winds of the magnitude that lashed the Gulf Coast, the state is not immune from natural disasters of its own, namely earthquakes.

"This Katrina disaster should give us all pause in the Bay Area," said Camarillo. "Seismologists are saying there is going to be a massive earthquake that is going to devastate portions of the Bay Area. Think about what preparedness would have to occur—estimating 10,000 people dead, more than a quarter of a million homeless, and you are supposed to fend for yourself for three or four days."

Given the racial, ethnic and economic differences throughout the Bay Area, similar consequences to those witnessed along the Gulf Coast could be expected here, the panelists said. "To what extent does Palo Alto share its wealth and resources … with East Palo Alto or with East San Jose?" Fraga asked, noting that sharing of tax revenues and educational opportunities between the jurisdictions is limited. Beyond obligatory federal taxes, he said, little communication takes place, creating divisions between communities not unlike those in New Orleans.

In order for a local and national dialogue to begin, Bobo said, "we need to recreate the vocabulary for talking about the duties of government and each of us to one another that seems to have been lost over the past two to three decades. If Katrina really does push us in this direction, if it helps rekindle a dream too long deferred, then we will indeed be the better for it."

Enrolled students receive 1 unit of credit for attending the lecture series (CSRE 51K) and the public can participate free of charge. Three remaining sessions will cover related issues stemming from Hurricane Katrina: Oct. 24, "Media, Culture and the Politics of Representation: Viewing a Racialized Disaster"; Nov. 7, "Organizations as the Solution and the Problem"; and Nov. 28, "Lessons from Katrina." Course information, including the names of faculty and guest presenters, is available online at the CCSRE website: http://ccsre.stanford.edu/EV_news.htm.

Class sessions from 7 to 9 p.m. will be held in Cubberley Auditorium on Oct. 24 and in Room 105 in Braun Hall (Building 320) on Nov. 7 and Nov. 28.

Anne Strehlow is a science-writing intern at the Stanford News Service.

Editor Note:

This release was written by science-writing intern Anne Strehlow. Photos of the Oct. 10 class are available on the web at http://newsphotos.stanford.edu.

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