Full Description
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana and Mississippi. The storm devastated the region and its citizens. But its devastation did not reach across racial and class lines equally. In an original combination of research and advocacy, Hurricane Katrina: America's Unnatural Disaster questions the efficacy of the national and global responses to Katrina's central victims, African Americans.
This collection of polemical essays explores the extent to which African Americans and others were, and are, disproportionately affected by the natural and manmade forces that caused Hurricane Katrina. Such an engaged study of this tragic event forces us to acknowledge that the ways in which we view our history and life have serious ramifications on modern human relations, public policy, and quality of life.
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction. "Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again": Katrina and Its Aftermath
Jeremy I. Levitt and Matthew C. Whitaker
1. Letters from a Native Son: Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?
Mitchell F. Crusto
2. After Katrina: Laying Bare the Anatomy of American Caste
Bryan K. Fair
3. Hurricane Katrina and the "Market" for Survival: The Role of Economic Theory in the Construction and Maintenance of Disaster
Charles R. P. Pouncy
4. The Internal Revenue Code Don't Care about Poor, Black People
Andre L. Smith
5. Judging under Disaster: The Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the Criminal Justice System
Phyllis Kotey
6. From Worse to Where? African Americans, Hurricane Katrina, and the Continuing Public Health Crisis
Alyssa G. Robillard
7. Failed Plans and Planned Failures: The Lower Ninth Ward, Hurricane Katrina, and the Continuing Story of Environmental Injustice
Carlton Waterhouse
8. "Still Up on the Roof": Race, Victimology, and the Response to Hurricane Katrina
Kenneth B. Nunn
9. Governmental Liability for the Katrina Failure
Linda S. Greene
10. Katrina, Race, Refugees, and Images of the Third World
Ruth Gordon
11. "Been in the Storm So Long": Katrina, Reparations, and the Original Understanding of Equal Protection
D. Marvin Jones
Epilogue
Jeremy I. Levitt and Matthew C. Whitaker
Bibliography
Contributors
Index
