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We Are No Longer the Refugees & Immigrants: Blacks in Need of Katrina Refugee Housing & Other People of Color
Charles Chea (chea@asiavists.org)
9/4/05
For the last three days, I have been sending out e-mails and making phone calls to give information about ways in which people can contribute to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. I spent time talking with individuals, with family, and with organizations suggesting the best direction they could take in this effort. I contacted people, regardless of race or class, because natural disasters do not see race or class either. However, it is unfortunate that race and class are pervasive issues in the prevention and remedy of natural disasters.
Therefore, as an Asian American, I make it a pertinent effort to outreach
to my fellow Asian Americans and emphasize what their contributions could
mean in the long-run. The efforts of Asian Americans to collectively contribute
to affected areas like New Orleans and Biloxi will not only help with
immediate problems, but the gesture will have its place in the history
of diplomatic cross-cultural relations. The majority of the Asian Americans
that I have contacted are making financial contributions, as well as material
contributions of clothing and food. Some are donating humble amounts,
while others are getting together with their community organizations and
the companies for whom they work. This is a safe distance most of us keep
because we have other “priorities.” But since this tragedy
strikes at the heart of a major black community in the United States,
the contributions of non-black people of color must be larger than usual,
and for good reason.
-
Donations can only go so far in the complexity that is Hurricane Katrina.
It is not just a natural disaster, but an American Pandora’s Box
exposing decades of racial inequalities for the world to see. We are seeing
images that could be mistaken as photos from Haiti during its crises.
In New Orleans, a majority population of black people are being barricaded
from entering Algiers, the least affected and most livable area in the
city currently. They have faced the subconscious of a racist nation in
full blast, most notably with the now notorious pictures depicting “Blacks
as looters and whites as finders.” Even worse, there have been reports
of relief workers discriminating, such as first rescuing “vulnerable
[white] tourists in the midst of chaos.” There is race-based selectivity
happening which is determining whether or not black people will live or
die.
