“This is a fucking shame”: an essay

Monday morning, I read on Democracy Now:

“Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast with devastating force Monday morning leaving at least 55 people dead and more than a million people in three states without power. The death toll is expected to rise once rescue units reach the worst hit areas. The number left homeless is unknown. The true extent of the damage may not be known for days. With 145-mile-per hour winds, the storm was ranks as one of the most punishing hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Insurance experts said that damage could range between $9 billion and $16 billion, which would make it one of the costliest storms on record.”

Through the crunch of classes and meetings, I struggled to stay informed as best I could. Trying to read report after report. I don’t have a television, so all I could do was read, trying to take in the numbers, trying to make those numbers into real human beings, who had just lost everything. But then it was time to go to class.

Thursday night, I’m in the library with Kimberly and her friend Nathan. As we walked in, I gave a dollar to the History Club, who was collecting money for the disaster relief. I gave because it was the right thing to do, but the whole thing still wasn’t real to me. Just numbers and numbers and numbers. Not people and families and faces. We find one of the study rooms together, and I trade off between writing a scene from my novel and reading a biography on Che Guevara. At one point, I went downstais to read my e-mail and check out a few websites. I go to OkayPlayer.com, the website owned by The Roots, and discover this link:

http://www.beowt.com/images/looting.gif

I head back upstairs and tell Kim and Nathan about it. Apparently, when starving white people acquire food they desperately need to stay alive, they “find” it. When starving people black people do the same, they are “looters.”

I say: “It’s nice that in times of national crisis, we still find the time to partake in America’s favorite pastime: being racist bastards.”

That night, I sat down for about an hour and watched Democracy Now’s coverage of the catastrophe. I clicked through hundreds of pictures on the internet, sitting on the edge of my chair, tears welling up in my eyes, trying to let those people’s pain come into my heart and become my own pain.

It wasn’t just numbers. It was people.

The destruction. The lost homes. The starvation. The chaos. The crying children. The grieving parents.

The president on vacation.

The next day, President Bush emerges and announces that there will be zero tolerance for “looting,” even for items necessary for survival.

Images of thousands upon thousands stranded outside the Superdome and the Convention Center. No water. No food. Lost children. Lost fathers. Lost mothers. Lost brothers. Lost sisters. Death toll expected to climb towards 10,000.

”No food, no water, no nothing. Whatever we have, we have been taking it. That's the only way we can survive.”

”There is nobody in charge. The national guard, the police, there is nobody. Somebody needs to come take charge and put organization and get these people to safety, to get them clothes, the basics things that they need to live from day-to-day.”

Zero tolerance.

All these people who could not afford to leave. All these people who had nothing in the first place. All these people who were reminded again that America is the land of the free… if you got the cash.

I say out loud in my living room: “Fuck you Bush. If someone is in the middle of a hurricane disaster area and they haven’t eaten for days and they pass by an abandoned grocery store, they have my permission to steal food.”

Zero tolerance.

To quote Damu Smith on Democracy Now:
“I want zero tolerance for that kind of language being used by leaders of our government to discuss poor people, poor black people, who are trying to survive in the -- under the most desperate, insane circumstances. I want zero tolerance for thousands of our troops being sent to Iraq when we need them here. I want zero tolerance for public officials going before the airwaves talking about all of the wonderful things that they're doing when the head of FEMA yesterday said that he didn't even know that there were thousands of black people, thousands of people at the New Orleans convention center between 15,000 and 20,000 people are there with no food and no water and last night, he said he didn't know this. How is that possible? I want zero tolerance for the kind of behavior being exhibited by our national government. Under the leadership of president Bush, which has neglected our people in New Orleans. That's what we need zero tolerance for.”

I wake up this morning and checked the internet news sites. Kanye West, in an act of courage far too rare in today’s artists, went off the script at a television benefit concert and criticized the racist media coverage of Katrina’s poor, black victims.

Here’s the transcript of the segment, featuring Kanye West and Mike Myers:

Myers: The landscape of the city has changed dramatically, tragically and perhaps irreversibly. There is now over 25 feet of water where there was once city streets and thriving neighborhoods.

West: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, "They're looting." You see a white family, it says, "They're looking for food." And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!

Myers: And subtle, but in many ways even more profoundly devastating, is the lasting damage to the survivors' will to rebuild and remain in the area. The destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana and Mississippi may end up being the most tragic loss of all.

West: George Bush doesn't care about black people!


Kanye West became my new personal hero.

Then I gave $25.00 dollars to the Red Cross.

Then I prayed for a long time.

Then I wrote this.

-Matthew