Chapter Seven of your Anderson and Stewart textbook ends with two very important paragraphs: "The tragedy that disproportionately befell African Americans in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina should serve as a wake-up call to people of African descent around the world. A survival and development strategy based on faith that governments and other charitable groups will provide resources and protection on an equitable basis is suicidal. The sequence of events in Louisiana brought into sharp relief the current inability of concerned Blacks to take independent action to save the imperiled and exposed the lackadaisical response of federal officials to the growing suffering and loss of life. Perhaps this cataclysm will be the genesis of a sustained effort to initiate and develop a comprehensive and systematic approach to Black political and economic community development.
"The events surrounding Hurricane Katrina point to the need for Black organizations and communities to develop independent local self-help community-based plans and procedures for various types of emergencies. The development of such plans should involve the widest possible collaboration with individuals and groups, including churches, resident boards of housing projects, neighborhood associations, parent-teacher organizations, and neighborhood school officials. The technology and information management capabilities necessary to maintain local plans in a national electronic clearinghouse that can be updated annually should be developed. In addition, self-help fundraising efforts initiated to assist Katrina's victims should be continued indefinitely to create a national disaster relief fund that could be accessed by individuals and groups victimized by future disasters. Specific attention should be focused on ensuring that property owners are not further victimized by unscrupulous land grab efforts by speculators and opportunists (292)."
How do you see the authors' remedies for recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans? Can they be made a realistic part of our nation's overall economic recovery in the coming decades? How are the means of helping New Orleans (and all our cities) connected to the authors' interpretations of the importance of black employment, the elimination of racial economic disparities in wealth and income, and the historical role of black capitalism and black entrepreneurship continuing in the future?
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I think these are great ideas for the recovery and rebuilding of New Orleans. I also think that once these plans are put into perspective recover from that horrible tragedy. Residents who were displaced acrooss America will return wiil return to New.This economic development will also improve the economic status of the city and its people.
ReplyDeleteI think that these plans can be made a realistic
part of our nations overall economic recovey in the coming decades,becuase with our current president as being African American,he would put inplace adequate resources that these differnt communitys can benefit from. I dont think he'll treat a community that is mostly Blacks the way that President Bush did. (We just have to wait and see).
If the relevant authorites provide cheaper college tuition fees for more African American to go colleges so that they can be more educated and alsoprovide more business opportunities for Blacks, not only in Blacks community but also the larger society. These will provide employment and also improve the lves of African American socially and economically.