Hurricane Katrina- The Privileged White

The White Imprint on today's Society.

What does it means to be white in today’s society?  This question may not be defined by the mere thought of an ascribed inheritance, but instead the powers that lie within the concept of being labeled in this category.  The perception of being white possesses the highest disbursement of power in correlation to social class, control of the minority, and the power of privilege.  Our society naturally possesses a prejudice towards those of different ethnic backgrounds, but is not mindful of our intolerances. This concept is what drove our country to the inhumane treatment of New Orlean civilians, post Hurricane Katrina. 

Equality in Rescue?

After the hurricane had struck on August 29th, 2005 New Orleans had become one big game of, “survival of the fittest.”  As citizens were stuffed into the Super Dome and the Convention Center, evacuation efforts and rescue missions had fully commenced.  Citizens began to stand on their roofs, waving their arms and creating S.O. S signals in attempt to be rescued.  But how did the government decipher on who was saved first? What characterized the importance of an individual to be saved over another?  As days passed citizens began to become aware of a constant trend in who was being rescued.  Many of individuals who had been saved were white, and the individuals who were left behind were African American families.  One story describes a group of residents of mixed races choosing to send the African Americans off the roof to ensure an immediate response from the rescuers.  This evidently displays clear signs of discriminatory bias among police enforcement.  As buses began to arrive to rescue the evacuees by land, transportation was segregated and whites were once again placed to higher importance than blacks.  Whites were given the privilege to leave on the buses first, leaving the rest to suffer and wait in line for days on end.  Such “unconscious” efforts dehumanize the “refugees” by placing worth of a human being over another.  This type of discrimination also began to occur as police enforcement focused their efforts on African American individuals who appeared to be “looting.”

Same Scenario- Different Intentions....

Media outlets began to cover and report cases of looting and property damages occurring in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Some were labeled as looters and criminals, while others were described as “finding means to survive.”  Placed in identical scenarios, the intentions reported in the media were created upon assumption by race.  Many whites seem to mix negative views of black Americans with images of white innocence portrayed in the mass media, thereby giving specific expression to elements of a broader racial ideology.  In areas predominately occupied by white bodies, white campuses, and white spaces, outside viewers perceive this as “less threatening” and “harmless.”  In areas with the general population being black Americans, the area is known to be “dangerous” and “unsafe”; or even economically unstable.   This connects to the media’s perception of blacks in today’s society. The machinery of whiteness connects with media coverage by these mainstream outlets.  We have given them the power to shape our attitudes towards demographic groups by following the views placed in these reports.  But this doesn’t end in the attempt to overcome a “natural” disaster.  Discriminatory biases were still evident in the rebuilding and reconstruction of New Orleans years after Hurricane Katrina. 

This habitual prejudice does not end at the distinction between blacks and whites.  Social inequalities described in economic classification also present bias and discrimination between each class.  Social class correlates with theory of Social stratification.  The discrimination between classes indicates that the measure of one’s social economic status by income, education, occupational prestige and wealth provides some overall assessment of people’s place in the society.  In the rehabilitation of New Orleans the “checker board” was transparent.  In Jordan Flaherty’s novel, Floodlines he states that “the inequalities in the city’s recovery were obvious.  Some areas had electricity, gas and clean streets, and some areas were untouched. .. The Washington Post reported in 2005 that although both the overwhelming white Lake View Neighborhood and Black Ninth Ward neighborhood were devastated by flooding “it appears now that long-standing neighborhood differences in income and opportunity are shaping the stalled repopulation of this mostly empty city” (Flaherty 2010, 70).  He then further describes the drastic separation of classes within several blocks of neighborhoods that had been salvaged and replenished. 

A fight for Equality.

Being white is an intricate narrative of physical appearance surpassing the content of one’s character.  It is not only a recessive gene, but instead a construct or an idea that is embedded into our unconscious behaviors.  It is not the white body that is presented to society, but the idea that is created within this concept.  The idea of superiority, the idea of high social classification, and the idea of worth comes with being a part of the “white privileged”.  This stereotype does not provide you with a negative stigma, but instead implants a natural power above the rest.  Being white gives you visibility within society and equal opportunity of mobility within class after such devastations.  It unconsciously gives you more rights than others, for the white majority’s views, practices and culture are generally seen to be normal.  Being White is the “American Dream.”  

IT NEVER SEEMS TO END.