Lessons from New Orleans

http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/4902
Date Written:  2017-03-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21542

Interview with author Kristen Buras.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

Sadly, Katrina was not viewed by the white power structure as a tragedy. Here again, many seized the opportunity to rebuild the city - purged of allegedly criminal poor and Black people.

James Reiss, a shipping and real estate mogul, chair of New Orleans Business Council, and an appointee on the Bring New Orleans Back Commission, is quoted as saying after Katrina: "Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, politically, and economically."

That's it in a nutshell - race, space and power combined with policy to create the "new" New Orleans, with entire sectors reorganized for white venture capitalists. There would be new schools for New Orleans, new markets, but the same old exploitation.