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Hurricane Katrina Blows Apart New Orleans Politics
For almost a quarter century, New Orleans government reflected the racial makeup of the city. As such, the city council had an African-American majority.
Not anymore.
Anyone looking for evidence of the extent of the racial reconfiguration that occurred after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 got it over the weekend. Run-off elections on Saturday reversed much of the political progress made by African-Americans in the decades since the civil rights movement opened avenues of advancement for people of color in the southern city.
For the first time since 1985, the New Orleans City Council has a white majority.
Both of the at-large seats on the council -- which are elected by voters from throughout the city -- are now held by whites. That last time that happened was in 1978.
In a citywide race for an Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judgeship that had been held by an African-American for many years, a white candidate won.
Special elections for open state legislative seats representing the city's Uptown and Central City neighborhoods, which had for many years elected African-American representatives, were won by white candidates.
To be sure, many cities see individual positions shift back and forth from election to election between candidates of different races.
But the pattern of white contenders defeating and replacing African-American candidates in New Orleans was unmistakable on Saturday. In contest after contest, whites politicians defeated African-American competitors who in the past would have been likely winners.
There is no mystery about what has happened. For the first time in decades, it appears that predominantly white precincts are casting more ballots in New Orleans than predominantly African-American precincts. Officially, the voter rolls still show a black majority. But the rolls have not yet been purged of the names of Katrina's victims. The names that will eventually be removed are, for the most part, expected to be those of African Americans.
Orleans Parish Registrar of Voters Sandra Wilson suggests that the vast majority of the more than 100,000 voters are on the rolls but are no longer living in New Orleans -- either because they died in the aftermath of the storm or because they were displaced by it -- are people of color.
"Katrina rearranged the political deck in New Orleans," Silas Lee, the Xavier University pollster and sociologist who is an expert on New Orleans and Louisiana voting patterns, told the Times Picayune newspaper after Saturday's election. "Symbolically what it shows is that we have a realignment politically, and that advances made by African-American elected officials and the African-American political structure over the last 30 years... right now are in neutral or being lost."
Did it have to be this way? Of course not. The federal government's agonizingly slow response to the crisis created by Hurricane Katrina was disproportionately devastating for African-American residents of the city's poorest neighborhoods. They were initially left to suffer and die. Then, vast numbers of the survivors were sent far from New Orleans and encouraged to settle elsewhere. House Speaker Denny Hastert, R-Illinois, suggested immediately after the storm that much of New Orleans "could be bulldozed." While he was roundly criticized for that statement, and the attitude underpinning it, the reality is that many of the city's oldest and most-politically engaged African-American neighborhoods have been bulldozed -- or simply abandoned -- while white neighborhoods that took less damage have been rapidly rebuilt.
These patterns have dramatically altered the electoral politics of a city that had been in the forefront of African-American political strength and advancement since the 1960s. The change was rapid and radical, but it is only now coming into something akin to full perspective. An initial mayoral race following the storm saw a significant amount of absentee voting, but Saturday's run-off voting was more reflective of the new political reality of New Orleans.
And it is not just the political reality of New Orleans that is changing.
Louisiana was, before Katrina hit, one of the most politically competitive states in the south. Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton actually won the state in 1992 and 1996, as did Jimmy Carter before him. Democrats elected senators and governors in competitive statewide races as recently as 2002 and 2003. In the last round of elections for state posts prior to Katrina, Democrats won six of seven races; this year, they won two of the seven. Even accepting that outgoing Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco was almost as uninspired in her response to Katrina as was George Bush, it cannot be reasonably argued that the partisan realignment of the state was a normal or natural political development.
Before Katrina hit, Democrats frequently prevailed in Louisiana because the party had a large, historically-active and well-organized base of support among African-American voters in New Orleans. That base was blown apart by Hurricane Katrina, as Saturday's election results confirm. And the politics of New Orleans, Louisiana and the United States changed, thanks to a storm and to the way in which a Republican administration in Washington responded to it.
John Nichols is a co-founder of Free Press and the co-author with Robert W. McChesney of TRAGEDY & FARCE: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy — The New Press.
© 2007 The Nation
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12 Comments so far
Show AllThe Golden Rule is alive and well in America. "He who has the gold, makes the rules". I thought carpetbaggers were all gone. What a country.
Hoa binh
Ya know, its offensive to assume that any white who is elected is going to be a racist who's going to call back the likes of David Duke. Sure, its possible. But its also possible that one of the whites elected might turn out to be the next, oh say Bobby Kennedy who gets it and will fight for the right causes.
People, you can not judge people just on their skin color. You can't automatically assume that just because people with white skin got elected, that they are going to be racist assholes who screw all the blacks.
OK, we are talking about Louisiana here, so the possibility of that is always there.
But, assuming that anyone with white skin is automatically some racist, nazi asshole is just as wrong as assuming that anyone with black skin will be some shiftless, lazy thief who's going to rape white women.
People are individuals. You absolutely can not ever judge people based on things like skin color. That's always wrong no matter who's doing that to whom.
Yeah, I get the point of the article. Because of the ethnic clensing of Katrina, and it was that, the balance of power has shifted from what used to be a black majority to a new white majority. But the really sad thing was that people were always thinking that way to start with. I'm from Atlanta, I understand the history. I understand black political movements organising and eventually succeeding in taking power from white political groups who always did exploit and screw over the black communities.
But someday, somehow, we gotta get passed that. Yeah, racism still exists. Remember, I was a white guy in Atlanta for 20 years, so I know I've heard it. But I also know I've known other white people who aren't racist at all. They simply understand not to think that way. By now, there are several generations of whites who've been raised by people who understand and who pass on the understanding that you cannot judge people by their skin color. And when you are around them, at some point you realize that when they meet a person, they simply see a person ... they don't see a skin color or an ethnic group.
You do those people a grave disservice when you assume that any white person is going to call back the likes of David Duke.
Tijuana,
Let's see. $25 billion in unscrutinized government war contracts, of which Cheney's Halliburton copped more than half, $9 billion in cash unaccounted for, and you believe it would be "hard to be more corrupt" than New Orleans? Louisiana/New Orleans politicians - at least the democrats -have long been the subject of corruption witch hunts. Of course it existed there (and still does), as it does everywhere, though perhaps more discreet. In republican territory, the U.S. Attorneys turn the other way. Your implication that whites wil be less corrupt is facially ludicrous and wrong, as well as being patently offensive.
Of course, it depends on how they govern. If we act like Shiites and Sunnis, where we must elect a member of our own clan to get any representation, then we are in big trouble.
If the people who are elected, either white or black, work for the good of the entire city, including say the Ninth Ward, then we are ok.
Personally, I suspect we are in trouble. But its just a thought. It would be nice someday to live in a land where the skin color of a representative is a matter of the slightest trivia.
They have one of the most regressive prison operations in the nation, and perhaps this new white bread establishment will call back the likes of David Duke. Spiritual law suggests "the ill begotten wealth will have to be given back." Anyone building on others' graves or stealing their lands illegitimately pays a price. We don't see evidence necessarily from the perspective of our own mortal time lines, but the Universe has Laws and these are not mocked. How does anyone really know if they are the slum dweller this time, that they weren't the landlord who threw out the family that got behind with rent last time? It's pure spiritual economy to treat others well not only because it feels good and reflects basic decency, but it also happens to shore up cosmic brownie points that are quite precious when it comes to the long-term accounting system that gets you your next gig in a mortal body. Generosity happens! Or should. It's cosmically cost effective!
doesn't anyone know how to spell 'ethnic cleansing'? "they died in the aftermath" indeed.
"...the reality is that many of the city's oldest and most-politically engaged African-American neighborhoods have been bulldozed — or simply abandoned — while white neighborhoods that took less damage have been rapidly rebuilt."
If nothing else, just look at the pictures of rebuilding process in New Orleans on this blog - they tell the story...
PEACE.
http://www.postkatrina2007.blogspot.com
I guess if an impoverished African nation like Rwanda can "cleanse" itself of 800,000 Tutsis in a few months, then it shouldn't be any problem for the most powerful nation on Earth to "cleanse" a city of a comparable number of African Americans.
This column's title, 'Katrina Blows Apart New Orleans Politics', is a bit misleading. What is discussed is the racial demography and voting patterns, past and present, of New Orleans. It doesn't once mention the word 'corruption'.
But make no mistake about it, a deeply-entrenched political machine had its long tentacles in every facet of city government, which Katrina left exposed for the world to see. The effects of such machine politics were no different than those found in any other American city of New Orleans' age and size.
That 'the machine' existed and had such a grip on the city is what is relevant, its racial makeup is not.
Those interested in the subject should see Spike Lee's 'When The Levees Broke', a 4-part HBO documentary made in '06. In it he gives Mayor Nagin and his cronies no special passes.
Random acts of kindness are a really good bet, I'm with you, SIOUXROSE. And avoid too many judgements, since we are not privy to anyone else's karmic portfolio.
As for ourselves, always a good idea to spread some sunshine, give generously of whatever you have to offer, and don't worry if the person you smile at doesn't smile back. Sometimes, the effects of our good will is delayed or re-directed, it is but never lost. Loving kindness will rebound to you in a myriad of ways---the more you give away, the more your heart is filled.
Running on empty these days? Give someone a lift and see what happens.... you just might be surprised!
The eventual superposition of a single simple act of random (unconditional) kindness cannot ever be predicted, quantified, or even qualified (other than it's a good thing).
Through a chain of unforeseen events, one might convince an aging billionaire to donate all of his wealth to progressive causes (maybe a supercomputer and thousands of intensely committed programmers), and overthrow the current paradigm (of evil pursuits).
What works for lasers and avalanches also works with people, as one could toggle the entire world once a small group of committed and evolved luminaries all pushed in just the "right" direction (maybe it was the "left"?).
Namaste
INSPIRING, nspire!