National
President's Statement on
Hurricane
Katrinia.
Posted: September 6, 2005
Robert Atwell, Psy.D.
ABPsi National President 2005/2007
Black
psychologists respond to Hurricane Katrina
This message is a compilation of thoughts being shared between
the members of the ABPsi. Almost immediately after Hurricane
Katrina struck the Gulf coast, communication began to take place between
our members regarding the experiences of grief and dismay being
experienced in response to the losses and hardships being imposed by
nature on the people of Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Their
lives were being severely disrupted by this natural disaster. It
was particularly disheartening to be confronted with the images on our
television screens of the disproportionate number of African Americans
who were unable to evacuate their communities. As the days wore on
it became apparent that these African decent people in New Orleans and
the Gulf area were essentially experiencing a modern day Maafa, an event
of catastrophic death and destruction beyond human comprehension.
The emotional agony expressed by the generally stoic news reporters was a
testament to the magnitude of the trauma unfolding in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina.
The disproportionate degree to which our people were having to
bear the brunt of the suffering and loss is clearly attributable to the
economic and social stratification that exists within this society at
large. It was made undeniably evident in New Orleans. This
disparity exists because of our people’s economic and social oppression
under a system where both societal and governmental manifestations of
white supremacy continue to play out. The insidious effects of such
exclusion from access to society’s resources and ongoing stigmatization was
evidenced by the rapid disintegration and loss of hope by these people
after two days of inadequate response or at times no response from the
government. Some of the press coverage was especially distasteful and
shameful, even if not surprising.
What happens to a people who have been dispossessed, despised,
and disinherited when tragedy occurs? The answer is that they are seen as
dispensable and can thus be destroyed and disposed of. The destruction of
a people is preceded by the defamation of one’s character. This is
exactly what has happened to thousands of African Americans living or who
lived in New Orleans, Louisiana from Monday, August 29, 2005 until the
present. A city known for its revelry and festive atmosphere was
devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The amazing aspect about this hurricane
is that it started out in a manner that almost went unnoticed by
meteorologists and other weather analysts. Although the devastation that
it caused clearly has gained the attention of the world, like the beginnings
of the storm the aid that has been rendered to the survivors has been
relatively unnoticed by them. What the hurricane survivors have noticed
is benign neglect. This happened in large part because the surviving
Black population that had to remain in New Orleans has suffered from the
defamation of character. While aid and rescue has been slow to fly
towards the survivors, the pejorative euphemisms regarding the African
American survivors of Hurricane Katrina have flown freely.
A young man was able to start a New Orleans Parish School Bus
and safely drive people (40- 50) from New Orleans, Louisiana to the
Astrodome in Houston, Texas was called a thief. The bus was called a
“renegade bus” and the hurricane survivors on the bus were denied access
to the Astrodome because they did not come directly from the New Orleans
Superdome on a designated bus and they had arrived sooner than the
designated chartered busses. The survivors were given water and later
allowed to enter. Some report the seventeen-year-old bus driver was
arrested when he was returning to go back the New Orleans to rescue
others. If he had been White he would have been called a hero but he was
not White, he was Black. Thus he was called a renegade. When the
displaced residents of New Orleans finally arrived at the Houston
Astrodome they were called refugees. A refugee is defined as a
person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or power.
These people were simply evacuees from a flooded city and the bus driver
was resourceful.
In a similar story of survival, people were securing survival
items for themselves and their families. When the news reported that the
people were White, the caption read “two residents wade through
chest-deep water finding bread and soda from a local grocery
store.” When a reporter for the Associated Press saw Blacks doing the
same thing, the story read, “A young man walks through chest-deep water
after looting a grocery store.” The difference in the perception
of these two situations was in the perspective of the reporters. The
perception is largely guided by the contemporary thought of society.
Blacks are portrayed as negative within American society therefore their
behaviors were judged accordingly.
The world saw thousands of African Americans sitting at the
Superdome waiting for some assistance for more than three days. The scene
was akin to events of Haiti or Kosovo or any war torn country.
Desperation could be seen on the faces of so many people. This is a very
shocking reality when Americans reported assisting Asian Tsunami victims
within 48 hours. While time elapsed, the Katrina survivors were said to
have resorted to total anarchy. They had reportedly begun to shoot at the
“law” officials and other forms of rescue units. They had also been
reported to have had engaged in raping and killing children. Thus they
have been called rapists. There was more effort placed on restoring order
via the military troops (Martial Law) than on getting supplies to people
and rescuing stranded individuals. People with adequate resources are
more likely to be cooperative than those suffering for the basic
necessities of life. An eye-witness reporter suggested people shot guns
at helicopters that were passing over them going to mostly White, Kenner
and Metairie, LA (Metairie, LA is home to a nationally known Ku Klux
Klan’s member David Duke) and rescuing people there rather than saving
those in the severely flooded areas of New Orleans. They said the shots
were fired because the Blacks were being unnoticed again and had become
upset about this. It was also reported that all of the patients in the
mostly White Tulane Hospital had been completely evacuated, while the
mostly Black patients of Charity Hospital were being transported out
slowly. Was this act of benign neglect? Many of the African American
citizens of New Orleans saw this as such and became even more frustrated
at the blatant racism.
The perpetrators of such “racist” acts do so out of their
own spiritual bankruptcy and culturally hard wiring to be “anti
other.” Their language consequently reflects their internal
set. Looters? Renegades? Refugees? Rapists? All of these are terms
that are designed to dehumanize a people and thus justify their ill
treatment. On a psychological level we see where people who have been
denied access to the goodness of life have been relegated to be the scum
of the earth. Who were these people left behind in New Orleans? Why were
they there following the call for a mandatory evacuation? These people
were mostly working class Blacks who either could not afford to leave or
did not have adequate transportation to leave. These were the people that
made the city pop although they got very little recognition for their
contributions. These people were the ones that had been passed over long
before Hurricane Katrina relief helicopters passed them over. The
distinction between the “haves” and the “have nots” was ever present to
one who visited “The Big Easy.” Classism and racism is still the
order of the day in New Orleans. The ones who we have seen on television
are mostly the heartbeat of the city. Just as our heartbeat, which is
vital to our existence, is often unnoticed to us in our daily actions,
these people had gone unnoticed. We often notice our heartbeat during
times of excitation or stress, just as we are noticing the dispossessed
of the “Crescent City.” The media assault on these vital people has
caused an angina pectoris (i.e. a chest pain, which occurs because
the muscle tissue of the heart must continue its activity without a
sufficient supply of oxygen) to America. The world has seen how America
treats its despised citizens. In an effort to justify the ill treatment
of African Americans in this situation defamation of character is being
carried out. The psychological damage that results from the defamation of
character is long lasting and is slow to be removed.
The Association of Black Psychologists denounces the utilization
of the usage of the term refugees for domestic citizens who have been
displaced from their homes due to an act of God.
- We further
denounce the utilization of the word looters, in a discriminatory
manner, for those individual seeking the secure some of the
necessities of life.
- We further
denounce the utilization of the term renegade for those who have
applied their genius to engage in an act of heroism in time of need.
- We further
denounce the application of the term rapist to a large portion of
African Americans who are honorable and respectful.
The utilization of such terms is psychologically damaging and
also delays the hurricane survivors from receiving the assistance that
they need because people are less likely to help people that hurting
them.
- We advance
that more appropriate terminology (e.g. hurricane survivors,
evacuees, displaced citizens) be used to ensure that the adequate
assistance is rendered to displaced people of the Gulf coast.
- We vow to
render the culturally appropriate assistance to these evacuees
wherever they may be found. This assistance will be in line with the
essence of a people who have experienced years of benign neglect.
- We further
vow to assist the survivors of Hurricane Katrina with career
counseling and job readiness training.
- We seek to
ensure that the children receive an appropriate education in an
environment that is understanding of their unique situation of being
displaced.
- We seek to
inspire the inherent value and worth of these estranged children by
acknowledging their strengths of resilience and resourcefulness.
- We seek to
assist the families with securing adequate housing, healthy food and
clean clothes, employment, and childcare and charge our membership
to facilitate such acquisition by opening their homes to displaced
evacuees in the spirit of African kinship.
- We recognize
that this effort to enhance the well being of our people is a
long-term undertaking that involves working in conjunction with the
existing crisis response teams that are already in operation to
achieve immediate results. This work must be followed up with
collaborative engagement with many existing agencies and service
networks to address the long-term needs made so evident by this
disaster. We are committed also to utilizing our expertise to
create culturally congruent programs where it becomes apparent that
none currently exist.
The Association of Black Psychologists is committed to
functioning within the spirit of Afro-centric unity to accomplish these
aims.
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE AND BECAUSE WE ARE
THEREFORE I AM.
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