Social Stratification in the Deep South

After conducting two oral histories and getting to know the people of the area a bit better, I find that my opinion of Hancock County and the Bay St. Louis area has changed somewhat. Having arrived at the library, my opinion of the community was somewhat skewed. I believe that the people of Hancock County are more diverse than I perceived them to be upon first observation. The people that I interviewed were people with two legitimately different stories; one of them stayed through the hurricane while another came back in the aftermath.

My first interviewee was blessed enough to return to an almost untouched house. One of the most obvious questions asked was whether or not there were issues of guilt that went along with that experience. Our interviewee of course said that she had moments of survivor guilt which I feel is completely valid and hard to avoid when people around you may have lost not only their homes but even family members. To survive such a tragedy is one thing, but to survive that tragedy with a home still standing is a completely different story. It seems that for my interviewee, her issues began to get worse once she returned to a city that was drastically changed. When we asked what she felt like she lost more than anything else, her answer was one word, “Freedom!” Among other things, they had enforced curfews and were not allowed to enter their homes, regardless of damage. One major issue she had with the experience was losing faith in her local police. The interviewee felt that the police had abandoned them and betrayed their trust, first by allowing other visiting officers to abuse citizens of the area, and then by refusing to honor their wishes to return home even after showing proof of where they lived. Issues of police brutality arose when sharing a story of a partner being forced to the ground and pressed to the wheel of a vehicle after getting arrested for sitting in a car too late at night. Being a black male, I feel that it is interesting to note that a middle-aged white person has developed a negative opinion of the police post-Katrina when I have formulated my own negative opinion of many police officers at such a young age without these traumatic experiences. This may speak to issues of social standings and the level of trust certain people have in the system supposedly built to protect them.

In the other oral history, a person spoke of being relatively lower income and not really having much of anything to lose in terms of possessions but instead discussed losing two close family members. The trauma of losing relatives under those circumstances was painful enough, but for the interviewee to then go on and explain the confusion surrounding the identification of their remains truly revealed how damaging things had become. To be able to have such understanding about the stresses that all people were facing at the time and honor a sincere apology from officials reflects on that person’s strength of character. While their stories were different, after the Demon Storm, they both began a journey into healing and rebuilding. This struggle is something that they will have to work on for many years to come.

I think it is very surprising to have heard that one of my interviewees would stay through another devastating hurricane. Personally, I understand not wanting to leave the place you have lived all your life, but at the same time, to have gone through so much in one place, I think that it would be less emotionally taxing in some ways to actually leave the area and try to begin again. Either way it would be difficult, but for me, I think leaving would be a better alternative if at all possible.