9th Ward New Orleans and ACORN
Today we visited the 9th Ward of New Orleans and a social group entitled ACORN. ACORN is the nation’s largest community organization of low and moderate income families, striving for social justice and stronger communities. It seems that ACORN works for the downtrodden and poor in the midst of a city that is trying to disenfranchise them. While listening to the representative from ACORN, the concept of gentrification popped into my mind. Although the formal definition of gentrification involves physical renovation that brings about raised property values and an influx of upper-class citizens who prevent the former, lower class dwellers, from returning to their homes, there seem to be many parallels. While the major “renovations” obviously came from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, the fact still remains that the upper-class inhabitants of New Orleans seem to be preventing the flow of minorities and the underprivileged from coming back into their homes.
Again, we can see the perfect example of how people with means and power can control and manipulate the system to make it work in their favor. These rich people stand to gain millions of dollars by disenfranchising the people who are now viewed as refugees throughout the country. The fact that some people are being turned away from their homes is very disturbing to say the least. It is ridiculous to me that some people are more concerned with profiting from the tragedies of Katrina rather than showing compassion enough to try to find ways to make things better for everyone. ACORN seems to work against such disenfranchisements and I honor their efforts.
While traveling through the 9th ward, it became quite apparent just how much damage New Orleans has endured in certain areas. The major problems, as we have all talked about to great extent, came when the levees broke. Apparently, New Orleans did dodge the bullet in terms of the storm, however, the water that accumulated behind the levee surged so strongly that water flooded the entire city and created more problems than many other areas victim to the storm. This mistake was avoidable and manmade, not a product of a natural disaster. ACORN representatives explained that the politics behind accountability are entirely frustrating and the end is no where in sight at the moment. I feel that politicians and government officials have a responsibility to protect its citizens and not treat people like second class citizens in their country. All of the people displaced from Katrina have homes and they deserve to be in them like everyone else. The practices occurring in terms of Katrina business seem to only facilitate the disenfranchisement of minorities and the poor while perpetuating the vicious cycle government failures at the present time.