2008 Woodie Awards
What Exactly is the 'Best Job'? That's for You to Decide.
Aileen Coe
Issue date: 4/20/06 Section: Opinions
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Dear Editor:
After a week spent volunteering in New Orleans, I left overcome with two feelings: the first, of outrage at the converging influences of racism, classism and capitalism preventing a just rebuilding process; and the second, of distress at the way my college delicately skirts challenging these forms of oppression.
I journeyed to New Orleans from Selma, Ala. with 165 other students, many of whom were African-American and attended historically black colleges and some who attended historically white ones including Columbia and NYU. As a group, we constituted the week two participants in a month-long initiative organized by the group Katrina on the Ground to bring students together with survivors to assist in the rebuilding process.
In New Orleans, coordinators from the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition integrated us into the work they had been doing since Katrina hit to provide and advocate for a just relief and a just return for New Orleanians. Each night, we slept on cots between the pews of the historic St. Augustine's Parish, the oldest black Catholic Church in the United States. We arrived just days before the official closing of the parish by the Archdiocese of New Orleans-who cited lack of funding-and joined the parishioners in their fight to keep their parish and its many ministries, including a food pantry and clothing drive, open.
While the need for just and comprehensive passages of return for Katrina survivors is ever-present, it appeared to me that city, state and federal officials have placed more resources in the further displacement and, in regards to New Orleans residents, disenfranchisement of Katrina survivors.
For instance, prior to Hurricane Katrina, blacks, latinos and a small Vietnamese population inhabited Village Square, a small neighborhood in the overwhelmingly white parish of St. Bernard's. Lynn Dean, a white St. Bernard Parish resident of over 50 years and member of his parish's governing council, is the sole vocal opponent of his council's decision to demolish Village Square. According to Dean, his council's contention that the Square is prone to flooding is unjustifiable. He demonstrated in a map indicating flood-prone areas in the parish that Village Square is the least likeliest of places to flood in the whole of the parish. Dean said that the council of seven plans to build condominiums and possibly a golf course in Village Square.
After a week spent volunteering in New Orleans, I left overcome with two feelings: the first, of outrage at the converging influences of racism, classism and capitalism preventing a just rebuilding process; and the second, of distress at the way my college delicately skirts challenging these forms of oppression.
I journeyed to New Orleans from Selma, Ala. with 165 other students, many of whom were African-American and attended historically black colleges and some who attended historically white ones including Columbia and NYU. As a group, we constituted the week two participants in a month-long initiative organized by the group Katrina on the Ground to bring students together with survivors to assist in the rebuilding process.
In New Orleans, coordinators from the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition integrated us into the work they had been doing since Katrina hit to provide and advocate for a just relief and a just return for New Orleanians. Each night, we slept on cots between the pews of the historic St. Augustine's Parish, the oldest black Catholic Church in the United States. We arrived just days before the official closing of the parish by the Archdiocese of New Orleans-who cited lack of funding-and joined the parishioners in their fight to keep their parish and its many ministries, including a food pantry and clothing drive, open.
While the need for just and comprehensive passages of return for Katrina survivors is ever-present, it appeared to me that city, state and federal officials have placed more resources in the further displacement and, in regards to New Orleans residents, disenfranchisement of Katrina survivors.
For instance, prior to Hurricane Katrina, blacks, latinos and a small Vietnamese population inhabited Village Square, a small neighborhood in the overwhelmingly white parish of St. Bernard's. Lynn Dean, a white St. Bernard Parish resident of over 50 years and member of his parish's governing council, is the sole vocal opponent of his council's decision to demolish Village Square. According to Dean, his council's contention that the Square is prone to flooding is unjustifiable. He demonstrated in a map indicating flood-prone areas in the parish that Village Square is the least likeliest of places to flood in the whole of the parish. Dean said that the council of seven plans to build condominiums and possibly a golf course in Village Square.
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