Rebuilding with Justice

It's started to happen already. People are romanticizing New Orleans because they went there once in college, threw a few beads, ate some red beans and rice, and listened to the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Excellent. I'm glad they had fun. But that's not why we should rebuild New Orleans -and even if it were, it tells us nothing about how.

I've said it before -mostly to my Yankee children (oh, the shame!)- you don't understand the south (and New Orleans would be an even more extreme example) until or unless you've hung out with Southerners. Leave your stereotypes at the Mason-Dixon Line and pay attention to what's actually before you. New Orleans is a mystical, magical place that is way bigger than the Quarter. It's a place of the most warm-hearted hospitality; someone is ALWAYS trying to feed you in New Orleans.

But now we have competing stereotypes. We have roving street parties and jazz funerals on the one hand... and armed gangs, shooting at rescue helicopters on the other. And both are true, as far as they go. But of course, there's more. And stereotypes say more about the person holding them than they do about the situation they're trying to describe with the stereotype, anyway.

Why don't we just give it a rest and rely on the possibility that the people of New Orleans know what they need and can provide the leadership in whatever rebuilding they decide is appropriate? There are models for this.

I respect the American Red Cross. I really do. I used to respect FEMA and may again someday. I have a little more trouble with The Salvation Army, but I know that in this disaster response they are providing excellent services to devastated people. However, ALL of these organizations will implement large-scale operations, using a very top-down organizing strategy. They will parachute into affected communities and declare what needs to be done -and start doing it to the very best of their abilities and with good intentions. But that reinforces the victim/recipient role for the people in New Orleans.

I think that just as soon as we're sure that people's immediate life needs are met, the whole thing needs to be turned over to the people of New Orleans. The money, the planning, the expertise. Sure, bring in experts and scholars and engineers and ... whatever the people ask for. But those experts need to be "on tap, not on top". They need to be directed by the citizens of New Orleans, rather than the other way around.

So, how can I help that happen? I've made some donations of time, money, and expertise to the American Red Cross and I'll continue with that. But I'm going to also look for something like a Catholic Worker House in New Orleans to give my money to. Something indigenous, small, organizationally flexible -and just a smidge radical. I'll let you know what I find.