Still Chained

“I was a descendant of Ham, who had been cursed, and that I was therefore predestined to be a slave. This had nothing to do with anything I was, or contained, or could become; my fate had been sealed forever, from the beginning of time.”  James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

This week marks the tenth year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. What has happened in New Orleans in this last decade? Have those displaced by the floodwaters found their way back? Are the schools up and operating for the benefit of all, or has the rebuilding effort been a financial windfall for the fortunate few? If Katrina had happened to a city with a predominately white population, would the Federal response have been faster and more effective?

The news is full of images from the storm and its aftermath. Images of New Orleans residents, mostly black, a few white, exiled to the Superdome, desperate for assistance, for food and water and basic sanitation; George W. Bush flying over the disaster area; entire families stranded on rooftops, waiting for help that was late to arrive – if it arrived at all; bodies floating in a flooded city.

It’s all of a piece, isn’t it, all connected? I mean the whole, rotten system. The financialized and unequal American economy, the mass incarceration of black men, the abandonment of programs to help people hard-pressed by life’s vicissitudes, the lack of investment in infrastructure, schools, universities and medical facilities, the outsourcing of jobs to countries where labor is easier to exploit, the deaf, dumb and blind corporate media, the inability of our political system to face facts about climate change, income inequality and austerity measures that guarantee even more income inequality, institutionalized racism, murderous blundering overseas, and hypocrisy when it comes to human rights?

All of a piece and no end in sight, our would-be kings and queen-in-waiting will not change these dynamics one bit.

We stumble on into an uncertain future. In this country, on the tenth anniversary of Katrina, people are forced to organize themselves for the purpose of asserting that “black lives matter.” Think of that for a minute or an hour. Shouldn’t it be obvious that black lives – all lives -- matter, just as the fact that this country was built on the buttocks, backs, and shoulders of African slaves is obvious? No mystery whatsoever. Slaves in the fields, slaves in the factory, slaves in the main house, slaves in the barn, slaves purchased and sold like mules or goats. All these years later, Django remains chained by history and brutal reality.

Ten years ago this week, dead bodies were seen floating along streets and avenues of a treasured, iconic American city. More than 1,800 people perished; thousands more were displaced and scattered. Help for the poor black folk of New Orleans was slow in coming.