Posted on 12/05/2005 2:58:30 PM PST by LA Woman3
HOUSTON -- Civil rights groups representing Katrina refugees complained Monday that New Orleans residents and the black community are being left out of the city's rebuilding process, excluding them from jobs and building contracts.
Malcolm Suber, a Katrina refugee from New Orleans now living in Houston and a member of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, said rebuilding committees have "no respect for the black population of New Orleans."
"We are coming back home," Suber said. "This is our city and we are going to have a say so in its future."
During a news conference outside a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster recovery center, Suber, flanked by other New Orleans residents, was particularly critical of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.
"His priority is not with working people but with business people," Suber said. "What the mayor fails to understand is that New Orleans is not about business and buildings. It's about people and culture."
Suber was expected to be one of at least 200 New Orleans residents traveling from Southeast Texas on chartered buses Saturday for a rally at their hometown's city hall to voice their concerns. Evacuees in other states were also set to make the trip in a project sponsored by the Nation of Islam, the National Black United Front and the New Black Panther Party.
Officials with Nagin's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment Monday. But on the city's Web site, Nagin's office said it is working to promote economic development while preserving the city's heritage and promoting "at a grander scale the culture that has been in place for generations."
In recent visits to Houston and other cities where New Orleans residents are now living, Nagin has asked his constituents to come back and help rebuild the city, promising high paying jobs and help with temporary housing.
Suma Diarra, 76, who ran a home schooling and dance program in New Orleans, said Monday she wants to go back but feels the black community has been disrespected by not being included in the rebuilding process.
"I want to see New Orleans like it was before, with the culture," she said.
Residents at the news conference also expressed frustration with getting help from FEMA.
FEMA spokeswoman Carol Hector-Harris said the agency was working hard to get evacuees out of hotels and into long-term housing and to provide them with what other help they need.
She said FEMA is providing funding for rebuilding and that it is up to local leaders to decide who gets those contracts. But she said her agency encourages the hiring of minority firms.
"The impression is the federal government will make people whole. That is not the case," she said. "What FEMA does is we provide you a helping hand to get you back on your feet. But we are not going to make you whole."
Yep white people are all racist, men are all sexist, Christians are all homophobes and THIS IS ALL BUSH'S FAULT!!!
Maybe FEMA's....
People's hurricane relief fund, is that anything like Peoples liberation army????????
"Suber was expected to be one of at least 200 New Orleans residents traveling from Southeast Texas on chartered buses Saturday for a rally at their hometown's city hall to voice their concerns. Evacuees in other states were also set to make the trip in a project sponsored by the Nation of Islam, the National Black United Front and the New Black Panther Party."
Hmmm I did a search on google and I cant find where any of those groups have done anything to help rebuild New Orleans. But I guess that would be harder than just holding a rally to complain.
If the reports are true, they're begging for workers down in N.O., even giving signing bonuses for hiring on at Burger King If you can't get a job under those conditions, you ain't trying.
Anyone who expresses this sentiment should be barred from ever returning to New Orleans. New Orleans was filthy, crime ridden, roach infested, beset with criminaltiy and drugs, Formosa termite riddled, and smelled bad.
No one in their right mind would want New Orleans to be like it was before.
I have begun to view Hurricane Katrina as God's way of cleaning up the mess.
About 10 years ago I was involved with the restoration of a "traditionally black" college in Alabama following extensive flooding.
The ONLY issue the administration was really interested in discussing was the skin shade of the people getting the work.
"They're begging for workers down in N.O., even giving signing bonuses for hiring on at Burger King If you can't get a job under those conditions, you ain't trying."
So true it had to be repeated.
caryatid" I have begun to view Hurricane Katrina as God's way of cleaning up the mess."
That's not very nice.
What he means is that he wants CONTRACTS to rebuild given to Black-led organizations like his.
He ain't gonna do no damn work.
There is a simple solution for malcontents like ol' Malcolm. "They" seem well able to "organize" a Relief Fund for themselves [is it registered with the IRS?] ... so let them "organize" their own "rebuilding committee", hire some able bodied workers, bulldoze their own property, clear the rubble, and, then, rebuild whatever they want to build for themselves ... instead of just becoming willing dupes of known rabble rousers.
Just as long as we continue to get our taxpayer funded entitlements.
They both preach "economic justice".
Don't they get tired of always playing the victim? I mean, WTF, don't they ever shut up and just get down to work?
You'd think illegal immigration would be an issue with the AA community ...
Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte's announcement of the formation of the Peoples Hurricane Relief Fund will be found at vanguardsf.org. (scroll down to the bottom)
Here's the problem.
gondramB, you are correct ... what I said is not very nice; however, it happens to be true. I doubt that you have ever lived in New Orleans.
I feel entitled to say what I said, however, as one who lived for many, many years in New Orleans ... and left [among other reasons] when I had run out of fingers [both hands] on which to count the people we knew who had been murdered. I was part of a vast exodus of people from a city we all loved ... because that city had become unlivable. I never wanted to live anywhere other than New Orleans.
While I would never have wished a Hurricane on the city ... and would never have wished death, destruction and misery on anyone ... now that it has happened, I can only say ...
I have high hopes that New Orleans will emerge from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina ... leaner, cleaner, smaller, safer, less corrupt ... perhaps, even, a city worth living in once more.
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