Three months ago, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Three
months later, the horror isn’t over. And activists are still
ready to fight.
Hoping to alert law students, community members and professors
to the atrocities that continue to occur this long after the
catastrophe, the UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies
Program hosted a public education forum titled “Hurricane
Katrina: Bringing the People and the Issues Home” on Monday
night.
The forum featured a panel of distinguished speakers
representing the Gulf Coast, New Orleans and the immediate Los
Angeles area.
Contrary to the myth of the United States’ classless
society, racism and inequality remain major problems in this
nation, particularly for racial and ethnic groups, said Michael
Schill, the dean of the law school.
Schill introduced the forum, paving the way for a night of
revelation.
“If there’s one thing Katrina showed us, it’s
how unjust and inhumane the U.S. is to poor people of color,”
said Martha Kegel, a representative of Louisiana-based Unity for
the Homeless.
Panelists said government promises to rebuild blacks’
homes have not yet been implemented.
As of today, 50 percent of New Orleans still has no electricity
and there are more displaced New Orleans natives who currently live
in Texas than in Louisiana, panelists said.
“It’s hard for us to believe that for the first time
in history we had a unanimous agreement between the state, local
and federal governments to kill black people,” said Curtis
Muhammad from the New Orleans-based group Community Labor
United.
Even with the knowledge that the eye of Katrina would come
straight to New Orleans, the government did not instigate
evacuations for people of color, Muhammad said.
Rather, he said, they locked them inside the Super Dome,
inviting mass murder.
Other panelists also voiced strong concerns and a demand for
action.
“Segregation is a social cancer that existed before
Katrina. But what is shocking is that no one really knew about this
suffering,” said Jaribu Hill from the Mississippi
Workers’ Center for Human Rights.
Panelists hoped to change that perception by speaking directly
to UCLA law students and asking for their help.
“We find hope in the law students here,” said Maria
Hincapié from the Los Angeles-based National Immigration Law
Center. “Every single person here has a role to play and the
skills to contribute.”
This coming December, a group of law students will go to
Mississippi to help with legal work, research and any other areas
requiring aid, said Priscilla Ocen, a second-year law student.
But the Katrina aftermath is not just a concern for law
students.
“This event and other events like it are representing the
silence,” said Andrew Brunsden, a second-year law student.
“Even a law student could appreciate this panel. It
wasn’t technical, but more about the people.”
Ocen agreed. “All of us can help because all of us have
skills,” she said. “Everyone has the opportunity to do
something.”