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The URL of this article is: www.rootsie.com/articles/2005/0909.html |
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Bombed Levees and Bleeding Heartsby RootsieSeptember 09, 2005 This is part of an e-mail I received yesterday: "My heart is aching so this morning ... man, the privilege of deciding what to let into meditations ... you know to everyone who has been asking me about how family is doing in new orleans, I have been saying fine, they got out. In the back of my mind everytime I have said this I thought of the ones I knew couldn't and the ones I wouldn't let my thoughts go too deep into ... the ones that I know wouldn't ... my slackness and feeling like I don't know what to do ... to do my part ... even in my despair I am chastising myself because all I have offered is my bleeding heart ... so much the undercurrent of the mentality of our culture."Sigh. It seems like all any of us well-intentioned white folks have to offer is our bleeding hearts. The internet is awash with white outrage at the actions of this government, but I have a queasy knowledge that it's all sound and fury, signifying nothing. Remember who told that tale? That's right, an idiot, and that's what we are. Seeking desperately to differentiate ourselves from those other white people, writing about our black friends, demonstrating all kinds of concern ... the facts remain. Our bleeding hearts are of no use to anybody, as my friend well knows. We can't get it together to reign in this government. We still get to decide whether we let the suffering of the people 'down there' impinge on our meditations. We still get all the goodies associated with our privilege. Up here in Vermont there are toll boards in front of businesses announcing how much money they've collected for the Red Cross. Whites giving money to whites to help blacks: yup that's going to work...The NPR affiliate raised $89,000 in two hours. "This is astonishing!" the announcer marveled. Astonishing what white guilt will do, inspired by images people thought belonged only to the nightmare past, when they literally used blacks for sandbags to plug up the levees. Now it's feared that rotting black corpses will plug the pumps. We know that our government would never let this catastrophe happen to mostly-white people, but most are not prepared to hear the truth. We have received an eye-witness report of explosions at the 17th St. Canal, and of a 'bone dry' neighborhood inundated with 10 feet of water in a matter of minutes after. Water spurting up through the sewers. The lucky ones were plucked by helicopter off their roofs. This was done to save the already-evacuated white neighborhoods and the vacant city center. Female reporter: "Is it true that the levees were blown up on purpose?"Raw transcript of comments by NOLA evacuee: "The 17th street levee was bombed by the Army Corps of Engineers to save the more valuable real estate in the city... to keep the French Quarter protected, the ninth ward was sacrificed... people are afraid to speak out... everyone who was near there heard the bombings... they bombed seven times. That's why they didn't fix the levees... 20 feet of water. Gators. People dying in water. They let the parishes go, not the city center. Tourist trap was saved over human life.So, in this gush of bleeding heart 'humanitarian' sentiment, are we willing to subject our delicate nervous systems to more appropriate feelings? The righteous indignation of the morally bankrupt rings hollow. Can whites get out of the way and allow blacks to lead us? I remember a Simpsons episode where the sign outside the Springfield Methodist Church announced next Sunday's sermon: "The Miracle of Shame." Well, shame is such an unpleasant thing it can inspire people to make really big changes really fast. I'm not hopeful that this will be the case for many whites, but it surely is the appropriate thing to be feeling now. There is only one way out, and it's the way most whites are most unwilling to take. For the short term, at least do some research and give money and supplies to black groups who are doing hurricane relief instead of giving money to the Red Cross. There is a list here: www.indybay.org/news/2005/09/1764840.php  
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