The "New South" (New Orleans, Chalmette: renters, crime, neighborhood)

[MetroBTR]

The only place where South Louisiana got real taste of the the Klan presence was in the Florida Parishes/Northshore. Everywheres else was too Catholic (for those of you who don't know, Catholics were among those targeted by the Klan, along with Blacks, Jews, etc. Basically anyone who wasn't white and protestant)

That isn't to say that race-based discrimination isn't present on the south shore, but it has been blown out of proportion for way too long.

As far as the CCC incident after Katrina-while it may have been an unorthodox method, I probably would have done the same thing if I were in their shoes. They didn't need any more problems (read: more people bring more problems) on that side than what they already had. To be fair, blacks weren't the only ones who were kept from crossing the river. There were whites on the East Bank, too.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by MetroBTR

The only place where South Louisiana got real taste of the the Klan presence was in the Florida Parishes/Northshore. Everywheres else was too Catholic (for those of you who don't know, Catholics were among those targeted by the Klan, along with Blacks, Jews, etc. Basically anyone who wasn't white and protestant)

That isn't to say that race-based discrimination isn't present on the south shore, but it has been blown out of proportion for way too long.

As far as the CCC incident after Katrina-while it may have been an unorthodox method, I probably would have done the same thing if I were in their shoes. They didn't need any more problems (read: more people bring more problems) on that side than what they already had. To be fair, blacks weren't the only ones who were kept from crossing the river. There were whites on the East Bank, too.

The Klan was big in the Florida parishes. In fact, someone who was going to be inducted into the KKK changed her mind and was murdered for it. I think it was in Tangipahoa Parish. My grandmother was both Black and Catholic(I am also Black and Catholic) and lived in the Florida parishes. My mother was born and raised in one of the Florida parishes(Bogalusa) and she remembers stories about the KKK in her town. Except for one member of her family, the rest, including her' have dispersed to different locations, inside and outside of Louisiana.

As for the stuff that was happening during Katrina, I don't think about it the same way as you. I do take it personally. I ask "what if I was one of the those persons trying to cross the river or trying to get some help? What if it was one of my relatives who needed help?" As a side note, my relatives are okay and made it through.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

As for the stuff that was happening during Katrina, I don't think about it the same way as you. I do take it personally. I ask "what if I was one of the those persons trying to cross the river or trying to get some help? What if it was one of my relatives who needed help?" As a side note, my relatives are okay and made it through.

If I was one of those people I would rather sit on the bridge than have the Algiers Point Vigilantes sitting at the offramp waiting for me to come down. It was a "damned if you don't damned if you do" situation. It's not like things were that much better across the river. The only difference was less water. You could sit on the Eastbank and deal with all kinds of hell while NOPD and the military pointed rifles at you or you could sit on the Westbank while NOPD and JPSO pointed riffles at you and herded you up like cattle. Things on the Westbank were being looted and the mall was already on fire. Everyone is scared and panicked.

I'm not defending anybody as I think it was wrong myself, but it's just complicated. It's too many different factors playing in to pull out just one.

[Drouzin]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

Actually:Reconstruction After Katrina: Brazen Housing Discrimination Continues | Hurricane Katrina | AlterNet

St. Bernard rental permitting program getting HUD scrutiny | Louisiana Politics & Government - - Louisiana Politics | State Legislature News - NOLA.com

The alternet article is extremely biased and plays fast and loose. Language like, "lilly white" is hardly unbiased and indicates a certain amount of racisim on the part of the author, not to mention it offers nothing more than accusations from no more than 2 named sources, (and if that reporter knew Lynn Dean she wouldn't have even bothered the man has been the local loony for 20 years). The nola.com article is much more accurately done, and simply reports that there are complaints being investigated, and that St. Bernard is working with HUD to ensure that there is no racism.

I can understand your feelings, expecially after reading that first article. There are a lot of people who saw racism at first and then once they understood that those on the law suits are from Ohio, and Texas, and Michigan, and so on and so forth, they understand that this is not a case of a lack of rental property, or prohibiting black people from renting legal rental property, but a case of out of town developers who purchased houses, fixed them up and then once they realized those homes weren't selling, decided to rent them out.

Ms. Clark, was a victim of one of these people. They illegally rented the house to her and when the landlord was caught she had to pay for it. Mr. Okafor was one of those absentee land lords who has taken advantage of people like Ms. Clark. That man knew he needed permits, (permits we all have had to get black and white, home owners and apartment owners), and yet chose to illegally rent out his property anyways, (the description of "lilly white" for Lexington place is deliberately inaccurate I know several black people who own homes in that neighborhood since the storm.). My white MIL & SIL both had their homes condemed over permits. I had my inspections fail a couple of times as well. It is not only black people having problems with permits here.

Other than Ms. Clark, no one is named as having a problem, (Mr. Okafor tried to rent illegally and so his hands aren't clean), and her problem wasn't that she was black it was that she was in an illegally rented property. The article leads you to believe that the fire set was based on racism. The article fails to mention that the FBI was called in to investigate and found nothing to indicate it was a hate crime. There are lots of African American residents in St. Bernard who own homes and rental units and have not had a complaint about being barred from renting . Again, they can't seem to get the legal for rent property rented, so I don't see why it's so important to turn what was not previously rental property into rental property.

I don't understand why people think we are terrible people for not wanting every other house on your street to be turned into rental property by out of state developers and absentee landlords. Katrina lowered my property value to almost nothing and if the 6 houses on my block are turned into rental units, my property value will be even lower. If they can't even rent out the houses and apartments out that are already on the market why insist on making all of the former homes rental property? Because those who wanted to capatalize on our disaster found out that they couldn't, that's why.

[Drouzin]

Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA

If I was one of those people I would rather sit on the bridge than have the Algiers Point Vigilantes sitting at the offramp waiting for me to come down. It was a "damned if you don't damned if you do" situation. It's not like things were that much better across the river. The only difference was less water. You could sit on the Eastbank and deal with all kinds of hell while NOPD and the military pointed rifles at you or you could sit on the Westbank while NOPD and JPSO pointed riffles at you and herded you up like cattle. Things on the Westbank were being looted and the mall was already on fire. Everyone is scared and panicked.

I'm not defending anybody as I think it was wrong myself, but it's just complicated. It's too many different factors playing in to pull out just one.

WB, I get you and I think most people here do. Sadly I knew someone who tried to cross the CCC only to be turned back by men with guns. I remember when they told my mother what that girl went through and when it got to the part on the bridge, mom literally flopped onto the table and sobbed, "it's like the Jews in the bible wandering in the desert for 40 years, no where to go." For some reason the analogy struck me. I get choked up remembering it. So many unfair things with Katrina, I guess it just is what it is.

[MetroBTR]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

The Klan was big in the Florida parishes. In fact, someone who was going to be inducted into the KKK changed her mind and was murdered for it. I think it was in Tangipahoa Parish. My grandmother was both Black and Catholic(I am also Black and Catholic) and lived in the Florida parishes. My mother was born and raised in one of the Florida parishes(Bogalusa) and she remembers stories about the KKK in her town. Except for one member of her family, the rest, including her' have dispersed to different locations, inside and outside of Louisiana.

As for the stuff that was happening during Katrina, I don't think about it the same way as you. I do take it personally. I ask "what if I was one of the those persons trying to cross the river or trying to get some help? What if it was one of my relatives who needed help?" As a side note, my relatives are okay and made it through.

I never said there aren't any Catholics in the Florida Parishes, so I'm not sure what you were trying to prove with the first paragraph.

As a side note, some of my relatives in New Orleans were some of those who needed help. They went out for a little while and after seeing all the hell that had broken loose they quickly went back to guarding their homes. The ones who still had homes to guard took in the ones who didn't and they sat there in the dark for days rather than go outside and risk their lives in the warzone.

There was not much help waiting on the other side of the bridge--If help had been there to begin with, it would've found them before they found it--there were cops who were already being stretched thin and could not handle thousands and thousands of people wandering around aimlessly and getting hurt and without a doubt even more looters that what they already had. Like I said, what they did may not have been politically correct, but there is no proof that it was racially charged.

[WestbankNOLA]

[Drouzin]

Hey Lafitte how about agreeing to disagree and me extending an olive branch in the form of an open invitation for a dinner at Rocky's on me if you are ever in town?

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by Drouzin

Hey Lafitte how about agreeing to disagree and me extending an olive branch in the form of an open invitation for a dinner at Rocky's on me if you are ever in town?

Okay.

[toupsee]

Drouzin, you're one classy broad!