Let's not be blind to the continued stratification of people of Louisiana. Why was I not swimming with the masses...because my European ancestry allowed my father to move to California and get a job that payed enough to send me to private school, which allowed me to become well educated. However, I do not disregard my African ancestry. People of mixed backgrounds such as Louisiana Creoles of color, but that is not to say it may not be available to all. It's a Creole thing. You have to be one to perhaps understand.Now, I've received an inquiry from a reporter for a large news organization who is "writing about this stratification – trying to get a handle on how this will change or not change as New Orleans is rebuilt." If you are "Creeole Ladde" and would be willing to correspond with the reporter, please email me. (My email address is the name of this blog followed by @wisc.edu.)
September 26, 2005
Looking for "Creeole Ladde."
A couple weeks ago, we were talking about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, here, and a reader who called himself herself "Creeole Ladde" wrote:
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Jim: You're right. I read it as "laddie" rather than "lady." Reminds me of that old song "My Creole Belle." I used to listen to a Jim Kweskin version of it that I really liked.
As to how the reporter found me, it might have been Google. A lot of people come to this blog after searching for the "so poor, so black" quote. But reporters do just read my blog, and I get a fair amount of email and phone calls from them.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Farrakhan's remarks, since the general plan seems to be to replace the blacks of New Orleans with Mexicans.
Think I need more tinfoil? Well here's the L.A. Times' Gregory Rodriguez on 'La Nueva Orleans'". And, Harry Reid wants amnesty for illegal aliens in Biloxi. For those on the other side, so does George Bush.
The fix is in, and the cheap laborers from Mexico are already starting to occupy their trailers. That's a much, much bigger story than Creoles, but I don't think you'll find too many reporters or bloggers discussing this since, well, you know, they don't want to be mean-spirited.
Lonewhacko,
I don't know that that's an actual plan, but I did notice last week in NOLA that there were large numbers of Hispanic men on work crews around town, whereever there was an outside contracting group. I'm very concerned that locals won't be involved enough in planning and working in the reconstruction of the city.
The other not-so-nutty paranoid fear is exactly WHO is going to plan the reconstruction; so far, that's not being reported. What I have seen, however, is that the popular Looters will be Shot T-shirts have been replaced with Carpetbaggers Will Be Shot. I'm buying one soon.
Ann, if you succeed in hooking up the reporter with Creeole Ladde, please keep us posted on what results.
tcd: Did you bother to follow the links and what they link to? Did you notice that, while hardly an expert, I follow the matter of illegal immigration closely and have hundreds of posts about it?
Whether there's a Skull & Bones level conspiracy or not, in five years or less the media will suddenly discover that 30% of NO's population is Hispanic and how there are many fewer blacks there and wonder how it happened.
(Also, this site requires a blogger identity and a captcha, then gives your links the nofollow tag. Why the latter is bad is described here. If you're using firefox, I'd suggest installing the one-liner he describes so you can quickly see who does that.)
tcd,
My comment on the crews was vague; I disagree with Lonewacko, and offered that observation up to explain what I think is a source of the misinterpretation. I agree that it's more likely that these are transient crews, brought in by large contractors. Some may well stay, but I'm betting most won't.
But it won't be surprising if the Hispanic population continues to ---that's CONTINUES--increase in New Orleans, as it has since the 1980s, with an influx of people from Guatemala and Honduras. Thirty percent? Well, that's a prediction. No way to argue it concretely. Either it happens or it doesn't.
I think it's a mistake to assume that only blacks will be displaced, though. The areas of town that were under water for weeks are diverse--so much for the conspiracy theory that the 17th st. canal was blown to save the FQ and sacrifice black neighborhoods. Lakeview is nearly all white, and starts at middle class and goes up to $2 and $3 million dollar homes. Gentilly is as racially mixed as any neighborhood could be, and ranges from lower middle class to homes worth a few hundred thousand bucks. The 9th Ward is pretty much solidly black, and lower income, but has a very high percent of homeownership.
Given the varied demographics, there will be both white and black citizens who choose not to return. The question is what kind of social engineering will be done by the bigwigs who are planning the reconstruction. Historic Restoration Inc. is probably involved (google Pres Kabacoff and HRI), and their approach is to tear down historically poor housing to replace it with "mixed income" housing. Critics say that the result is to disperse poor people out of the neighborhoods where they've lived for generations, and to gentrify what remains. At least HRI is local, though, so I'm hoping they have some influence.
Will the population change? Doesn't that happen with historic events? The town was once under Spanish rule; the Germans, Italians, Canary Islanders, Irish and Eastern Europeans all had an effect on the racial makeup of the city, and with each immigration wave, the politics, economy and culture were affected. It would have to be an enormous population shift to change the basic demographic balance of New Orleans. And even then, the culture already includes a healthy dose of Latin and Caribbean influence.
I'll be following these changes as they occur, but I don't see reason for the kind of concern Lonewacko intimates is called for.
tcd,
My comment on the crews was vague; I disagree with Lonewacko, and offered that observation up to explain what I think is a source of the misinterpretation. I agree that it's more likely that these are transient crews, brought in by large contractors. Some may well stay, but I'm betting most won't.
But it won't be surprising if the Hispanic population continues to ---that's CONTINUES--increase in New Orleans, as it has since the 1980s, with an influx of people from Guatemala and Honduras. Thirty percent? Well, that's a prediction. No way to argue it concretely. Either it happens or it doesn't.
I think it's a mistake to assume that only blacks will be displaced, though. The areas of town that were under water for weeks are diverse--so much for the conspiracy theory that the 17th st. canal was blown to save the FQ and sacrifice black neighborhoods. Lakeview is nearly all white, and starts at middle class and goes up to $2 and $3 million dollar homes. Gentilly is as racially mixed as any neighborhood could be, and ranges from lower middle class to homes worth a few hundred thousand bucks. The 9th Ward is pretty much solidly black, and lower income, but has a very high percent of homeownership.
Given the varied demographics, there will be both white and black citizens who choose not to return. The question is what kind of social engineering will be done by the bigwigs who are planning the reconstruction. Historic Restoration Inc. is probably involved (google Pres Kabacoff and HRI), and their approach is to tear down historically poor housing to replace it with "mixed income" housing. Critics say that the result is to disperse poor people out of the neighborhoods where they've lived for generations, and to gentrify what remains. At least HRI is local, though, so I'm hoping they have some influence.
Will the population change? Doesn't that happen with historic events? The town was once under Spanish rule; the Germans, Italians, Canary Islanders, Irish and Eastern Europeans all had an effect on the racial makeup of the city, and with each immigration wave, the politics, economy and culture were affected. It would have to be an enormous population shift to change the basic demographic balance of New Orleans. And even then, the culture already includes a healthy dose of Latin and Caribbean influence.
I'll be following these changes as they occur, but I don't see reason for the kind of concern Lonewacko intimates is called for.
Sorry for the double post. My internet connection is sluggish today and I must have posted twice without realizing it.
Elizabeth: I run a site called Katrina Coverage however I must admit that you know more about New Orleans than I do.
OTOH, I'm absolutely positive I know more about the slimy underbelly of illegal immigration than you do.
So, you might want to take a look around Lonewacko and learn a bit more about all of the various forces pushing and pulling massive immigration from south of the border.
If you don't see the problem, it's because you aren't familiar with the background of this whole illegal immigration issue.
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