Katrina Volunteers Feel Unwanted
Kathleen Johnson, 7/21/07.
The local television station, WLOX, tried to put closure on the Katrina Kitchen saga by doing an editorial suggesting that it was time to go. A very personal get out of town free ticket . The papers played up the social outcry, the crime, the very shame of the building materials stacked up in the warehouse area associated with the rebuilding effort. One resident referred to the users of the facility as "trash". And the national news had an article stating that the Katrina Volunteers Feel Unwanted. And still it is not the entire story.
Perceived social status
Status is a relative rank, self appointed in most cases, that an individual holds in a community and is based on duties and lifestyle. In other words – the job one holds, the home one builds, and the location of the home. To call someone "white trash" is an attempt to place yourself in the hierarchy well beyond those that are economically, educationally and culturally bankrupt. These days it refers not only to the white community – it refers to any individual that fits the criteria of economically challenged living in less than a desirable neighborhood. It is usually further defined by a geographical demarcation line such as a railroad line, a street name, or an entire subdivision. There is a symbiotic relationship between prejudice and poverty. They are interrelated, interdependent, and interconnected. They are sustained by an age old culture handed down thru several generations. Labeling someone as "trash" is a culture of its own. Prejudice is a brutal branding no matter the application.
The gentle South
Margaret Mitchell, in Gone with the Wind, addressed it. Politically she managed the racial slur by having both black and white characters dismissively deal with the social class assigned to "white trash". The comparative differences in social outcomes have been ongoing since the French Revolution. The term is often attributed to the south but in actual fact it is believed to have started in Maryland and Baltimore where African American (both free and enslaved) used to refer to poor whites especially the Irish and unskilled workers.
Marketing yes, but not this type
And what does this all have to do with Katrina Volunteers Feel Unwanted published July 19th in the National Headlines and the Asian Headline News by the Associated Press? In this article one of the neighbors of Katrina Kitchen, in Pass Christian, stated "The kitchen brought nothing but trashy people from across the tracks," said James Hebert, 68. "We need to get these people out of here so we can get back to normal."
When it was all one and the same
All was well when everyone in the community was surviving out of one tent in the aftermath of the hurricane – there was no where else to go. It was desperate times. It was a social equalizing of the community. There was a tent in Harrison Count where, at one point, a group of socially elite actually put up ropes so the more "elite" could sit in "their only" little corner of the tent dressed appropriately for dinner while the volunteers, on their side of the tent, sat in their muddy and dusty clothes from whence they came cleaning and gutting homes. When FEMA took care of that situation and removed the ropes – those residents then demanded their own tent. The request was denied.
Prejudice in the South today
This jockeying to reclaim social status has been an interesting saga to watch in the past two years in the aftermath of Katrina. I had grown up on Maraget Mitchells south only thru the eyes of her writings. What I found, this many generations years later, that it is not so different – different dress and shoes styles but all else the same social prejudices and rationalization justifying the way it is. The "N" word is as common as the reference to "white trash".
Gulfport, Waveland and Bay St Louis, as with other communities in the south, have their very distinct black communities. There is a clear social division across the towns where "some are invited to join community clubs and boards" and some are not. There are the yacht clubs set up in almost every beach town where there is a clear "membership" rope when it comes to black membership numbers and events that are held in the vicinity of the club house.
The word "prejudice" here is a slur. If you mention that it exists there are those that rise up on a pedestal, decorum set aside, and decry loudly that the very insinuation is an insult. Out come the dueling pistols brought forward into the age of technology - emails and letters insisting that this prejudice does not exist in the south and you, as an outsider, should go home as you have no right to come to this region and have an opinion on the continued practice of denial. Then they go on to insist that you, as an outsider, do not have the right to an opinion at all as, afterall, you were not born here.
Not that all the prejudice here is about "black" and "white". It's about the social profiling, with prejudice, as related to poverty. Poverty is the real issue – that is the continued segregation, not only in the South, but all over the United States.
And what went so wrong
And so we come back to God's Katrina Kitchen the recipient of a Presidential Award for their volunteer work in the aftermath of Katrina? It was not that they were unwelcome. It's that their ministry to the poor was unwelcome in "their" neighborhood. It is fine to do "that" kind of work – but it needs to be on "that" side of the tracks, beyond "that" geographical boundary, in "that" other subdivision. And more importantly, while "we" need the volunteers to do "our" work – please, let us have a separate roped tent. Here in the aftermath of the greatest natural disaster to hit this continent – we still have our perceived social status to protect. It is now an issue between those that, after two years, have got their houses completed. And those that are totally dependent on volunteers and the tediously slow grant process resulting in the FEMA trailer being the only habitable abode on the property.
What went so wrong? Now there is an article out on the national news wires this week that states, for all to see, that Katrina Volunteers Feel Unwanted. What a slam to the marketing plan to recruit more volunteers from across the nation. It would seem that the Long Term Recovery Committees of Harrison, Jackson and Hancock could come up for a better plan than this? Let us not turn away the critically needed long term volunteers and their ability to host, house, and coordinate volunteer workers. Let us assist in finding God's Katrina Kitchen a home. They have agreed to only feed volunteers - what have we agreed to do for them? We are far from done in this relief effort. We have five to ten years of work left to be done. The Gulf Coast is not going to be totally rebuilt this summer – it is a ten year plan at best. It is not a time for social bullying as we saw in high school where one became socially ostracized because they did not have the latest fashion clothing and accessories. Sometimes the relief site will be in your neighborhood - graciously accept that as your contribution to this massive effort.
In this case the needed increasingly illusive accessory is a home. Let us all walk across the street, across the tracks, and on to the other side of town in the Amish fashion of barn building and construct our neighbor's home first – not last. Let us not judge anyone – but be the bridge to growth and recovery equally to all.
