by Seyi, Donnavan, Malak, Selina, Ashley
Economic Opportunity and Oppression was the topic for our group presentation. The task was to provide the demographics and economic opportunity for victims of Hurricane Harvey while also providing the data for things like the poverty rate, rates of homeowners, and the income of black houstains. Initially, it was difficult for us to find a lot of the statistics surrounding the disaster as we did not have the necessary tools available to us. Points of concern for the group was making sure that the statistics that were being provided were accurate and up to date. Our preliminary findings proved to be invalid as a lot of the information encompassing poverty rates, homeownership, etc. varied from article to article and confused the statistics of hurricane Katrina with hurricane Harvey. For example, early search regarding the poverty rates in Houston claimed that 30% of Houstians lived under the poverty threshold. However, when we dug deeper into our research we discovered that the actual rate was 14.2% in 2015, according to Census.
On August 25, 2017 Houston went through a tragic experience that affected thousands of people. The hurricane had 300,000 people lose power and 440,000 people who had to ask for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. An agency that failed to assist victims of the hurricane equitably as a group. Obviously, this aroused a lot of questions within our group. Why was FEMA so late in responding to this disaster? Especially, when they had already seen a hurricane of this magnitude in Katrina? What this hurricane showed is that the government didn’t learn from Katrina that minority communities have higher susceptibility to damages from hurricanes thus they need more attention than other less risk communities. Unfortunately, about 45,000 people had to go into shelters because they lost their homes and had a hard time recovering from this crisis. Both race and class played a crucial role on how the US government dealt with the recovering process after hurricane Harvey hit Houston. As a city that already struggled with nearly 14.2% of its population living under the poverty spectrum in 2015, gives the government an idea on how to deal with this crisis. However, the government response, as predicted, was disproportionately low towards the black community.
Putting these ideas into perspective, only 45.7% of African Americans own a house in Houston compared to 73.3% of white home ownerships and 53.5% Hispanic home ownerships at 2010 according to The Houston area’s racial homeownership rates even though there isn’t much difference in terms of the population rates of each race: white 25% and black 22% we still see the significant racial wealth gap among the races and that’s mainly due to the racial segregation of neighborhoods in Houston. There are places such as the historic rental initiative or Lincoln park where the population is predominantly black and facing floods and poor attention regarding renovations or even basic reconstructions. Whereas, neighborhoods such as memorial drive are predominantly white and having little problems compared to what the African American community is facing. Some Civil rights violations in the city of Houston and how The Texas Low Income Housing Information Service addressed these violations to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“[1.] The City of Houston has provided inferior drainage infrastructure and storm water protection in low income neighborhoods that are disproportionately Latino and African American, [2.] City of Houston decision-makers had perpetuated segregation by its decisions and had denied people, based on race and national origin, access to neighborhoods that suit their family’s’ needs, [3.] Lack of affordable housing options”
In the article “The Appalling Ways the Media Framed the Narrative after Hurricane Katrina” The general media portrayal showcased two very disparate narratives regarding the victims of hurricane Katrina. Specifically the representation of white victims and black victims. The media broke out into a frenzy when controversial photos were released, relatively identical, that displayed a white hurricane Katrina victim described as finding food while a photo of a black victim was described as looting. In addition to the glaring discrimination of blacks in New Orleans, black Houstonians were portrayed in a similar light. The images being shown in the media are of white people who own boats assisting victims of the hurricane but the media was not showcasing the thousands of African Americans truly affected by the hurricane. E) In addition to that the media also portrayed looting as a huge issue caused mainly by African Americans when looting was minimum. In fact the victims were more cooperative if anything. To top itoff the media coverage on Hurricane Harvey was as if it wasn’t a big deal when in fact it was.
Business owners has had a lower percentage in the African American community. Now in later years this has been increasing, minorities and Hispanics have been taken ownership of business. In 2007 there was an 11.5% ownership and later increased to 49.9% in 2012. Buying black is a movement that promotes black owned businesses. This movement is in place to create jobs, and up lift black people to promote and help these people have a better future and better their future. Today there is only a 7% of only small business owned by African Americans. African Americans have a buying power of $1 trillion dollars. Having a Black owned business provides excitement to others to motivate people to do the same, while providing diverse opportunities. In Houston there is about 500 black own businesses. This also brings money into the communities which could decrease crime rates by investing and supporting schools, libraries and community center. Houston is ranked one of the third best cities for expanding or starting African American owned business.
What was surprising to our group was that even after such a devastating hurricane like Hurricane Katrina. The government had such a sluggish response and barely prepared for the disaster of Hurricane Harvey. Reaffirming that this idea of the government being environmentally racist because the areas most affected by Hurricane Harvey was predominantly black. In addition the government did little to nothing to repair damages in the destroyed black communities. In closing, if given a chance to continue with the presentation a little more the area that would need a little expanding would be the income level of Black Houstonians, as well as the occupation they held, both for male and female.
Citations
1) Kluger, Jeffrey, et al. “Houston After Harvey.” Time, vol. 190, no. 10/11, 18 Sept. 2017, pp. 38-47. EBSCOhost, mail.lagcc.cuny.edu/viplogin/default.aspx?redirect=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=125037075&site=ehost-live.
2) Brown, Sharon P., et al. “The Effect of Hurricane Katrina on Employment and Unemployment.” The Effect of Hurricane Katrina on Employment and Unemployment, www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/08/art5full.pdf.
3) Larino, Jennifer. “More than Half of New Orleans Households Are Struggling to Get by: Report.” NOLA.com, NOLA.com, 6 Apr. 2017, www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2017/04/new_orleans_poverty_households.html.
4) “Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts.” CNN, Cable News Network, 28 Aug. 2017, www.cnn.com/2013/08/23/us/hurricane-katrina-statistics-fast-facts/index.html.
5) White, Gillian B. “Education Gaps Don’t Fully Explain Why Black Unemployment Is So High.”The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 21 Dec. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/black-white-unemployment-gap/421497/.
6) Zimmermann, Kim Ann. “Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Damage & Aftermath.” LiveScience, Purch, 27 Aug. 2015, www.livescience.com/22522-hurricane-katrina-facts.html.
7) LaBorde, Lauren. “New Orleans Homeownership Rates Have Dropped, While Rents Are on the Rise.” Curbed New Orleans, Curbed New Orleans, 18 Aug. 2016, nola.curbed.com/2016/8/18/12540644/new-orleans-homeownership-rates-recession-data.
8) Hurricane Katrina Causes Unemployment Rate in La. to Double.” Edited by Insurance Journal, Insurance Journal, 27 Oct. 2005, www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2005/10/27/61353.htm.