What would be your advice to challenge this kind of environmental,political, and social policy for the US?

[dr_myma]

What is your critical analysis of the slowed response to Katrina? What is your response to the BP Oil Spill?

There is no glossing over the slowed response to Hurricane Katrina (Bush administration) and the BP Oil Spill (Obama administration) that both devastated Louisiana and more specifically, New Orleans.

In this social anthropology class, we are discussing race issues that were exposed in the aftermath of the hurricane. Please give me your opinion of how to challenge this kind of environmental, political, and social policy for the US.

[Donald B]

Most of the reasons have nothing to do with race. You cannot play the race card with the problems that NY and NJ are having with Sandy.

[NOLA guy]

The slow response to Katrina was because the then-Democrat Governor of Louisiana at least twice and apparently three times directly refused President Bush's requests to "federalize" the disaster.

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=...tTRDoc.pdf

Governor Blanco did so because accepting that type of federal help would have reduced the state's control over the money spent on the disaster - meaning it would be more difficult for state & local politicians to steal by awarding contracts to their "friends".

Federalizing the disaster would have allowed the use of active-duty military units to assist in the rescue efforts and hundreds of people who died would have been saved. Governor Blanco should have been prosecuted for mass negligent homicide, but governors have immunity for such decisions made while in office. Blanco did not try to run for re-election in 2008 and was replaced by a Republican.

However, it wasn't about race. That was simply the claim made by activists like Spike Lee and which was based on nothing except self-interest.

For example, the Lower 9th Ward was the worst-flooded part of New Orleans and activists claimed racism because the L9W was about 85% Black when Katrina struck. However, the flood protection for the L9W was built when the neighborhood was almost entirely White. The second worst-flooded neighborhood in New Orleans was Lakeview, which was overwhelmingly White when Katrina struck and also larger in area & population than the L9W.

Finally about Katrina, the parts of the levee system which failed and flooded the city-proper were "rebuilt" during the Clinton administration. The parts in question failed because the Clinton administration diverted money from the levee projects to the "Big Dig" commuter tunnel under Boston Harbor. They did that because MASS was/is an "important" Democrat state while LA (to the Left in the northeast and on the west coast) is a "flyover" state (you fly over it to get somewhere important). The Clinton administration then lied to us (people of New Orleans) about the strength of the levee system to cover what they had done. The Left/media then successfully blamed Bush for the catastrophe of Katrina.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster affected New Orleans economically but not directly (New Orleans is not on the coast). The actual response to the disaster (150 miles offshore) to stop the leaking oil was all technological. That was accomplished as quickly as possible by the oil industry. The people directly affected by the disaster were those who make a living from the sea, such as fisherman. Tourism in New Orleans was badly affected, but mostly because people assumed New Orleans is on the coast and was damaged by oil washing ashore (not true).

The worst effects for Louisiana happened because the oil-industry haters in the Obama administration used the Deepwater Horizon disaster to justify an attempt to end oil drilling in America 9the attempt ultimately failed). That cost Louisiana 100,000 jobs, the majority of which were held by Whites since LA is 70% White.

Warning: Everything in my answer is factual. However, if your teacher/professor is from the Left they will very likely give you an F for anything which doesn't gushingly repeat the rants of activists like Spike Lee.