Baptized When The Levees Broke...

By Sis. Dana Racine
dhall107@desu.edu

How do you define racism? If asked that question I would ask myself if white supremacy is still institutionalized? Do black people continue to suffer as a result of white supremacy? And do white people continue to exploit and control black people – mentally and physically?

The answers to all of these questions are yes, therefore, I would ultimately define racism through the continuous growth and efforts of white supremacy. Aside from simple acts that some white people do to prove their supremacy- such as calling us nigger and hanging nooses everywhere- the overall condition of black people are shaped and controlled by white people.

New Orleans is a perfect example of this. I, along with every other person I have discussed the flood with in New Orleans, believe that our government blew up the levees to preserve the white neighborhoods and to also move the black property owners out so that they would be able to extract oil from the lower 9th. Some may staunchly believe that the government would not do that and that we have moved on from the racism from the past but I would argue that the faults of the past have manifested into the 21st century. Just like a mire amendment did not truly free the slaves, mire laws that are suppose to grant us equality are all illusions. I whole-heartedly believe that the same way that they sold us on the auction block, hung us, burned us, buried us alive, cut off our limbs, raped our women, castrated our men, left our babies empty bellied, broke up our families, deprived us of adequate education and living conditions, deprived us of our history, murdered our leaders, implemented Jim Crow and COINTELPRO, burned down black wall street in Tulsa, have also in fact flooded New Orleans. Blacks are still not considered human beings in Amerikkka! The “founding fathers” documented that we were 3/5 a citizen and the state of New Orleans is a perfect example of this belief. What is most upsetting is when you step back and look past the abandoned homes, overcrowded schools, and oppressive living conditions; you can see the look of hopelessness in the people’s eyes. Every man, woman, and child outside of the French quarters have this look in their face. Three years later and many haven’t even received a simple apology. But maybe the truth is that Amerikkka really isn’t sorry. Every now and then they offer some silly apology for slavery but we continue to suffer. Bush and his crime partners, the dirty cops, crocket politicians, ex cetera- they don’t give a damn.

Badu said we were baptized when the levees broke- we were. Only problem is, is that many are still in the water. Some of us are floating around while others are still fully submerged. Mentally, we haven’t regain the sense of consciousness and rebirth that we need in our communities in order to confront this issue of racism. We are drowning in this submission of the acceptance of racism but we really need to look at this for what it is. Racism. My hope is that we can get ourselves together to dissolve the continuous efforts of the controlling forces around us before it’s too late.