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The Gulf Coast Crisis
U.S. Social Forum
Court of Women
©Loretta J. Ross, SisterSong National Coordinator
The recent Gulf Coast Crisis of 2005 forces all of us to examine the impact of these storms and the response to it on women and children. The testimony offered today will detail some of the violations women and children experienced, especially in the New Orleans area because of Hurricane Katrina. The testimony will also identify who was responsible for these violations. In some cases it was the U.S. government that failed to respond in a timely fashion. In other cases, it was the local governments that failed to prepare for the disasters. Private actors are also implicated, such as relief agencies that demonstrated racial, class, ethnic and gender biases towards the victims. And tragically, in other cases it was private individuals, angry men who preyed upon women and children made more vulnerable because of the crisis.
Finally, the testimony will call for remedies for those whose human rights have been violated. How can we help make their lives whole again? Should there be financial compensation for the victims and from whom? What can be done politically to ensure that victims of future disasters don’t suffer the same fate? What are some possible legal remedies, either to bring criminal or civil charges against those responsible? Can the United States government be held accountable by an international human rights mechanism? Who should be made to apologize for the harm they caused to women and children during the Gulf Coast crisis?
This Court of Women is not only a teachable moment for America but an opportunity for learning as well. This may be the moment to have serious discussions about the lack of human rights protections in this country by asking the question, “Why were we so vulnerable?” Even many government officials had to admit that the unjust war against Iraq decimated our country’s ability to respond to this crisis in a timely and effective manner. This is a chance to connect issues of poverty, war, occupation, racism, homophobia, militarism and sexism, and make the distinction between natural disasters and man-made ones.
The Deep South has some of the highest poverty in America affecting all races of people, and the world witnessed that great dirty secret that is America’s shame. Black and brown people drowning in filthy flood waters in New Orleans alerted the world that this country does not protect the human rights of its own citizens. The Gulf Coast Crisis also demonstrated that poverty in America is not only racialized but it is also gendered. The aftermath of the Gulf Coast Crisis must be examined through a gender lens that identifies the myriad of violations experienced by women. These disasters are violations against the entire community, but when threats to women’s lives are not recognized, and steps are not taken to ensure that they are, women become doubly victimized – by the disaster and by the response to it.
The hurricanes and the subsequent flooding exposed the special vulnerability of women, children, the elderly and the disabled by revealing the harsh intersection of race, class, gender, immigration status, ability and life expectancy. Many people could not escape not only because of poverty, but because they were not physically able to punch through rooftops, perch on top of buildings, or climb trees to survive. Horror stories of people abandoned to drown in nursing homes and hospitals emphasize that any disaster preparedness planning must take into account those unable to evacuate themselves. Instead, the mainstream media and government sources chose to blame the victims as if these vulnerable people simply made bad choices, ignoring the context in which these “choices” are made. Right wing pundits were quick to claim that the tragedy was the fault of single mothers who were not married so that their husbands could lift them out of poverty! Those in power do not speak about the intentional chaos in people’s lives created by constantly scrambling for survival while living in poverty or with disabilities that leave many women feeling simply overwhelmed by life itself.
We also know that women’s issues were not seen as “important” during the crisis, as we were advised that larger issues like maintaining law and order and securing the affected areas were of higher priority. We witnessed a very authoritarian militarization of New Orleans during the crisis as police and the military were given permission to forcibly evict survivors, arrest or shoot lawbreakers, and impose martial law on the city. No one in authority questioned whether it is ethical to give orders to shoot flood survivors, even if they are supposedly looting. Independent media reports revealed that many of the alleged “looters” were actually heroes trying to find food to feed their families, securing food and relief supplies from stores whose inventories would have been lost to the flood anyway.
The concentration camp-like conditions of the Superdome and Convention Center provided no privacy for women, no safety for children and for days after the tragedy, no basic needs like food, water and sanitation. Notably, while the police and military were protecting the property rights of business owners, they somehow neglected to protect the lives of women and children jammed into the Superdome and the Convention Center. Women, children, the sick and the elderly died waiting for help.
One major report in the media told the story about the Gretna Police Department blockading a bridge by firing over the heads of people attempting to leave the city to enter this predominantly white suburb west of New Orleans. The Gretna police even confiscated food and water from women and children on the bridge at gunpoint, claiming they did not want their town “turned into another Superdome,” an ominous racist reference to the fact that most of the people were African American. Unfortunately, actions like these also denigrate the undoubtedly heroic actions many people in law enforcement and the military demonstrated as they risked their lives in contaminated water to rescue survivors. But as feminists, we should not confuse individual compassion with structural injustice. Both can exist in the same place at the same time.
We also witnessed the incredible violations of the human rights of the Katrina survivors. Not only was their right to survive threatened by the painfully slow response of local, state and federal governments, but their right to stay united as families, their right to adequate and safe shelter, their right to social services, their right to accurate information, their right to health care and freedom from violence. All of these are human rights violations but the one that brings the Middle East most forcefully to mind is the violation of the right to return to one’s home. For those of us with short-term memories, keep in mind that the Supreme Court ruled two years ago that governments have expanded powers of eminent domain that may be used to prevent some survivors from ever returning to their communities as land is turned over to corporate developers. New limits on the protections of bankruptcy laws will also cause further harm to Katrina’s survivors.
The concept of peace and security was dreadfully misused during this crisis to impose a police state that has not ended two years later. The United Nations urged societies a decade ago to re-examine what is meant by security, beyond law enforcement, the military and the state. The 1994 Human Development Report by the United Nations introduced a new people-centered concept for human security: “Human security means….safety from constant threats of hunger, disease, crime and repression. It also means protection from sudden and hurtful disruptions in the pattern of daily lives, whether in our homes, our jobs, in communities, or in our environment.” Activists in the U.S., especially after 9/11, requested a re-consideration of security that included the protection of human rights and civil liberties, the meeting of people’s basic human needs, and the use of peace processes and UN mechanisms that can avoid war and prevent genocides.
The reality is that women live in a borderland of insecurity all the time, yet the needs of women are invisible during discussions on security pre-occupied with criminals and terrorists. Poverty, hunger and deprivation of human rights are the real threats to security because security is determined by the extent to which people have their basic needs met and can live in freedom and safety, not by the number of armed occupiers in their communities. A militarized community does not feel safer, just more policed, so that what is allowed and what is accepted is constantly determined by those outside of the community.
Our people removed from the Gulf Coast have been called “evacuees,” a term that has no legal basis in international law. They are, in fact, internally displaced persons, a status that affords them legal rights and protections. The U.S. government is very careful not to use this term to describe the people from New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast because it would trigger obligations defined by human rights treaties to meet the needs of our people. The U.S. government is always careful not to use language that requires it to protect people’s human rights. The U.S. government’s assault on the human rights framework is unending, and we must not let them get away with it. We must respond by ensuring that the Katrina survivors learn about their human rights and the obligations they are due from our government.
Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe, it is amazing that the authorities found the time to harass undocumented immigrant women and men in the affected region. Reports of people targeted by immigration officials have surfaced, and many were afraid to seek help for fear that their suffering would be exploited as an opportunity to forcibly deport people. Those without social security numbers were denied emergency assistance by some agencies.
Often poor women and children are the first ones forced into prostitution to survive. There was an increase in the demand for prostitution created by the massive military and police presence in the affected states, similar to the rise in prostitution that surrounds our military bases around the world. Women are not “opportunities to relieve stress” as many soldiers are encouraged to believe. There was an increase in trafficking women and girls for prostitution and also an increase in the exploitation and sexual abuse of displaced children. Increases in the abuse of women and children meant rises in other things like unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV/AIDS. We expected these things because they occur to women and children even without the desperation and vulnerability created by such a national disaster.
There is a risk of too much focus on the current crisis, shifting dollars from previous unmet needs, and forgetting older crises around the world and in our country. For example, Mississippi already had only one abortion provider before the storm. Women traveled to Louisiana or Alabama for services. What will an already under-served region do to help women receive reproductive health care?
We know that there were rapes and murders of women and children among the survivors herded together in the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center under inhumane conditions. We do not know whether or not media racism exaggerated these reports, but we already know that some men do not know how to cope with a lack of control over their lives and they often express their frustration by abusing and violating women and children. Domestic violence and sexual assault increased during the crisis because women are more vulnerable and more men became violent as the occupation and displacement continued. Domestic violence agencies in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi all report an increase in cases from the survivors of the crisis, especially from women still living in the FEMA trailer parks two years after the storms. These trailer park communities have become breeding grounds for all types of violence, but especially violence directed towards women.
One agency in Houston, Aid to Victims of Domestic Violence, reports that a delayed-reaction post-traumatic stress disorder is surfacing as their caseloads increased from Katrina survivors late last year and early this year. Moreover, many of the women from Louisiana and Mississippi do not have much faith in the legal system and expect these systems to be structurally unfair to women of color. They simply do not expect help to be available to them. Thus, there is under-reporting of the violence and a reluctance to report the men who commit the violence to law enforcement agencies.
There is a difference in how women see what ought to happen and how men see what should be done. It will be important during this crisis to listen to the women of the Gulf Coast and incorporate their perspectives on what should be done to help people recover from this disaster.
Women’s voices must be lifted to evaluate the role of humanitarian agencies that responded to the crisis. There were many agencies and groups profiting from our suffering while ignoring our local women’s organizations and our capacity for making decisions about what we need. In fact, some of these humanitarian agencies actually facilitated the militarized occupation of our communities by turning over lists of undocumented people to the authorities, not recognizing the family rights of same-sex couples, or participating in re-development strategies that ignore the needs and perspectives of women.
To counter this, women must seize our power and make our concerns known in the media, to government agencies, and to the humanitarian organizations. There are human rights standards that humanitarian agencies should follow and most require that women’s perspectives are respected and incorporated. Women’s organizations must work together, giving space to the creativity, energy and brains of young women. We cannot allow them to ignore the voices of local people or ignore the voices of women demanding inclusion.
Women must continue to ask critical questions during this crisis. Who are the groups benefiting from the disaster and who are the groups hurting or excluded? Women must help get the attention of people not immediately touched by the catastrophe and reach people who feel too comfortable to be outraged, because everyone is eventually affected by a tragedy of this magnitude. We must work together to address our collective trauma, fear and anxiety so that we can reduce its multi-generational impact.
It may take as long as five years to rebuild the Gulf Coast, particularly the city of New Orleans, and right now we need to demand that the services to which we are entitled – that are our human rights – are delivered with respect, efficiency, and dignity. Our sisters from other countries advise us that disasters can wipe out the past and create an opportunity to better include people to reshape the future. We can use this moment to force bureaucracies to become more flexible, like changing normal admissions procedures to get our kids back in schools or demanding that quality public housing be provided instead of permanent refugee camps. We need schools, voter registration, immigrant services, drivers’ licenses, housing, medical care, and public assistance put on the fast track, not bottle-necked services mired down in the typical bureaucratic snarls that characterize government assistance programs.
We need to demand economic re-development strategies that center our needs, not those of casino owners, in the picture. It will be mighty tempting to use this as an opportunity to not rebuild our communities in New Orleans or the rest of the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is particularly at risk of becoming a tourist mecca with a French Quarter, plantation mansions, and endless casinos where the only jobs available to people of color will be low-paying ones supporting the tourist and oil industries. We have to claim our human right to sustainable development and insist on the enforcement of economic and social rights in re-development strategies. We have the right to quality schools for our children, jobs that pay living wages, communities free of environmental toxins, and opportunities to develop our full human potential. We have the right to reclaim our land, rebuild our homes, and restore our communities.
Specifically, we must demand the full funding of services women will need to recover from this crisis. Of the billions of dollars that will be poured into the region, we must demand increased funding for domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, abused children’s services, reproductive health programs, and services for the elderly, immigrants, and people who are disabled. We also must demand that the insurance companies that have been enriched by our millions of dollars in premiums not be allowed to perpetrate a fraud against us by not paying our legitimate claims and get away with denying their responsibility for claims for both flood and hurricane damages.
We must demand that those doing assessments of what is needed not use gender-blind methods that fail to see the differences between the conditions of women and men, and fail to meet our need to be free from all forms of violence but especially sexual violence. It is vital that women and men, girls and boys are researched separately to understand the needs of each group. For example, research indicates that men are most likely exposed to violence in public places whereas violence against women is much more common in domestic spaces.
We need to demand support for local women’s organizations which are arguably the best way to get information to women and obtain information about women’s needs. Yet, often women’s organizations are ignored either because they are not known to the decision makers or their work is not valued. We need the solidarity of feminists from around to world to help us claim our human rights. Ignoring women as a resource to help recover from this tragedy will affect the entire society for years to come.
June 22, 2007
bravenet.com