By Walter Bridges

I waited for six days for the most important call I ever received. I had finally made contact with my father and my grandmother after Hurricane Katrina wiped out communication in New Orleans. As I sped down Interstate10 to pick them up from Houston, I could only wonder why it took so long for them to be rescued.

I soon learned that they were stuck at my dad’s job, which is a couple blocks from the Calliope projects. He told me that some of the residents from the Calliope were looting furniture from a store.

I knew then that due to the area of town they were in and the fact that people were stealing around them, the rescuers probably assumed that the area was full of looters and bypassed the area.

Some business owners claimed these looters were greedy people that deserved to be killed on sight. The news did nothing to sway that opinion. Instead, they showed people running out of stores with Nikes and Girbaud jeans and the police chasing them. The media showed the police snatching people out of Wal-Greens in an effort to restore the peace. This was a stark contrast to the white people broadcasted who were not called looters, but survivors. The business owners were being called the victims of lawlessness and avarice.

Let me tell you who the real victims were in this disaster.

To understand the situation in New Orleans, I have to first explain to you the geography of the city. The poor areas and the rich areas are often very close in location. You may be driving by the mini mansions around Lake Ponchartain, and the next minute you may be in the St. Bernard Projects. Then you may be walking down Claiborne during a Mardi Gras parade, and the next minute you are in the heart of the Magnolia Projects, home to a lot of the rap videos America sees everyday.

 If you are poor in New Orleans, you are constantly reminded of all the material things you don’t have. The materialistic mindset will make some people spend their last to have a new outfit for Bayou Classic and Essence Festival. Some people who do not have enough money to spend on the latest fashions will just steal it.

So, let me ask you a simple question; if you were one of those people who stole from stores on a regular basis, would a hurricane cause you to have a change of heart?

Probably not.

 Some people realized is that every material thing they ever wanted was now at their fingertips. All the expensive jewelry and clothes that you could not obtain before, Katrina made access possible. Of course, jewelry and electronics are not essential items, but if you were already poor and you lost everything you had, you would probably loot as well.

People were stealing from businesses that had exploited them for years. Many of these businesses employed high school dropouts to clean up their stores. Many employees were underpaid and treated unfair. But who could they complain to?

 It is difficult to bargain for better wages and fair treatment when you have no technical skills or education to offer. With many high school students dropping out of school, these businesses relished the fact that they would always have a disposable, minimum wage work force. That is one of the key reasons the educational system in New Orleans is not being brought up to standards of the country. The city needs poor people to fuel the tourism industry.  The city officials and business owners make fortunes off the labor of the poor.

Granted, most of the people were not looting to make a political statement, but their actions did make some things clear. The government’s concern with New Orleans rested in their desires to see the city get back to its money-making form. That is why police officers and the National Guard were sent out to stop the looters first and rescue stranded people second.

In addition to the people stealing non-essential goods, there were a good number of people stealing items that were essential for survival, like food and medicine. When the police and the National Guard were given orders to kill looters on site, many innocent people were probably killed. The situation parallels the days of Jim Crow when white cops could kill any black they pleased. The news will never bring that to the forefront with streaming internet video and on-site reporting.

An old saying goes, “It ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun”. It means that authority becomes upset when the powerless seize control.

Since blacks have arrived to this country, we have had the guns to our backs. Anytime the roles switch and blacks take control of something that is white-operated there is always trouble.

The tables turned when blacks benefited from theft and whites were left with the loss. I am not advocating stealing or gun usage. What I am saying is that we, as black people, need to take away the control others have on us and become controllers of our own destinies.

Blacks need to take strong leadership roles in the government, the business world, in the media and in our schools. Then and only then will we be able to attain power and no longer be the rabbit in front of the gun.