Prometheus 6

Christopher Cooper, J.D., Ph.D. & Attorney at Law
Director, Saint Xavier University Center for Conflict Resolution

KATRINA AFTERMATH, RACE & ACADEMICS
COPYRIGHT © 2005   

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has meticulously showed the racial divide between blacks and whites in the United States. Ours is a country in which scientific poll after poll show that black American people say they experience racism routinely at the hands of many (not all) white American people; but many white people overwhelmingly assert that racism is a phenomenon of the past. In other words, Hurricane Katrina forces people who have long denied that there is great race-based interpersonal conflict between whites and blacks in the United States to accept that such a phenomenon is real. As a black man I write this essay with frustration. My frustration, directed at the field of Criminology & Criminal Justice of which I am a part.

The racism that led to the New Orleans nightmare is the same racism that has been consistently used by journal referees to prevent, publication of evidence/data in most criminology/criminal justice & sociology journals, that racial discrimination by [many, not all] whites against blacks is a systemic problem in the United States. Black scholars have always provided solid scientific evidence of the social problem of race. The data we have provided over the years predicted a catastrophic event of the proportions that would lead to drowning of countless black children and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people who are invisible in the scientific literature except for their utility in helping young white Ph.D.'s receive publications, tenure and promotions.

So, in America, for many white scholars the situations plaguing black American people such as lack of employment opportunities, joblessness, homelessness and even deaths at the hands of white police officers are at best the fault of a group of people who do not follow instructions. Not for one second, do these critics use science to show that the black people who could not evacuate New Orleans are poor-without the resources to have left a city that was about be beset by torrential hurricane. To acknowledge the poverty that blankets black communities across America is also to acknowledge how racism and bigotry dictate the quality of life for many Americans. And, most American whites are not about to do anything that would cause them to examine their own problematic opinions about race and class.   

A white supremacist website calls the tragic events in New Orleans "the silver lining of a dark cloud." The writer asserts: "We were, of course, outraged about the awful behaviors of Black people in New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina...But now we realize that some good may actually come out of that Black behavior.... These days, Blacks are said to be equal to Whites... except that they have darker skin. Never mind that that is untrue.  Hopefully, the awful behavior exhibited by Blacks in New Orleans after the hurricane will make at least some White Americans realize that Blacks really are different from Whites, despite the endless claims to the contrary." I abhor this racism and challenge the white supremacist to consider that the hellish events in New Orleans will lead those whites who are well-meaning to accept that racial discrimination did not disappear with the end of the civil rights movement.  I just can't be sure if my fellow white criminologists (sociologists, etc.) are so open-minded that they are going to admit that through their reports of their research to policymakers, that they social scientists: (1) helped create or sustain the conditions [segregation, racial discrimination; poverty] that caused almost an entire population of city to either drown or experience the worse humility; ---they successfully convinced policymakers that these people were invisible or too lazy to help themselves; and (2) I am not sure that these social scientists, because of Katrina, are about to accept that racism is real in the US; and (3) I am not sure that, because of what the aftermath of Katrina reveals about inequality in America, that my white colleagues are going to see the utility of including black Ph.D.s in their academic departments and as a part of their research teams.

Only days have passed since the levees broke in New Orleans and I predict that many of my fellow academics will blame the aftermath of Katrina on the following:

1. classism and nothing more (when in reality race and class caused the situation and race by itself would have caused this situation);
2. Blame on the Black leadership (New Orleans is governed predominantly by blacks);
3. [Blame] the victims (they did not follow instructions to evacuate the city);
4. [Blame] New Orleans police officers, the majority of whom are black (the argument will be that black police officers are not as adept as white police officers).  

President Bush's administration will be described, as has having warned the mayor of New Orleans to evacuate the city. Even more shocking will be suggestions that we, black people are less than human because of the conditions in the Superdome such as urine on the floors and fighting.  The absurd assertion will be that white people in such a circumstance of desperation would have acted differently.

Since policy research by PhD's is used by policymakers to bring about social change, the urgency of the needs for New Orleans residents requires scholarship from the criminology and criminal justice field that does paint black people as pathological as does so much American criminological academic research by white reputable scholars. Black people have always been studied as objects by many white scholars in the American Criminology and Criminal justice field. Additionally, many white academicians (not all) have been successful in stifling solid scientific research by black scholars. There can't be a black Ph.D. in America (who has published) who has not received a letter saying that he/she misinterpreted the mainstream literature. Case and point, as a criminologist I bring to myself strong criticism from my many of my white colleagues when I suggest that the so-called "good ole [sic] days of policing" were not so glorious; rather, permeated with racially discriminatory policing and horrific vigilante justice by men in uniforms. Consider that gruesome murder of Emmett Till. His killers would have been arrested and convicted had the police of yesteryear been so socially conscious and fair as almost any criminal justice textbook asserts they were.       

The media is not much different from the majority of scholars in the field of Criminology & criminal justice. Consider two newspaper pictures both published on August 30th, 2005. In both pictures individuals are in chest high water. One newspaper picture has a black man in the picture and the caption reads that he is in "...chest deep flood water after LOOTING a grocery store in New Orleans." The other picture shows a white man and white woman and the caption reads: "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after FINDING bread and soda from a local grocery store ...in New Orleans." Approximately 300,000 people are stranded in the city of New Orleans, people (including children) are dying and the mainstream media chooses to focus on a small percentage of the population engaging in looting of non-necessities. The aftermath of Katrina has no doubt created a new area of research for Criminologists. Black academicians have good reason to worry that their fellow criminologists will behave no different from the mainstream media. Then, yet another generation of white students will read and hear lectures that suggest that crime and black American people go hand-in-hand.   

The Katrina tragedy calls attention to racial discrimination in the hiring and firing of black Ph.D.'s by universities. In America, there are still Criminal Justice departments that have 9 or 10 faculty, yet not one of those faculty is black. In Chicago, where the population is approximately 43% black, Chicago's Loyola University Criminal Justice Department has 9 full time faculty but NOT one full time black faculty. In fact, it has not had a black faculty in more than 7 years. Like at Loyola and in Criminal Justice Departments throughout America, the primary study variable is people-of-color, yet academic departments are still predominantly white. Among black scholars, we say that there is a rule of one. The rule of one means that the departments' will each hire one of us, but no more than one.  

As a black man, I am frustrated and feel marginalized realizing that just about everyone of my colleagues is studying me and my community. The government funding opportunities are available almost exclusively to established professors. The way you become established is to be white (or if you are black, to teach at a high tier school).  No surprise then that when accurate information is published about black people, it is almost always by a self defined white liberal scholar. He practices territorialism and paternalism. He believes that he knows what is best for black people. Black Ph.D.'s are often perceived by their white colleagues as less intelligent and under qualified-having earned the Ph.D. only out of forced integration policies. It goes without saying that for many students when they see me or one of my black colleagues on the first day of a semester, they are shocked to learn that America has any black Ph.D.s.

I wonder what audience's overseas think as they watch the New Orleans tragedy unfold.  An abundance of white newscasters and in a backdrop black face after black face. A huddled group of US government employees, all white and those in need are all black. Last but not least a military presence of M16 totting individuals most of whom are white. These tangible presentations of the military and news media members themselves and that of the government officials themselves should tell a story all by it itself of a country compromised of so many colors of people, yet almost total exclusion of peoples of color from employment, etc. and social status. No surprise that America's news shows about New Orleans and its aftermath rely on and present one white alleged expert (a retired army general; a politician; a criminologist) after the next to tell our past, to predict our future and essentially to tell our (black story). You would think that many of the whites in America holding socially powerful positions of influence would for one fleeting moment, acknowledge their privilege or do things to promote racial inclusiveness.  No surprise that another white supremacist website writer wrote of New Orleans and what the prevailing social structure of America believes: "Just like 9/11, whites do the organizing and rescue work, blacks loot."      

COPYRIGHT © 2005  By Christopher Cooper, Saint Xavier University, Chicago