This Is My Rifle: From Columbus to Katrina, We’ve Been Divided & Conquered

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction in which we’re headed and the factors that keep us, the people, divided on either side of a rapidly growing gap. While the vast majority of us are finding ourselves falling into the bottom half of this division, with only a small number of the population making up the even smaller wealthy percentage, it seems that as we face similar struggles and a collective uncertain future, the overwhelming majority is still separated into smaller groups and sub-categories.

There’s no doubt in my mind that race is the main factor in the great divide, but it’s only because we allow it to be. For hundreds of years various groups in the Western World were marked and systematically destroyed. From the North and South American Indians to the Black and Latin communities, they were all targeted and successfully eliminated from the big picture. And while we were made to believe that our continent’s long history of genocide was about racial dominance, it in fact was not and never has been. Race was merely the veil that laid over the real motivation: the acquisition of wealth and power.

From the moment the Europeans arrived on the shores of The Americas, they knew that the only way to defeat the Indians was to divide, conquer and then indoctrinate. They played both the role of villain and hero; murdering entire tribes, sending the children to brutal residential schools where they were subject to horrifying acts of violence and sexual abuse, while at the same time exploiting the survivors, weakening them with alcohol and disease, allowing them to live only under the conditions that they comply with the Europeans and adhere to their every command. Slavery worked in a similar way, with the house slaves and the field slaves kept separate. Once the slaves were freed those who were loyal to their masters were rewarded by being somewhat accepted into White society while the rest were disposable human beings; raped, murdered and destroyed at will.

This strategy was employed because they were aware of the power that these people possessed and having the ability to live alongside the Europeans on an equal level also meant that they would control a large piece of the wealth. Although race and religion were used as means of condoning their actions, neither skin color nor God had anything to do with it; it was all about control. By ripping apart the internal power structures of each one of these groups the Europeans knew that they would not pose a threat and would eventually self-destruct.

The 20th century was the last and final stage in the imaginary battle for racial supremacy. While the Indian, Black and Latin communities had gained some leverage both economically and politically; it was only because the ruling elite allowed it to happen. As these groups took small steps towards equality, they also took 3 large steps back, with the leaders moving up to the small percentage of the wealthy population and leaving the community to revel in their false sense of accomplishment. The leaders who refused to leave their communities behind, however, were in one way or another assassinated, further removing the core strength of these groups. And as the 20th century came to a close, the original plan that was instituted all those years ago was complete.

What we have now is the end result, with 1% of the population controlling 42% of the country’s wealth. While the majority of these wealthy people are indeed White, they could care less what race you belong to. What the other 99% of the people overlooked was that race was never the issue and in the end, we lost. While we fought with each other over petty differences and broke into tiny pieces of poor minorities, the rich became wealthy and seized power over the rest of us. To put it simply, the goal was class separation and perhaps the greatest example of this is the events that occurred before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

By now we’re all familiar with the blatant neglect the people of New Orleans were subjected to during those few weeks in August and September of 2005. But what most people don’t know is that this isn’t the first time New Orleans fell victim to a distinct form of class prejudice.

In both 1927 and 1965 (during Hurricane Betsy) the levees that protected New Orleans, which sits 6 feet below sea level, from the surrounding bodies of water were wired with dynamite and blown to pieces in order to save the rich sections from flooding and effectively pushing the water into the poor areas of the city. The flood of 1927 decimated St. Bernard Parish, which had a majority White population and only goes to show how little of a factor race actually was in 2005.

Another lesser-known fact is that New Orleans was never hit by a category 5 hurricane, the worst of the storm missed them completely. The levees crumbled under the pressure of a category 1 hurricane and were not built to withstand anything stronger. The walls that kept the water out of the city were only 10 feet deep and were held together by plastic bands, hardly sufficient for an area that is highly susceptible to intense storm systems. FEMA even did a study of the levees 2 years prior to Katrina and knew of the impending danger but did nothing about it.

Prior to the hurricane touching down on Southern Louisiana the citizens were warned and told to evacuate immediately. But with approximately 127,000 disabled and homeless, even more in severe poverty, and with no federal evacuation plan, unless you could afford to drive or fly to higher ground you were literally left to die. So when the levees broke on August 29th it was no secret who was going to be the victims of the massive flood that left 80% of the city under water, the worst of the flood drowning the Lower 9th Ward, East New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

Those who managed to make it to the Superdome and Convention Center before the storm hit were in no better shape than the people stuck in the rising floodwaters. With over 50,000 citizens taking refuge, the water stopped running and toilets were overflowing within the first few days. Whether you were in the Superdome or Lower 9th Ward, the conditions were the same; sweltering heat, dead bodies laying all over the place with no clean drinking water or food in sight.



Almost immediately the rescue effort went underway. But it was an effort put forth by regular people, local police and fire departments, the Coast Guard (acting completely independent of any federal plan) and outside sources (my own city’s branch of federal law enforcement, the Vancouver RCMP, were there by the 3rd day). The people who were rescued from the flooded areas were then taken to the interstate highway where they were told buses were on their way to take them to safety, but most of the people on or under the interstate waited 3-5 days without food or water before anybody showed up. Some of them attempted to walk over the bridge to Jefferson Parish and Gretna City but were met by armed police who told them to turn back due to media rumors about hostage situations, rape, jail breaks and armed looters looking to take the violence into other counties.

For 4 straight days the city of New Orleans sat under water with no help from the federal government whatsoever. It wasn’t until Mayor Ray Nagin, who might I add consulted with the business community before the people of the city even knew the hurricane was coming, went on the radio and told the country exactly what was happening. Governor Kathleen Blanco had been pleading with the feds for days, begging for help, but nobody came.

Then on September 2nd President Bush arrived in Louisiana and met with the Mayor, Governor and other officials to come up with a plan to save New Orleans, but in typical Bush fashion, the main concern was who’s responsibility it was. The federal government wanted the state to take care of it but the state needed federal funding in order to carry out a rescue mission of that magnitude. It wasn’t until 5 days into the disaster that the federal government finally provided some assistance and sent FEMA and the National Guard in with food, water and supplies. By that time most of New Orleans had been looted, stripped and was in a state of total chaos.

The gross mismanagement of the city’s poor didn’t stop there. Even though they now had clean water and food, they were still homeless. And so the federal government decided the next move was to usher them onto buses and airplanes and randomly send them to nearby states. Since most of the residents of New Orleans had never been outside of Louisiana, the vast majority had no idea where they were and didn’t have anybody to turn to. To make matters worse, entire families had been scattered throughout the United States with mothers ending up in Utah and children being sent to Alabama. For most of the families who had been displaced amongst the 49 states, it took months and sometimes even years for them to locate each other.

Of those who either stayed or managed to make their way back to New Orleans, most, who had little to begin with, were left with nothing. Although FEMA had planned to send upwards of 40,000 temporary living trailers, very few of them actually made it to New Orleans and the residents who did receive trailers waited 6 months to a year to get one.

The FEMA trailers themselves were poorly built and didn’t have electricity or proper plumbing. To add insult to injury, FEMA then decided to stop providing the survivors of Katrina with the funds to buy necessities like clothing and groceries just months after the storm. So whether you were in New York City trying to find your family members in Florida or living in a rundown trailer without electricity in New Orleans, you were shit outta luck.

So, you may ask, where was the Bush Administration while all of this was happening? George Bush was on vacation (despite taking a quick break to meet with Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco on September 2nd); he didn’t even step foot into New Orleans until September 12th, 2 weeks after the levees broke. Dick Cheney was fly-fishing. Karl Rove somehow magically disappeared. Condoleezza Rice was shoe shopping and playing tennis with Monica Seles. Michael Chertoff, Head of Homeland Security and the one who neglected to declare Hurricane Katrina a state of national significance thus keeping the much needed federal aid locked down, was in Atlanta talking disease control with pharmaceutical big wigs. Michael Brown, Head of FEMA and also a puppet for oil lobbyists, was somewhere running around with his head stuck up his ass.

Another interesting bit of information is that Louisiana is responsible for 30% of America’s oil and natural gas and because the oil companies drill 3 miles off of the coast the profit from these resources belongs to the federal government and not the state. It’s hard to imagine that for a community that provides so much to the country, so little was given back.

When Kanye West said, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” he was half way there. The truth is, George Bush and the ruling elite don’t care about poor people and it just so happened that a lot of the poor people caught in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were Black. The unbelievable lack of caring for the citizens affected by the disaster was about cleaning out the city’s “undesirables”. In a city that boasted one of the highest murder rates in the country, where poverty was almost double that of every other major city and 70% of the population is Black with 60% of males dropping out of high school between the ages of 14-16, Hurricane Katrina was a literal wash out of the riff raff. Just as I’ve explained in previous articles (click here to read), disasters provide opportunity for corporations to move in and build their idea of perfect civilizations. The slow response time of the federal government wasn’t the result of a bunch of bumbling idiots who didn’t know what to do; it was very calculated and deliberate. The longer they waited and the more people died, the more opportunity presented itself to buy up very valuable properties located in the Lower 9th Ward and other areas at ridiculously cheap prices. While I don’t believe that the powers that be were the ones who broke the levees, I do believe that they knew what was going to happen and did nothing to prevent it.

It’s not been almost 6 years since the greatest natural disaster in American history ripped through New Orleans and to this day much of the city is in shambles. A lot of the survivors are still displaced and of those who have returned home, most suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome and the suicide rate has increased dramatically. Insurance companies have refused payments to many of the residents trying to re-build and much of what was publicly owned has become privatized.

This is what the great divide looks like. A small population of the wealthy elite exploiting the majority and playing with human lives to benefit their own agenda. While we sit at the bottom and argue over Black or White, Liberal or Conservative, who owes what to who, they sit at the top and capitalize on it. They don’t give a fuck about you or what color you are, as long as you consume and pay them for your existence they’ll keep you around. And then when the day comes that they no longer need you, they’ll leave you to burn alive under the Sun or drown in your own sewage.

It’s time to wake the fuck up, people. We’re always going to have our differences but the one thing we all have in common is that we’re members of a growing number of working poor. They want us to hate each other because the moment that we come together and see what’s really going on, we could bury them in the blink of an eye. It’s our responsibility to take our lives back.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can listen/download his most recent album, "Marvelous World Of Color", here and you can contact him here and here.)