This will be quick and dirty. I wrote another, also hurried version of this for my weekly column at Black Agenda Report, but will take another lick at it here on OS.
I will not ever give a nickel to the Red Cross for anything, because I remember what they did with some of the millions they received immediately after Katrina. The Red Cross used donated money to prevent the re-establishment of the centuries-old African American communties of New Orleans by deliberately dispersing tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of nearly all black New Orleans evacuees to the four corners of the continental U.S.
I took a couple days off to drive down to Baton Rouge the week after Katrina to interview evacuees in the city's two biggest shelters, at Southern University and at the city's convention center.
The shelters were easy to find because of the mile long line of buses pointing to each one, buses which were filled by the "transportation coordinator," whose office was the busiest point at the shelters. For folks with high status jobs and checkable references (in New Orleans context that meant a master chef, at a well known restaurant) I saw them line up employment offers in NY, LA and Detroit, put plane tickets for the whole family in hand and call a cab to the airport.
For everybody else, the only answer was "Get on the bus." Evacuees were understandably dazed and disoriented, having been scooped out of floodwaters, off rooftops and overpasses and the like, abruptly cut off from families, lives and communities. Finding out what happened to the rest of their families and friends seemed to be uppermost on their minds. When they could focus at all on the future, they wondered how and whether they'd ever be able to go back, or whether there would be anything to go back to.
I talked to a couple evacuees, and several of the administrators of both shelters. Evacuees felt themselves pressured to get on the buses, though they had contradictory info on where they were headed, and some where already wondering if they would ever be allowed back. There were reports too, that the buses were not being allowed to stop anyplace short of Houston, and many were going much further.
Shelter admins, all the ones I talked to were white of course, looked at the crowd and told me the best thing was to send them anywhere away from here. Look at them, said one. What have they got to go back to? This (dispersal, though she didn't use that word) is the best option for them. While these people told themselves they had good intentions, they obviously did not value the evacuees the way they valued themselves, and certainly placed no special value on the communities they came from.
Obviously the decision was made higher up than these people. The Red Cross is notoriously chummy with business elites local and national, so it would surprise nobody that the same business interests who thought clearing the projects and much of black New Orleans out was a great chance to re-imagine the city were able to enlist the Red Cross in making it all possible.
If the American Red Cross didn't value the lives and communities of black US citizens, what makes anybody think they will value the lives and communties of black Haitians? If the Red Cross was willing to put implementation of elite business plans before protecting communities in New Orleans, what do you imagine they'll do in Haiti?
The Heritage Foundation, within hours of the earthquake was crowing that this was another shock-doctrine disaster-capitalism opportunity to further remake Haiti's society and economy in the interest of US business. They'll already be using my tax money to do that with the US military. They're not getting my donations to do it with the Red Cross too.
I will find responsible people to donate to who respect Haitians and their communities, and give to those. But not to the Red Cross.
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Comments
Red Cross is boots-on-the-ground in a disaster, but the local government must allow them to get to the people in need. They were putting people on planes to anywhere so the evacuees could get away from the devastation. It was disorganized, but there is no institutional racism in the Red Cross.
As a lifelong Red Cross supporter and sometime volunteer, I object to the Red Cross being portrayed as the bad guys. Shame on you!
The Red Cross is heavily dependent on the patronage of local elites everywhere, from which it derives access to local resources. It is natural enough too, that it answers to the priorities of local elites. In the case of New Orleans, creatures like the state senator who declared that the flood was God's way of clearing out the projects, something they'd wanted to do a long time but couldn't manage, were open advocates of this elite agenda.
In the days immediately after Katrina it was crystal clear that no governmental programs were going to help low income renters return to the Gulf Coast. More than two thirds of black New Orleans were renters. This government policy was foisted upon us all by our local (Louisiana) and national elites.
The Red Cross did was to place itself at the service of those elite interests who wanted that population dispersed. The Red Cross cannot be blamed for inventing the policy, just for carrying it out. Am I being any clearer now? The Red Cross exists to help, sure, but not just, not only, and sometimes not even the needy.
There were places up Mississippi way, white churces, where the Red Cross had stockpiled bottled water and relief supplies damn near across the street from black areas that were flooded and without power and fresh water. But since they were white, they didn't go into those areas to see what people needed, they just sat on the stuff.
The Red Cross Disaster Fund is for disasters, they don't earmark money for one disaster over another. That was one of the misunderstandings that leads people to gripe about the way money is spent. The Red Cross is NOT a governmental agency, it is a NGO (non-governmental organization) and they have no control over where a government is going to re-locate disaster victims. That's not their charter. Their charter is to get people out of harm's way. That's it.
"Local elites"? Give me a break. Red Cross is supported by you and me and by corporations who get a tax break to donate or manage their employees' donations through the United Way. Perhaps that's what you mean by "elites". The people who do the work are volunteers who get their hands dirty helping others. It sounds to me as if you're holding yourself above those people.
http://www.blackcommentator.com/151/151_dixon_katrina.html
LaTosha was one of the folks who had to struggle fiercely with Red Cross officials to rearrange some of their priorities.
The "volunteers" on the ground don't make the decisions about where to stockpile the supplies, and the volunteers did not decide upon the policy of massive deportation of Neew Orleans residents to the four corners of the continental U.S. The Red Cross USES volunteers, but it is not directed by volunteers and volunteers don't call those kind of shots. The shot callers, Red Cross execs, are very much members of local and national elites.
The policy of deporting Katrina evacuees far out of state was decided upon by Red Cross execs, not by low-level volunteers, and cannot be justified by referring to them.
I absolutely agree about the shock doctrine reference. The corporate elites are looking at this as just another great money making opportunity now that all those poor people have been killed and displaced. The best thing for Haiti would be debt forgiveness and for Haitians to be allowed to rebuild their country. If we want to give aid, fine. But no strings attached. Allow Haitians to rebuild the country and to make a decent living wage while doing so.