Freedom Rider

Latino New Orleans

by Margaret Kimberley

“Not only were New Orleans residents made to suffer needlessly but they now must look on as a new group replaces them.”

Migration is a constant in human history. In the land that is now the United States those forces were set in motion by Europeans who claimed inhabited land for themselves. They initiated a pattern of invasions across the continent, followed by the forced migration or annihilation of the original inhabitants, and the forced migration of Africans.

All of which brings us to New Orleans. The displacement of that city’s black population began with a natural disaster, hurricane Katrina. Katrina may have emanated from nature, but the damage that followed was caused by human beings.

The government of the United States allowed the levees that protected New Orleans to deteriorate so badly that they failed when they were most needed. The banana republic that is now the United States sees no reason to help human beings, or even to maintain its own infrastructure.

Malfeasance that took place before and after the storm created a displaced population. Residents who asked to be rescued from the flood were instead sent to far flung places. Those wanting to return are stymied because they have neither places to live, nor places to work.

“The banana republic that is now the United States sees no reason to help human beings, or even to maintain its own infrastructure.”

The banana republic’s love of crony capitalism is never ending. Rebuilding projects, which don’t include building homes for the exiles, were immediately put into place to fill the insatiable desire to create or take advantage of disasters.

Nature abhors a vacuum and so does capitalism. As New Orleans was emptied of its original inhabitants a new group anxious to establish themselves filled the void. Latino workers began arriving in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast immediately after the storm. Most of them are not in the United States legally, but that has never stopped anyone else from arriving here.

The nation that simultaneously rails against immigration is ruled by people who actively work to attract and employ them here. Reconstruction jobs are drawing immigrants from outside the country and within who have decided that the Gulf Coast offers a good deal. When asked how long he planned to stay, one worker replied, “As long as there’s work.”

Not only will workers want to stay in New Orleans as long as there is employment to be had, but none of them are arriving alone. The result is a sea change in the demographics of a city and of a region. Before Katrina, New Orleans was majority black with a large white minority. Last year New Orleans began to experience a Latino baby boom that is a harbinger of a new Latino city. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, the agency responsible for providing free prenatal care, reports that 2% of maternity patients were Latino before Katrina, but currently 96% are Latino.

New Orleans’ demographic shift began with an extraordinary event, but is part of a larger process at work. Immigrants continue to flow across the border and move around the country. Anti-immigrant voices are becoming louder and pressuring the Bush administration to stem the tide. Yet Bushite business interests are the magnet attracting immigrants.

“Two percent of New Orleans maternity patients were Latino before Katrina, but currently 96% are Latino.”

Golden State Fence company is a case in point. The firm will pay $5 million in fines because up to one-third of its employees are in the country illegally. In a case of extreme irony, Golden State Fence has constructed sections of the fence along the border with Mexico. A company paid to keep immigrants out has so many on its own payroll that it is the subject of a federal government investigation.

Under the guise of prosecuting identity theft, immigration agents rounded up workers at Swift and Company meat processing plants in six states. So many employees were arrested, 1,300, that operations were temporarily halted. Corporate America has made it clear that immigrants, legally arrived or not, are a welcome source for low wage labor. Construction in New Orleans, meat packing in Colorado and other industries all over the country are dependent on foreign born workers.

It is easy to focus hostility on the new arrivals and not on a government that hastened a city’s destruction. The protest that must take place should focus on the wrongs committed against that city’s original population. The argument must be made in favor of rebuilding New Orleans and repatriating its displaced population.

“Corporate America has made it clear that immigrants, legally arrived or not, are a welcome source for low wage labor.”

In the absence of movement-based politics, and the presence of a government that doesn’t want to act like one, that is unlikely to happen. Not only were New Orleans residents made to suffer needlessly but they now must look on as a new group replaces them. It is a supreme irony that those with the security that usually comes from having homes, families and jobs find it difficult to return. Desperation and the willingness to live in close quarters with other low wage workers make it easy to arrive.

There is nothing wrong with demographic change per se. It is wrong that the changes in New Orleans occurred because a crime was committed. The destruction and abandonment of that city will have long lasting consequences. The creation of new Latino city will be just one.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.Com. When sending email, please remember to replace the (at) with @.

Ms. Kimberley' maintains an edifying and frequently updated blog at  freedomrider.blogspot.com.  More of her work is also available at her Black Agenda Report archive page.