Part 1 of 2: The Lower Ninth: Ground Zero for Reparations and Education

After the catastrophic damage Hurricane Katrina caused to the people and the property in the communities along the Gulf States in September 2005, one especially hard hit neighborhood in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans heard the announcement of the closure of all of its public schools until 2008. Instead of accepting the closing of one of their key institutions parents, community leaders, teachers, and administrators began to organize for King School's immediate reopening. Their organizing efforts take place within the context of a wider movement toward self-determination and the reclaiming of key community institutions termed reparations. This film reports on interviews, fieldnotes, discussions, findings, and actions taken during April 2006 immediately following Hurricane Katrina in the Lower Ninth Ward. Following recent work in cultural geography, critical race theory, and cultural studies, the film explores how one community, is rejecting systematic 'neoliberal' injustice, market imperatives, expansion of white capital and the violent dispossession of their property by claiming the right to self-determination. Through an analysis of the historical context which the Lower Ninth is situated, documents and speeches given by state officials, interviews of community members, the film illustrates several economic and educational themes that are represented in their struggle: racial geography, local fiscal control, the role of capital in ethnic cleansing, and a pedagogy of racial justice. Finally, the film offers a New Orleans framework for understanding how communities are forging a new narrative of liberation by claiming and taking reparations.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• New
• Orleans
• Katrina
• Education
• Reparations

[AvEryBadApPLe]

it's rather sick how americans died on the streets for days, but troops where mobilized in mere hours to go die for oil companies in some desert half way around the world. no wonder this outsourced country is falling apart. the owners just aren't interested in it anymore.

[TeeterCamo]

Certainly an educated take, unlike so many other opinion pieces I have been privy to, but I still do not view this as an ethnic cleansing of any kind. This is about education. The poor, not the poor black, are not receiving proper education. A similar video could be made about tornadoes in Kansas with European-Americans. The poor need to realize, via education changes stemming from government (via power of the people), that acceptance of neo-liberalism can be a positive change in their lives.

[hannityforpres]

If a hurricane wiped out my house, I dont know exactly what Id do, but one thing I would never do is demand the government find me a place to live. But then, I have always had a job, paid rent or house payments, and just paid bills. i never had the government help with anything. I cant stand people who demand gov help. Just get a damn job.

[professoroftruth]

Powerful! Keep playing the TRUTH CARD!

[DivineWomb]

In regards to them not wanting to know (or give a damn), I totally agree with you. Just like many of them don't want to believe that racism still exists. *rolling my eyes* Well, I guess they don't have to see it because they don't have to deal with it.

[MatthewLeee]

A lot of white politicians, trying to be politically correct, make drug laws, prostitution laws, and minimum wage laws, along with a dismal education system, that do great harm to black communities, of course, none of it is intentional.

[MatthewLeee]

Well, we agree there.

[MatthewLeee]

Why, once again, do the sons and daughters carry a grudge against another mans sons and daughters? And why are you in the mentality of a rape victim? And how was this country built on racism? The nation that has one of the richest cultural histories on the planet?

[PharaohGoddess]

"these" people have been affected by "you" people every since their ancestors have been in this country that was stolen by "you" people's ancestors and religion!

[PharaohGoddess]

the deeds that happened hundreds of years ago, still affect people that are here now. This country was built on racism. There has been a lot of blood spilt on this land because of racism. Why not ask a rape victim to forget? Why not ask an abused child to forget. What affected our parents and grandparents, ect.. affects us! If you don't have the heart to see that, you're no better than a racist!