On With The Body Count

The big uncovered story of Katrina seems to be the amount of missing and dead. If I was an “investigative” journalist, I would get right on it and bust it wide open. In the days after 911, the country was in a frenzy to locate those who were unaccounted for and to pinpoint an approximate death toll. But it seems that American society is quite comfortable with a lot of black people being displaced and separated from their loved ones, and with some of those being dead and rotting out in the open air in putrid water. Maybe our tolerance for such a situation is so high because our country’s history was built on similar circumstances. Two hundred years ago, it was just fine to tear black families apart, and transport them to parts unknown with no explanation. We didn’t seem to have a problem doing it to the Native Americans who lived here before us either.

Every day I anxiously scan the headlines and search the internet, trying to get some hard numbers on exactly how many folks are unaccounted for in this mess. A week ago was the last time it was referenced, and at that time, the Red Cross had about 130,000 folks who were “missing” in their database. With the press refusing to follow the story, its anybody’s guess as to what the number is now. Lower? Higher? It’s a real crap shoot. This is simply unacceptable. Over the last seven days, Louisiana public officials have guessed anywhere from 5,000 to 50,000 are dead. The guesses vary wildly, because, as Governor Kathleen Blanco pointed out today, its hard to count the dead when the company hired by FEMA wasn’t hired by FEMA. That’s right. FEMA never signed the contract, so not much body recovery has been done. So the official number stays below 500, and with 40 percent of New Orleans still underwater, the media seems quite happy to move on to economic recovery, while local officials continue to warn that the numbers will climb. Although many of the missing will be reunited with loved ones, we might start to get a clearer picture of just how many folks have been killed if we reconnect the displaced and separated a bit more efficiently. And believe me, I have been to some of the service agencies assisting the refugees this week, and there is nothing efficient going on in those operations.

Is it any wonder some black folks in this country wonder if this is a race issue? It is two weeks after the disaster and NOONE is much interested in publishing how many people haven’t been located. And the area that flooded the deepest and is yet to be uncovered was the place where poor black folks lived and were unable to evacuate from. Meanwhile the politicians and press talk of rebuilding and property recovery and how soon the power will come on, while dead folks rot in the hot September sun. If this had been the case two weeks after 911, you better believe there would have been a public outcry. One of the most vivid memories I have of the days immediately after 911 is the missing posters and bulletin boards and the people standing in endless crowds, crying out for information on their lost relatives. The 911 dead weren’t all white; it was certainly a non-discriminating event and those killed were of many differing ethnicities. But paint the dead largely black and we can see the results. Is our country racist? Heck yeah. I guess I am one of the six white people polled who doesn’t mind saying so.