Ashley Morris: the blog: Death of the Family

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Death of the Family

This post was originally intended to be one of those snarky things, where I tell the families of the dead in California, the people in New York without power "They should have known better than to live there".

Why would I be so callous?

Because when I tell people in the US that I live in New Orleans, that's the kind of thing they tell me.

But after reading about the 6000 families that will be cut from FEMA housing aid at the end of July, I had another, perhaps wiser perspective.

Point 1) Note that the 9th Ward of New Orleans was odd demographically in that a majority of the people there owned their own homes, yet over a third were under the poverty line, and 14% were unemployed. This numbers seem to contradict themselves, but can be explained by the fact that many extended families lived under the same roof.

"There was a lot of extended families in New Orleans," Jacks says. "And the mother and father lived there, and their older children lived there, and their children, and so you had all these family groups under one roof. Well, the father or the mother who owned the home were really, technically, the only ones who were eligible for disaster assistance."

Point 2) If we look back to the 1995 Chicago Heat wave, we see that approximately 600 people died in the heat. An additional 739 died the following week. Most of these were elderly, who had no air conditioning, and were often hesitant to even open windows and doors at night because of crime.

Eric Klinenberg: Hundreds of Chicago residents died alone, behind locked doors and sealed windows, out of contact with friends, family, and neighbors, unassisted by public agencies or community groups.

Klinenberg goes on to theorize that many of these elderly died because of the dissolution of the family unit. In earlier days, Mom and Pop also had Aunt Millie, Uncle Rufus, Cousin Kermit, Grandma Moses, and plenty of extended family all within walking distance, if not the same neighborhood, street, or even house. Because of this scattering of the extended family, many elderly people felt that they would be an imposition on their families, and rather than doing that, they died a lonely, horrible death.

It routinely gets that hot in New Orleans, but we never have the catastrophic death toll of 1995 Chicago.

Why?

If Klinenberg is right, then it's partially due to the fact that New Orleans has an incredibly strong extended nuclear family.

So, what about Katrina?

Well, we've shown that in New Orleans, the family unit is still intact, as is the extended family unit. That's not the case in most of the United States.

During the evacuation, many of the relief agencies intentionally separated these families, and to this day, many parts of these extended families are scattered across the country.

Now, because of the strength of the extended family unit in New Orleans, many Katrina and Flood victims will be without money to live on, or even a place to live. They will be made homeless through the carelessness and bureaucracy of the federal government.

Why?

24 July 2006 at 10:44 PM | Permalink

Comments

As a denizen of Katrina-ville, I too have that knee jerk reaction when I hear that people in other parts of the country are experiencing weather-related "emergencies". As much as I'd like to yell it out, I keep it inside of me, knowing how much it might further hurt those that are experiencing the wrath of nature.

It's sad/true that once again the gov't has failed those most in need of assistance: the people you spoke of whose families had been separated since the storm. Separated not by their own volition but by (to quote you)the carelessness and bureaucracy of the federal government. What a mess.

Posted by: judyb54 | 25 July 2006 at 07:39 AM

True, all true, but there is another reason many died in the heat waves last year here and in Europe. They routinely don't have air conditioners. I didn't know until my first visit to Boston that you could buy a car with no A/C. They are so used to mild summers and harsh winters that the northern poor consider an A/C for the apartment to be a luxury. Something you put behind food, medicine and heat.

Contrastingly, an A/C here is a basic need. You can't live here without one unless you're 19 and 95 lbs. Only the cruelest family would dump grandma in an apartment with no A/C.

Posted by: dangerblond | 25 July 2006 at 01:11 PM

You make painfully true points, here. It must be the number of posts you're putting together. You're putting so many issues right out there. This is one nasty truth that I thought "W" would have the courage to recognize nad respect.

Let's see if he does, in fact, come to town.

Posted by: dillyberto | 25 July 2006 at 01:40 PM

Judy, sometimes it's all I can do to not scream at these victims. Thank goodness I'm not in Cali or St. Louis now, or in Boston when the tunnel collapsed.

Dblond: I happened to be in Europe during that summer, and not only don't many houses have AC, many hotels do not either. Every fan in Belgium was sold. It's insane.

OTOH, I don't know how many friends every invited you into their homes in the 9th ward. I would say that about half the ones I went into were air conditioned, and all but one of those were simply window units. Fans are everywhere.

At least we understand air circulation and evaporative cooling.

DB, we just gotta keep hammering. It's fatiguing, but necessary.

Posted by: ashley | 25 July 2006 at 07:23 PM

Having grown up here and along the Coast pre-A/C, I know what it can be like. I also know how families stayed together or in close contact.

Modern Amerika has moved on past our antiquaited ways, but they have arrived in a lonely personal desert. There are no roots or real connections. They die alone and lonely.

Maybe the guv'mit wants us to join the Modern world, and to that I say, "Suck shit!".

Full reparations for every New Orleanian, homeowner or not.

Posted by: GentillyGirl | 25 July 2006 at 10:41 PM

You know, ashley, I think you've got a fantastic point here.

Coming from North Louisiana, I can say that the family unit is strong, but is not as geographically united as it is in this urban area. My family was spread all over town, and if we didn't see each other but every couple of weeks, okay.

Now that I'm a married man down here, I see my in-laws probably twice a week (and then again on the weekends). I think there's something about both the geography and the culture down here that brings families together and keeps them there, without too much conflict.

Great observation. Keep this one on the back burner and see what simmers up.

Posted by: Brian | 26 July 2006 at 09:09 AM

Also in the 9th Ward, folks inherited houses from parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc. and had no assets other than the house. Extended family can help scrape together a tax payment. That reliance on extended family may be why "the working poor," for lack of a less condescending phrase, haven't moved back in large numbers--if your network is split up, how do you pool resources to get back home and fix the house so you all have somewhere to live?

I routinely scream at the TV, Well, y'all should've known the fire/crash/flood/rain/whatever was going to happen and you better not expect me to help your triflin', lazy, ignorant, living-in-the-path-of-danger ass! And then I cackle, loudly.

Posted by: G Bitch | 26 July 2006 at 05:04 PM