UNH Culture & Sustainability discussion

Let's assume that Dave Eggers is trying to intervene in public discourse surrounding New Orleans and Katrina. What have you learned about the public discourse around race and Katrina? What kind of intervention is Eggers trying to make in that, with this book?

**from Erin Kenny**

Below I have posted the video about Carolyns five year journey to rebuild her home, her church, and her community following hurricane Katrina. I'm not sure how to only post part of the clip that I wanted to show but you click on the link and move the line to 17:30 min.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/carolynparker/...

In this segment Carolyn mainly focuses on the rebuilding of St.Davids church- the only Catholic church that welcomed blacks when she was growing up. She also stands up in front of the congregation and expresses her anger for the fact that they have merged two churches together after the destruction of the hurricane. She says that when she was younger she was denied by the other church because of her skin color and therefore she did not feel home with these two churches practicing as one. Although the pastor says "wherever we are we will be home" Carolyn does not agree. It seems that she is still holding onto the racism in the past. But is it in the past? This leads me to my discussion questions for you all to ponder and respond if you would.

1) Do you think that by not accepting the merging of the two churches she is not allowing the separation of whites and blacks to mend ? In other words, is she living in the past? Or does she have a right to feel the way she does? Also do you think she is resisting change that could be a positive change. For example people coming together in a time of grief and destruction. Was this maybe an opportunity for her to move on from her views of the other church based on events that happened at a avery different time?

2) Could the events of hurricane Katrina lead to more class conflict tension that arise between different class groups than already exist? Mainly because of job loss and priority to fund and rebuild certain parts of New Orleans.

3) Do you think the reason that the federal government failed to come to rescue more quickly had anything to do with the fact that most of the victims were poor and/or african americans?

4) What do you think about the fact that most of the media coverage showed was of black people looting and rioting? What effect could this have had on the people viewing this through the media? Could this have pointed more blame on the people? Could this have pointed more blame on african american people?

5) Do you think race issues were/are now intensified in New Orleans because of the hurricane? Will there now be a bigger gap in classes because of the amount of things (money,housing, ect) that were lost during the disaster?