Message From the President

Race Matters

         Now, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we social workers need to look at the bigger picture.  While the event itself was truly an Act of God, the response was an unforgivable act of abandonment.  The federal government did too little, too late, focusing primarily on blaming the victims.  FEMA officials failed to respond; the African-American mayor and police chief of New Orleans were reproached; and former First Lady Barbara Bush made disparaging and condescending remarks about the hurricane victims, who were overwhelmingly Black and poor.

Historical Perspective

         In Alexis de Tocqueville’s 19th century treatise entitled “Democracy in America,” and later in Gunnar Myrdal’s 20th century classic “An American Dilemma,” these keen observers from abroad spoke plainly about the issue of race and discrimination in this country.  This continuing 21st century reality may account for much of the Bush Administration’s unwillingness to focus on prevention (the hurricane was forecasted), and its reluctance to invest in clean-up, infrastructure rebuilding, or care for those made jobless and homeless by the tragedy.  We realize vividly what African-American studies scholar Cornel West meant when he entitled his classic book: “Race Matters”.

The Color Line

         While largely white middle-class New Orleans residents got in their automobiles and headed North to escape the storm, the predominantly African-American residents of the Lower Ninth Ward, who didn’t own cars, stayed and suffered.  Then, in the aftermath, when an authentically bipartisan proposal was submitted to Congress for temporary extension of Medicaid coverage to all low-income hurricane victims, George W. Bush indicated that he would respond to its presumed passage with a Presidential veto.

         We are reminded at moments like these of W.E.B. DuBois’ prescient pronouncement:The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.  Sadly, it remains a 21st century problem as well.

White Privilege

         Perhaps we should not be so surprised.  The institutional roots of racism are profound in American history.  Most African-Americans, after all, came to America not as people, but as property, to be bought and sold.  Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, moreover, stated clearly that African-Americans should be counted in our decennial census as merely 3/5ths of a person - even if they were free.  Hence, while we know that race is not a scientific concept, it remains a defining and enduring social construction with roots deeply planted in law and social custom.

         The concept of “benign neglect”, therefore, is simply not sufficient to explain the federal government’s virtual abandonment of the citizens of the Lower Ninth Ward.  The only analysis that works for me is that – especially in time of crisis – most whites have privileges that most Blacks do not enjoy.  This is a reality we must be willing to address as members of the social work profession.

Our Response

         We at the NYC Chapter convened an emergency meeting of our Disaster Trauma Working Group right after the tragic events in Louisiana and Mississippi under the able leadership of our colleague Madelyn Miller.  Our Executive Director, Bob Schachter, and I issued a statement on behalf of the Chapter that was widely circulated and reprinted.  In this statement we argued, in part, that “the government’s response must be examined in terms of the underlying issue of racism”.  Then, in the weeks that followed, many members of the NYC Chapter went to the scene, as members of Red Cross teams, to provide counseling and crisis care.  This was appropriate and greatly appreciated by those who received services and who benefited from the advocacy that our members were able to provide.  This was necessary, but not sufficient. 

         As professional social workers, we simply cannot permit apartheid to exist in this country.  We must also be willing to recognize that today, in this country, the black experience frequently is not the same as the white experience. Explicit examples of racism endure.

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