MovieChat Forums > When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006) Discussion > Evacuation akin to slavery?!

Evacuation akin to slavery?!

posted 15 years ago by repete66211
13 replies | jump to latest

I have only seen the first two "acts", so I'll save my criticism until I've seen the whole thing. However, in part two there's some guy who says, "I know someone out there will say this sounds hyperbolic and full of racially-charged rhetoric, but the evacuation was just like the slave trade." I immediately thought, "That bit of racially-charged rhetoric sure is hyperbolic." And that's exactly what it was--a stupid, meaningless and inflammatory comment.

I can understand people complaining about the lack of food and water (even though they were at fault for riding out a storm without a supply of food and water), but to compare your saviors to slave traders once help does arrive makes that guy look really ungrateful. You don't get to choose where you're evacuated to? Tough luck. That's what you get when you leave it up to someone else to save your ass.

[–] InNeedofaLife 15 years ago

>>I have only seen the first two "acts", so I'll save my criticism until I've seen the whole thing. However, in part two there's some guy who says, "I know someone out there will say this sounds hyperbolic and full of racially-charged rhetoric, but the evacuation was just like the slave trade." I immediately thought, "That bit of racially-charged rhetoric sure is hyperbolic." And that's exactly what it was--a stupid, meaningless and inflammatory comment.

I can understand people complaining about the lack of food and water (even though they were at fault for riding out a storm without a supply of food and water), but to compare your saviors to slave traders once help does arrive makes that guy look really ungrateful. You don't get to choose where you're evacuated to? Tough luck. That's what you get when you leave it up to someone else to save your ass.<<<

As you have found by now, the series doesn't get more objective as it goes on.

Years ago Oprah Winfrey did a "special" in which she visited a location where much slave business took place.

Afterwards, she said that she was able to feel the pain of the black slaves who were bought by white slave owners.

In light of the fact that Oprah was molested by her black relatives starting at the age of nine, and a predominantly white audience has given her the wealth she has, I'd say she'd have to go back in time to find a reason to hate white people.

People of New Orleans lived there by choice, knew the dangers, and they can more easily blame the predominantly black local governemt and law enforcement for their lack of response, planning, and abandoning their posts.

New Orleans is one of countless cities to be hit by a natural disaster, but does have the "distinction" of being about the only one that tries to blame their bad decisions on a government.

[–] repete66211 15 years ago

"Acts" III and IV are on their way, so I haven't seen them yet. Given the politics he expresses, I didn't expect Lee to endear us to the white folks, so I'm not surprised at his angle. To tell the truth, with the exception of the part I quote above, I think he's been relatively even-handed so far--more so than with some of his fictional movies.

I'm not surprised Oprah played the drama to its fullest. Her choice of programming has made it clear she favors her imagination to any facts, so it's also no surprise she met with the expected emotional response.

[–] InNeedofaLife 15 years ago

>>I'm not surprised Oprah played the drama to its fullest. Her choice of programming has made it clear she favors her imagination to any facts, so it's also no surprise she met with the expected emotional response. <<

First of all, let me explain that my wife's friend was watching Oprah...not me.

It'd be funny if one of the slave owners was an ancestor of Obama's mother...

[–] bubblegum3091 9 years ago

LOL everyone has a reason to hate white people, they have ruined several countries that are now considered 'the third world', they have enslaved people for looking different to them, committed genocide on huge scales from the Native Americans to the Jewish etc, their corporations are ruining the planet, black and brown people go through macro- and microaggressions of racism each day and struggle to find jobs, education or funding because of their names - no one needs to go back in time to hate white people, white people have sucked in every era.

[–] morganseer 15 years ago

"I can understand people complaining about the lack of food and water (even though they were at fault for riding out a storm without a supply of food and water), but to compare your saviors to slave traders once help does arrive makes that guy look really ungrateful. You don't get to choose where you're evacuated to? Tough luck. That's what you get when you leave it up to someone else to save your ass."

I have to agree about the guy’s unfair comparison to slavery, without losing sight of the fact that much of the evacuation was disorganized, caused terrifying separation of children from their parents that will have psychological consequences for the rest of their lives.

But I have to correct you about preparedness. New Orleanians do prepare for hurricanes. People stock up on food and water for at least a week. They fill their bathtubs with water to wash in and flush their toilets with. They board up their windows. Those who can afford them have generators and a generous supply of gas to run them. Except that once the house fills up with floodwater, the supplies are gone.

You may ask why don’t people leave for hurricanes? Most do. They leave the comfort of their homes every two to three years, spend their meager savings, and come back to a house in perfect condition. This happens throughout their lifetime. Finally some begin to ask themselves why they go through the 20 hour traffic jams, pay for grossly inflated gas prices, spend their days and nights in overpriced bedbug hotels, only to find it was just another false alarm. Eventually they tell themselves it’s better stay home, crank up the generators, invite their neighbors, share the food and beer, and hunker down in their boarded house for a nice hurricane party. After all, the government gave them those great big protection levees. People in the Netherlands live under the sea level, and whoever heard of them having to evacuate?

Until the levees break, and you find out that they were a measly 18 feet deep instead of the requisite 60, that the government had deceived them, and that they had been living under a house of cards that only looked like real levies. And now their own house is rubble, and their insurance will pay not them but their mortgage companies, so the only way to have a place to live is to stay and rebuild. Moving to another city means losing all claim to their property and starting entirely over, and who among us can afford more than one house in a lifetime?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] whatever94401 15 years ago

Morganseer,
The larger issue is, to me, is when you are an adult and have a family it is your responsibility to take care of the. If evacuation costs a lot of money, do you have a support system, like mom, dad, sibling, inlaws, aunts, uncles, college friends, work friends, service buddies, that you can stay with when there is an evac ordered? Pay inflated gas prices, I agree with you, that is messed up, when evacs are ordered, the government needs to step in a get strict about price gauging. Also, as consumers, we can cast our dollar vote. You see a gas station owner pull that crap during an evac, organize, call the news, tell everyone, in the future, BOYCOTT that station.

If you can pay a fairer price for gas, have a support system outside of the hurricane zone that can let you stay, evacuation will be less expensive, AND the cost should be budgeted into an emergency account if you choose to live in New Orleans. That is what taking care of your family consists of. My parents spent money that could have gone to bigger cars, nicer jewelry (or they could have worked less) but they spent that money on fire insurance, life insurance, health insurance. Why? Because they definitely needed that stuff? No, but in CASE OF EMERGENCY, and they passed, they wanted me to have a place to live, money for college, etc.

When my parents first came to the US, they didn't feel like they could care for a family in a responsible way. SO THEY WAITED A FEW YEARS TO HAVE KIDS WHILE THEY SAVED MONEY AND moved up at work.

Now, I know even if we could have had people in NO be more responsible and be able to evacuate, there are always some people that cannot get it together...people with mental issues, the elderly who have no caregivers anymore, children whose parents don't care for them, and generally good people who are working hard to better themselves and are in transition. I feel if those that can help themselves, plan responsibly, accept that if they choose to stay in NO, they need to consider evac an expense. IF those people could be more responsible, then there would be enough resources to help those that can't get it together. The dome at 80% less capacity, etc., then this tragedy would not have happened.
Before I get flamed, I think government response was a freakin' joke. BUT that is all the more reason to try to look after yourself and your family and only as the last resort possible, need FEMA, etc. assistance.
In conclusion, in acts 3&4, a heartwrenching story of a child who drowned. her mother is holding her picture sobbing. My heart breaks and I'm angry. Angry at the storm, the government response, the engineering of levies, but then I also get upset when I think, "Who let's their child stay in a hurricane 5 situation when they were told to evacuate?" If I ever let my child down like that, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

[–] film_professor 15 years ago

Correlating such an embarrassing evacuation to slavery really isn't as imcompetent as you might think.

The government has exercised a long history of scaring their reputation within the African American community...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_experiment

...why should Katrina be any different?

Let's not pretend white people are perennial moral beings.

[–] repete66211 15 years ago

Correlating such an embarrassing evacuation to slavery really isn't as imcompetent as you might think.

Yes it is, primarily because the New Orleans city officials and Louisiana state officials have no connection whatsoever with the U.S. Public Health Service. While withholding a known treatment for a disease is a horrible thing to do, this had no connection to the events post-Katrina. You have to really reach to come to a conclusion otherwise. Unless of course you're trying to find a tenuous connection so the paradigm of perpetual victimhood can persist. Let's make a deal: I'll not pretend white people are "perennial moral beings" if you pretend they aren't to blame for all the ills black people experience. Let's not judge people by the color of their skin, but on the content of their character, OK?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] InNeedofaLife 15 years ago

I guess what sucks the most about this whole "akin to slavery" statement, is the fact that the majority of public servants in that area were black.

Blacks making slaves of blacks?

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] bubblegum3091 9 years ago

We are judging by that, and the content of the character of white people, particularly those high up, has always been awful, completely immoral, incredibly disturbing, with no regard or empathy for darker people. Read a history book bro - and not one that tries to twist colonialism, for example, into a Good thing (as white writers continually attempt to do as is consistent with their white sickness)