If God Is Willing...We Will Figure It Out.

The other day on Twitter, I had a conversation with @JangleLegJones. We had both seen the new Spike Lee documentary, If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don't Rise and she said she felt like New Orleans was the type of place she would like to move to. I did not come away with that response. I came away thanking God that I did not live in New Orleans and I had a sense that I would not even want to visit the city--ever. In fact, the entire state of Louisiana is now off-limits in my opinion.

The people of New Orleans have suffered. It is quite clear that they have still not truly recovered from Hurricane Katrina and I am not sure that they ever will. If they do, the unfortunate fact is that another hurricane could will come through and the same thing could happen all over again. Plus let us not begin to talk about the BP oil spill because that is a whole other can of worms and then some.

The thing about New Orleans is, before Hurricane Katrina things were really not that great to begin with. If you look at US Census Bureau data pre-2005, the entire state of Louisiana was consistently ranked at the bottom in terms of social factors like education, health care, per capita income, safety, etc. Before Katrina, the city of New Orleans consistently appeared at the top of crime rate statistics (places like New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, with much larger populations had less crime than New Orleans).

I have heard opinions that the situation in New Orleans is because it is a "black" city and therefore "race" is the problem (in New Orleans over 65% of the population is black). But think about what this means. To bring race into the issue would imply that wherever many black people are gathered, progress stalls and communities fail. Is it because of race? Really? Is "the man" trying to keep New Orleans down because of all the black people there?

The problem with this logic is that New Orleans has always been a "black" city but it has not always been a "bad" city. 

New Orleans was part of the land that the US purchased from France in 1803 as part of the Louisiana purchase. In 1803, the Haitian revolution was in full swing and many Haitian refugees arrived in New Orleans seeking "the new world" and a better life. The Haitian blacks who arrived and settled in New Orleans in the 1800s were not slaves (mostly). Many of them were middle class people who actually owned slaves of their own. In the 1800s, blacks in Louisiana actually held public office! Louisiana even had the first non-white governor in the US in 1866! Yes, 1866! In New Orleans black people were educated, held public office, owned businesses, owned their own homes (many still do), and freely interacted with whites in the area.

Eventually segregation crept in and the area began to resemble the rest of the south. But, de-segregation  also eventually happened. In fact, the city New Orleans has been under "black" governance since the 1980's. As the black population grew, whites began to leave the area and this is why the city is now over 65% black.

In the time that black people have had "control" over the city why haven't things changed?

After watching the documentary I felt like crying. Not because I was sad but because I was--and still am--angry at the black people who let it get that far even before Katrina hit. My pity for some residents of the city turned into annoyance faster than you can say, "Who Dat".

New Orleans frustrates me. The city had so much potential to become a beacon for other "black" cities like Detroit or Baltimore instead it has become what it is today. A city with high crime, high unemployment, terrible public educational system, inadequate health-care, etcetera which the rest of the United States pities and has to support like some sort of poor relative. How did it get to this point? Forget sending aid to foreign countries, the United States has its very own fixer-upper right here in the south.

This story of  "wasted potential" is one that I see in two other places.

New Orleans actually reminds me of Haiti. The slaves there fought for over a decade to gain their independence and once they got it--the country basically tore itself apart. Their first leader was assassinated by his own advisers about 2 years after they gained independence. Instead of becoming a great republic that would be a template for other black republics...well you know how that turned out. It is now one of the poorest countries in the world.

Of course, how can I forget dear old Nigeria. Despite having the "easiest" route to democracy of any African nation after literally TALKING their way out of colonial rule, despite having oil reserves, and despite not having natural disasters, the country has still become what it is today. I am quite sure that if it wasn't for the "grace of oil", Nigeria would be in a situation similar to the Democratic Republic of Congo, or Zimbabwe or even Haiti.

These places: Haiti, Nigeria, Congo, Zimbabwe, New Orleans, etc seem to have one thing in common--black people.

But of course, people will say that the reason blacks (everywhere) are not faring as well is because the rest of the world has taken advantage of us in the past. In Africa, we blame colonialism for this. In the West we blame slavery, discrimination, etc. I am not trying to discount the effects of these issues but there has to be a point when black people come together and OWN the issues. Time to stop pushing blame on other people.

Think about it. Haiti has had over 200 years of "black" rule and is still behind. Can we really continue to blame Europeans for the issues in that country 200+ years later? When Haiti was 111years old the situation there got so bad that the US occupied the country and ran the Haitian government for 18 years. Funny enough, "analysts" are predicting the same thing for Nigeria i.e. a collapse in government that requires foreign intervention. Haven't you wondered why Hollywood is all of a sudden making references to a foreign military presence in Nigeria? See: X-Men Origins:Wolverine, Avatar, Repo Men, The Expendables, etc and lets not forget the waste of a movie timeless classic, Tears Of The Sun.

New Orleans, Nigeria, its the same story different location. "They" did this, "they" did that. When will we stop blaming "they"?

It can't be just me that feels this way.

If God is willing we will figure it out.

You know what, lets not drag God into this.

If WE are willing, we will figure it out.