Letter

This is not only a "low income black people" hurricane. There are about 1.1 million people in the metro New Orleans area. Many like me, loaded up their vehicles and drove into the contraflow, an eerie and haunting visual. I drove to my support system, family and friends, in Wisconsin. We loaded up our cars with our belongings and have been loading up our credit cards ever since. Many are going through their life savings while they wait to return.

It's not a black/white issue completely; it's not that only the white folk got out, but it is probably one of economics. One of my points is that if you do the math around the demographics for the city of New Orleans you will find a solid middle class of African-Americans. There are black attorneys and judges, presidents of universities, and successful blacks at every level and occupation in the city. (Let's try to do the math: if 70% of the population is African American and about 28% of the city is at poverty level that does not equate to all African Americans being poor.)

For some reason, this is hard for some Midwesterners to understand. I'm sure this entire ordeal is hard for those outside the region to comprehend, I was even convinced that I'd have something (I lost EVERYTHING that I didn't bring here with me). I'm tired of flippant comments who don't want to understand a very old city with very old problems. I am not writing to tell my story; there are 1.1 million stories out there although I do wonder why I haven't heard more of those stories. I am writing because I'm tired of of the misconceptions. Sure, in about a year or so from now, people in my class structure--black and white-- will be fueling their SUVs and probably get back to some sort of normalcy. Right now, however, that seems like a very, very long time from now.