“They wanted them poor niggers out of there.”

[Sapphire Blue]

"They wanted them poor niggers out of there."

New Orleans two years after
by Greg Palast

(Thurs August 30) "They wanted them poor niggers out of there and they ain’t had no intention to allow it to be reopened to no poor niggers, you know? And that’s just the bottom line."


Malik Rahim of Common Ground Relief

It wasn’t a pretty statement. But I wasn’t looking for pretty. I’d taken my investigative team to New Orleans to meet with Malik Rahim. Pretty isn’t Malik’s concern.

We needed an answer to a weird, puzzling and horrific discovery. Among the miles and miles of devastated houses, rubble still there today in New Orleans, we found dry, beautiful homes. But their residents were told by guys dressed like Ninjas wearing “Blackwater” badges: “Try to go into your home and we’ll arrest you.”

These aren’t just any homes. They are the public housing projects of the city; the Lafitte Houses and others. But unlike the cinder block monsters in the Bronx, these public units are beautiful townhouses, with wrought-iron porches and gardens right next to the tony French Quarter.

Raised up on high ground, with floors and walls of concrete, they were some of the only houses left salvageable after the Katrina flood.

Yet, two years later, there’s still bars on the windows, the doors are welded shut and the residents banned from returning. On the first anniversary of the flood, we were filming this odd scene when I saw a woman on the sidewalk, sobbing. Night was falling. What was wrong?

(snip)

I wasn’t naïve. I had a good idea what this scam was all about: 89,000 poor and working class families stuck in Homeland Security’s trailer park gulag while their good homes were guarded against their return by mercenaries. Two decades ago, I worked for the Housing Authority of New Orleans. Even then, the plan was to evict poor folk out of this very valuable real estate. But it took the cover of a hurricane to do it.

Malik’s organization, Common Ground, wouldn’t wait for permission from the federal and local commissars to help folks return. They organized takeovers of public housing by the residents. And, in the face of threats and official displeasure, restored 350 apartments in a destroyed private development on the high ground across the Mississippi in the ward called, “Algiers.” The tenants rebuilt their own homes with their own sweat and their own scraps of cash based on a promise of the landlords to sell Common Ground the property in return for restoring it.

Why, I asked Malik, was there this strange lock-out from public housing?

Malik shook his dreds. “They didn’t want to open it up. They wanted them closed. They wanted them poor niggers out of there.”

For Malik, the emphasis is on “poor.” The racial politics of the Deep South is as ugly as it is in Philadelphia, Pa. But the New Orleans city establishment has no problem with Black folk per se. After all, Mayor Ray Nagin’s parents are African-American.

It’s the Black survivors without the cash that are a problem. So where New Orleans once stood, Mayor Nagin, in connivance with a Bush regime more than happy to keep a quarter million poor folk (i.e. Democrats) out of this swing state, is creating a new city: a tourist town with a French Quarter, loose-spending drunks, hot-sheets hotels and a few Black people to perform the modern version of minstrel shows.

Malik explained, “It’s two cities. You know? There’s the city for the white and the rich. And there’s another city for the poor and Blacks. You know, the city that’s for the white and rich has recovered. They had a Jazz Fest. They had a Mardi Gras. They’re going to have the Saints playing for those who have recovered. But for those who haven’t recovered, there’s nothing.”


Continued @ http://www.gregpalast.com/%e2%80%9cthey-wanted-them-poor-niggers-out-of-there%e2%80%9d/#more-1843


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This report is based on Greg Palast’s film, Big Easy to Big Empty: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans. You may purchase a copy of the DVD (click here), watch an excerpt, catch the hour-long broadcast on Link TV tonight, or read the new chapter on New Orleans in Palast’s New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild.

Sign up for Palast’s investigative reports at www.GregPalast.com


***************************************

GregPalastOffice @ YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/GregPalastOffice

[mike_c]

1. K&R-- this is the crux of it, I think...

...but nature will have the last word in any event. New Orleans is unlikely to become an upscale enclave for the investment crowd any time soon-- not if sea levels rise as the ice caps melt.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

9. Agree with you

My relatives are getting out of New Orleans before their property values plunge after the next big hurricane, and they can't afford to leave. :(

[greyghost]

20. EXACTLY...

White or black, rich or poor, the levies are not going to stop the inevitable.

[LiberalAndProud]

2. Recommend ... with a kick

:kick:

[BrklynLib at work]

3. The disney-ification of New Orleans was part of the plan even BEFORE Katrina hit.

That is why they never really maintained the dikes, and did not hurry to rebuild the areas like the lower ninth ward. This was real estate they could buy for pennies on the dollar, build Mcmansions, and totally gentrify-read Rupulicanize- the city.
I have no doubts it was a plan that was a long time in the development. Katrina was just the final step that allowed it to come to fruition.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

8. I don't think

anyone is going to be building McMansions in the lower ninth ward. It floods! It's one thing to rebuild the house you own that you can't sell, it's quite another to invest McMansion money there.

New Orleans is a sad, sad tragedy. You had inept national officials who didn't care, and inept local officials who cared, but couldn't find their way out of a paper bag.

[FormerDittoHead]

14. I think you'd be surprised what billions of gov't money and the Army Corp of Engineers can do...

...ONCE they're ordered to actually do it.

Imagine - we're looking at another $50 billion going into Iraq - THAT'S JUST THE OVERAGE - and that's toward an UNPOPULAR cause!

HOW MUCH WOULD IT TAKE TO DO THE JOB - $10 BILLION? $20? Plus tax breaks for the investors?

ONCE the corporations give the "go-ahead", the "final outrage" will be met by the MSM and the money and effort will begin in earnest, and you'll be seeing "Trump's McCajun Towers and Casino" built in no time at all...

[BrklynLiberal]

34. Yep. I am sure that is EXACTLy how it was seen.

I remember reading articles that described it exactly as you have.

[Usrename]

4. After all, Mayor Ray Nagin’s parents are African-American.

That's hilarious, in a sick sort of way.

[ourbluenation]

5. this makes me so enraged. totally outrageous and cruel. jesus.

how do they sleep at night.

[Baby Snooks]

18. They sleep quite well...

There is nothing worse than those who do their own in. And the reality is that in the South, quite a few African-Americans do just that. For a buck. And they sleep quite well. They buy a nice soft pillow and dream they are no longer African-American.

Part of a plan? Absolutely. The Republicans want Louisiana. Take one look at Vitter and that sums it up even better than New Orleans. But the Republicans are getting some help from their friends. Some of their friends are Democrats. In Name Only.

[NOLALady]

29. "the reality is that in the South, quite a few African-Americans do just that"

This is NOT limited to the South nor is it a Black phenomenon. Quite a few non Blacks do Blacks in as well. They same non Blacks who will do in their own.

[Baby Snooks]

38. It does seem to be a "Southern" problem...

Perhaps I should have said African-American politicians rather than just African-Americans. The same situation existed in Houston about ten years ago when developers decided an area adjacent to downtown known as Freedmen's Town was better suited for upscale housing than restoration as a historic area originally settled by freed slaves.

There were quite a few African-American politicians who simply turned their heads to their own in Freedmen's Town.

http://houstonprogressive.org/reporter.html

There is some affordable housing now in Freedmen's Town as a result of intervention by the Texas Attorney General's Office but most of the historical buildings and homes have been deliberately demolished by the developers. While the politicians, all of them, turned their heads. Sad in itself. But even sadder given the number of African-American politicians who did so. Democrats I might add.

I do agree we have a propensity as groups to do our own in. Usually at the prodding of someone in our midst who promotes division. Which of course is what has happened to this country. The house is divided. Some believe it most likely will fall.

The real tragedy of New Orleans is not that it was the proverbial accident waiting to happen. The real tragedy is that some made sure it was the proverbial accident waiting to happen.

[underpants]

6. Haven't there always been bars on the windows?

Just asking

Don't most townhouses/row houses (like the one I lived in in Baltimore) often put bars on the street level windows?

On another topic this oddly sounds like Paris-from what I read during the riots there a few years ago. There the Parissienes have stayed in the city and basically housed "the help" outside the city. Exactly opposite of the white flight of the 60's here. Just an observation.

[NOLALady]

11. I don't believe he's referring to burglar bars.

The last time I passed by the Lafitte, ALL of the windows were boarded up, top and bottom floors. But, it wasn't burglar bars, it was 4x8 pieces of wood.
They have spent obscene amounts of money to keep these people out. The same amount of money could have repaired the buildings.

[xxqqqzme]

40. Spike Lee included this boarded up

section in his HBO film, Requiem, along w/ a woman who lived there - who, I might add, was not allowed back in her residence - no reason given. She couldn't even retrieve her belongings...she was describing her garden outside ger back door. You could easily see the remnants of her garden. She took a great deal of pride in what she had accomplished and was clearly bewildered why she was being treated this way. She made it very clear that there was no water/flooding anywhere near the complex.

The camera panned her townhouse (Lee didn't explain how they got in) and it was obvious there had been no flooding - no high water stained walls, no mold, no mildew, no furniture overturned. The woman used the opportunity to retrieve some photo albums & pictures before they left.

It was so sad.

[reggie the dog]

37. Paris

I lived in the 19th arrondissement of Paris for a year. métro Riquet, there are plenty of non white folks in Paris, especially on the poorer east side. The west side is wealthier and, with economic racism determining who is rich and poor, more white. Do not forget that France has less of a percentage of people that are not white than the USA does, so it is normal to see less non white people in Paris than in Chicago.

[sandnsea]

7. Some DUers called this immediately

It was rather obvious what was going on. It was surprising that even Katrina survivors denied this was happening. Couldn't see anybody making money THEN, so they didn't think about what the situation would look like a few years down the road. Same as with the corporate corruption, all some people saw was corporations helping when the government wouldn't. They didn't see the benefit of the short term cost of "goodwill", against the long term government contract cash cow.

[sarcasmo]

10. This will NOT be the last you hear of Blackwater.

When our Dictator will use Blackwater when he declares Martial Law.

[reggie the dog]

39. hypothetical question

If someone shot and killed a blackwater soldier trying to enter their own house could they be charged with anything? Are these folks deputized? Do they answer to any public officials?

Also can poor people get together and hire their own mercenaries?? Or perhaps ask for help from the Latin Kings, the Gangster Disciples, the Cobras, and Crips?

[mentalsolstice]

12. Ethnic cleansing in the USA! Who would've thunk?

"They" have robbed NOLA of it's true beauty!

[muntrv]

13. So Blackwater is today's SS.

[greyghost]

21. EXACTLY...

Seig heil!

The "boys" are having a field day aren't they?

Five hundred days and counting.

[Divine Discontent]

22. I certainly hope a Democratic president gets in with a

large majority in the house and a 6 or 8 seat margin in the senate - then we can FLUSH all the b*sh shit out of the house...

[greyghost]

25. AMEN

[DemBones DemBones]

15. It's been so obvious for so long but

I'm interested in reading the rest of Palast's article, seeing what he turned up.

Katrina and its aftermath broke my heart. New Orleans was a great city. I don't think you can do ethnic cleansing like that and keep a city the same.

I suppose people who've never been there before won't know the difference.

[VLC]

16. I visited Common Ground briefly

About a month after the hurricane. I had gone to help out and took two friends who were going to volunteer there. Before the government had even really reacted, Common Ground had set up a free pharmacy for people. They had lots of food that was just stacked up around the place for whoever needed it to come get. They had computers for people to use the Internet. And they are still at it.

[Anita Garcia]

17. Thank you!

I can imagine that what you did was tough.
Thank you for helping out.

New Orleans and the surrounding parishes and the Gulf/Mississippi will survive.
The real question is how.

When Americans begin to take ownership of the failure of our government to provide water, things will change.
Until then, we will survive.
When it happens, we will thrive.

[L. Coyote]

19. Changing the political landscape? Get rid of the DEMS! ??

[colorado_ufo]

23. There is a message and a danger in this for ALL of us, everywhere.

The use of services such as Blackwater MUST be addressed by Congress and the next administration; I wouldn't even suggest that the current administration address it.

[NavyDavy]

26. i think blackwater is one of those top secret armys, i heard about

when i was working intel in the Navy, the CIA sponsered them in case of "citizen unrest" IMHO

[annabanana]

24. Stringent controls MUST be placed on Blackwater & its clones..

This outsourcing of security is a HUGE danger to the Country.

[EV_Ares]

27. This article makes the rounds, this is the 3d or 4th time it has been

posted.

[rosesaylavee]

28. I remember hearing about the

blackwater types in NO immediately after the flood and posted something here about it - it was deleted for a 'conspiracy theory' thread. <sigh> Wish the mods had been right.

New Orleans was such a gorgeous beautiful unworldly place. I will never get over this willful destruction of a town and her people. I will not forget.

[zulchzulu]

31. It was me

I have a friend who was there and lived through a harrowing experience in one of the major flood substations for 11 days without any contact except for some National Guard and some guys he couldn't figure out were military or not. They were bragging about how many people they had shot.

The National Guard were fine to him, albeit being a bit jarred from recently having been in Iraq.

The other guys almost shot him accidentally when he came back to visit his apartment to see what happened and they had holed up in his place and basically made themselves at home. He found his cat and took it back to the substation.

Last July, I was in New Orleans to check things out and interviewed him on video. He showed me a lot of things that would make the movie Das Boot look like Mr. Rogers.

Once a pretty happy guy, my friend acts like he's been through a war now.

[rosesaylavee]

33. Damn.

Not sure what we can do about it - I hate that feeling.

[The Count]

30. One big real estate boom - some GOP politician even said it at the time

[redqueen]

32. Shameful

But not surprising at all

[Desertrose]

35. So it starts with New Orleans...where is the next place?

This is so sad. ...but yet it 's just one more thing passing under the radar of the American consciousness.....I don't understand how so many can forget or ignore their brothers & sisters.

I hate this "I got mine to bad for you" attitude. I just HATE it.

DR

[kimmylavin]

36. No kidding.

Its been obvious from Bush's very first day of non-response that this was what they had planned.

And to the person who said they won't be building McMansions below the water level, I'm sorry, but I don't think that's the case. They just have to wait out the black folks - keep breaking their spirits and violating their rights - then buy their land for pennies on the dollar. Then - oh my, will the rebuilding begin. Those levees will be the strongest, most solidly constructed structures in the country!

I was down there in June. Drove around still devastated neighborhoods. And you can always tell the lots where someone had already given up, as they had bright, shiny new buildings with "Now Leasing" signs on them. The houses on either side might be boarded up or even collapsed, but just give 'em time, give 'em time...

[faithnotgreed]

41. definitely kicking - lets hope some truth can make it out alive