5 years after Katrina, does Obama care about black people?

5 years after Katrina, does Obama care about black people?

It is hard to believe that five years have passed since Hurricane Katrina swept over the Gulf Coast, devastating the region, killing over 1,800, displacing thousands and leaving $80 billion in property damage. But five years it has been nonetheless. And of course, we all remember the breaking of the levees in New Orleans, which led to the flooding of that great city and the deaths of hundreds, many of whom were poor and people of color with nowhere to hide. Those levees--seemingly constructed of little more than lego, silly puddy and tape, not exactly a marvel of American engineering--stood and fell as a symbol of years of government neglect. The Bush administration's lack of a response to the plight of the mostly chocolate city of New Orleans following Katrina of was a potent example of America's callousness towards poverty and black and brown people. Speaking of then-President Bush's bungling of the Katrina aftermath, "Kanye West":http://www.thegrio.com/specials/katrina---five-years-later/5-years-later-does-george-bush-care-about-black-people.php said that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." Well, now we have an African-American president named Barack Obama. And while much has changed in the Gulf Coast region since 2005, many things have remained the same as far as black people are concerned. And while the president has taken steps to improve the quality of life in the region, he has been criticized for not doing enough to help African-Americans who are being left out of the recovery efforts. Plus, the recent BP oil disaster in the Gulf Coast hasn't exactly helped things. Now is a good time to ask the question, does President Obama really care about black people? Despite a $10.5 billion relief aid package under the previous president, the Bush legacy in the Gulf is one of incompetence, with some racism and classism mixed in. Public perceptions combined with a healthy dose of reality made it appear that the fix was in for the disproportionately black victims of the region. It speaks to a conservative hatred of government and claims that government does not work. So, when politicians who subscribe to that ideology get into office, they find the worst people to run the agencies they don't like, in order to blow it all up and create a self-fulfilling prophecy. WATCH NBC NIGHTLY NEWS OF KATRINA -- FIVE YEARS LATER:

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There was the "heckuva job" performed by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael "Brownie" Brown, a former horse show judge. "Barbara Bush":http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/07/national/nationalspecial/07barbara.html?_r=1, President Bush's mother, declared her son's response to Katrina a success, concluding that the poor people relocated to Houston were better off than before: "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas," Barbara Bush said in a radio interview. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." And there were the infamous 120,000 or so FEMA trailers, $2.7 billion in temporary housing laden with "formaldehyde":http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/24/AR2008052401973.html, resulting in disastrous health consequences for thousands of people, ranging from respiratory problems to cancer and death. Nevertheless, President Obama inherited these problems, and now he owns them. And the problems are many. For example, "wealthy whites":http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress2/report-claims-wealthy-whites-received-katrina-loans-before-others/ with more well-to-do businesses received Katrina loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) before poor and black neighborhoods. Plagued with mismanagement, the SBA -- the federal agency whose mission is to "aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns." -- turned away 55 percent of hurricane victims who applied. Moreover, of those who were approved for loans, only 60 percent actually received the money. The highest SBA acceptance rate in New Orleans was in the wealthy Lakeview section, while the lowest were in poor black areas such as the Lower Ninth Ward. SBA even approved 66 percent of loan applications in white part of suburban St. Bernard Parish, but approved only 42 percent in an adjacent black area with similar median household income. "Five years later":http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/25/five-years-later-new-orle_n_692686.html, there are signs of recovery in New Orleans, but not everyone is sharing in it. Homelessness has "doubled":http://unitygno.org/2010/08/wwltv-4-n-o-homeless-study-showes-problem-doubled-since-katrina/ to about 12,000. As many as 6,000 people are living 55,000 abandoned buildings across the city, with 75 percent of them suffering from mental illness, physical disabilities and other serious conditions. And while business is good in the French Quarter, Katrina is still being felt in the black Lower Ninth ward. This city of half a million people is about "one-third smaller":http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/New-Orleans-Still-Recovering-From-Hurricane-Five-Years-Later-101433659.html than it was. About 1 in 10 residents did not live in New Orleans before Katrina. A whole host of people ranging from businesspeople to volunteers--"substantially younger, more educated, [and] more likely to be white" than the local folks-- have descended on the city to partake in the rebuilding. In 2009, New Orleans' GDP was $9 billion higher than in 2005, and tourism brought $4.2 billion to New Orleans. Although 7.5 million visitors came to the city last year, up from 3.7 million in 2006, the 70,000 tourism jobs are 15,000 fewer than pre-Katrina levels. Only a third of the city's residents say their lives are back to normal, and 70 percent say that America has forgotten all about them.