(Re)Imagining Ethnicity in the City of New Orleans: Katrina’s Geographical Allegory

Abstract

When Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the diaspora that it produced hollowed the city of New Orleans. In a recent issue of the New York Times, satellite photos revealed that the devastation is no longer evidenced by post-apocalyptic debris, but by the rows of now empty communities that have left much of the urban landscape bereft of vibrant human activity. As these ancient neighborhoods dig themselves out of the mud and silt, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of persons has created a new challenge for this iconographic city. This challenge stems from the endeavor to recapture an essence that many feared had been washed into the Gulf of Mexico. As the shrimp boats that now serve as debris gatherers extract Mardi Gras beads from the ocean, the cultural gulf that has been etched into the urban landscape raises questions about the future of this community in an age where the American city has itself become a mere echo of civic society and celebration. Reflecting upon the racial implications of this event, it is clear that the storm ignited a combustible mixture of social and economic issues surrounding race, class, and space. The following discussion explores the nexus between social geography and the political allegories used to define those that inhabit urban spaces. The city of New Orleans must now grapple with both its representation at a national level and the realities of alienation so vividly amplified by this catastrophe—a process that means examining the role that its own history has played in creating certain geographical containment fields that isolate those populations most deserving of assistance.