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FEMA
Evicting 50,000 Families
from
Temporary Housing
Marc Morial Urges
Chertoff to Rescind Order
New York, N.Y. – In a letter sent today, Marc
H. Morial, President and CEO National Urban League, has urged
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
to immediately rescind the order to forcibly evict 50,000
families displaced by Hurricane Katrina who are currently housed
in hotels throughout the country.
“Forcing 50,000 families into the streets, in the dead of
winter, as the holiday season approaches not only lacks
compassion, it reflects an abject disregard for the significant
hardship borne by these families. Many of these families cannot
return to the Gulf Coast due to the devastation, lack of
coordination and slow pace of recovery. Yet they are also unable
to transition to other housing because social services are
stretched and housing markets are tight,” wrote Morial. “In
light of these circumstances, the United States government must
proceed in a manner that is compassionate and understanding of
the super catastrophic nature of Katrina and its impact on these
Americans."
According to numerous press accounts, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency will stop paying hotel bills for these
families as early as December 1, thereby leaving 150,000 people
with no place to go. FEMA plans to cut off financing for more
than 50,000 families in government paid hotel and motel rooms by
the end of the month. These families represent a total of
approximately 150,000 people.
“As the President and CEO of the National Urban League and
the former Mayor of the city of New Orleans, I believe that the
order to evict will further erode the already diminished public
confidence in our government and its ability to protect its
citizens. Please do not allow the Katrina victims to be left
behind once again," Morial continued. http://www.nul.org/
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No
Home for the Holidays: Stop Evictions of Katrina Evacuees
By Bill Quigley
Sabrina Robinson lived
her whole life in New Orleans. When Katrina and the floodwaters
hit her house, she and her three children swam to a dry bridge
where they lived for 2 days. "We watched people
die," said Ms. Robinson. Now her family and 52 other
families from New Orleans face eviction from the Houston
apartment complex where they lived for the last month. Tens of
thousands of other Katrina evacuees also face holiday evictions.
After a bus took the
Robinson family to Houston, they slept on the floor for a month.
On October 2, the family received federal housing vouchers from
the Disaster Relief Center in Houston. Quail Chase
apartments in Houston agreed to accept the vouchers. Ms.
Robinson and 52 other families from New Orleans moved in to
Quail Chase. After the families lived there for
several weeks, Quail Chase changed their mind and refused to
accept vouchers. Quail Chase has now given eviction
notices to all 53 families. Now they face the streets
again. "There is nothing else available," Ms.
Robinson said. "All the decent housing is
taken."
In the same spirit,
FEMA announced November 15 it would quit paying for
housing for most of the nearly 60,000 homeless Katrina
families who are residing in government paid hotel and motel
rooms.
In Texas, where 54,000
people are living in 18,000 rooms, Republican Governor Rick
Perry said these evictions will "fuel the cycle of evacuees
moving from one temporary housing situation to another " if
they can secure housing at all."
The story is being
repeated across the nation. In New York, 487 Katrina
victims, including 115 kids, have been told their hotel rooms
will no longer be paid. In the Carolinas, between 400 and 600
Katrina families in hotels face eviction even as local homeless
shelters are already full.
Back home in New
Orleans, legal aid lawyers estimate there will be 10,000
evictions filed in November against Katrina evacuees
" more in one month than are usually filed in an entire
year.
At this holiday time,
resolve to stand in solidarity with the hundreds of thousands of
people victimized by Katrina and the floods that followed.
Katrina evacuees in your community need your support. Stop
the evictions in your community.
Nationally, 54 members
of Congress, including all the members of the Congressional
Black Caucus, have co-sponsored HR 4197, the Hurricane Katrina
Recovery Act. Ask your representative to co-sponsor this bill
and to take action to force FEMA to assist those still left
behind.
There are also many
other great grassroots, regional and national efforts underway
to provide solidarity with Katrina evacuees. Many are
listed at www.justiceforneworleans.org
People displaced by
Katrina do not want charity. What is needed at this holiday time
is solidarity. Resolve to stand with the victims of
Katrina as they search for justice.
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Bill is a professor at
Loyola University New Orleans School of Law He can be reached at
Quigley@loyno.edu
posted 18 November 2005* * *
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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. The artist
also gives detailed reasoning behind his
choices. This underpinning information
makes this a full experience, eminently
teachable from several aspects,
including historical and literary—School
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