ESPM 50AC MIDTERM REVIEW
ESPM 50AC MIDTERM REVIEW
Unit 1: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans
Reading Source 1: Kelman Ari - Shadows of Despair
Introduction to Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, submerged neighborhoods, and resulted in hundreds of lost lives.
The city's attempts to create levees and drainage systems left it both physically and conceptually trapped due to the struggle against nature.
Geographer Peirce Lewis characterized New Orleans as both impossible and inevitable:
The city sought improvement based on its natural water system, yet these efforts consistently failed.
Site & Situation
Site: New Orleans
Much of New Orleans is below sea level and built on swampy, unstable ground with a high water table, lacking natural drainage.
Geographical context:
Surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River.
Vulnerable to disease and flooding events.
Situation:
It appeared advantageous due to proximity to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River, serving as a strategic gateway for trade.
Conversely, natural phenomena heavily impacted its feasibility; constant levee reconstruction was necessary.
Levees Only Approach
Defined as reliance on building and strengthening levees to contain rivers and prevent flooding, particularly from the Mississippi.
A future head of the Army Corps of Engineers rejected the idea of wetlands, labeling them as "wastelands," advocating for a levees-only strategy.
This decision was rooted in the preference for simplicity and affordability concurrent with a belief in human mastery over nature.
Consequences of Levees Only Approach
As of the 1900s, New Orleans was at a higher elevation than many houses, obscuring the rivers:
This elevation led to worsening conditions where the levees eventually failed in 1927.
Disruption and loss of wetlands resulted, harming their capacity to absorb excess water.
Kelman argues that the entrenched belief in controlling nature has led to a stark separation of people from their environment.
Post-Katrina Impacts and Neighborhood Transformations
Neighborhoods such as Lakefront, Gentilly, and the Lower Ninth Ward were constructed on vulnerable land prone to flooding.
Wetlands were drained and swamps reclaimed for development, complicating flood drainage efforts.
Demographic and social transformations:
Prior to the 1950s identity was relatively integrated; residents lived near elevated areas without significant class or racial stratification.
Following land reclamation, developers built low-cost housing on less stable land, exacerbating flood risks.
Wealthier white individuals migrated to elevated suburbs, leaving poorer Black populations in at-risk neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward.
Worsening Levees-Only System
As wetlands vanished, flood defenses became increasingly fragile.
The city’s elevation decreased due to soil compaction, while the drainage of water became even more laborious.
Storms such as Katrina disproportionately impacted the lowest economically vulnerable areas:
The initial flooding affected poorer, predominantly Black neighborhoods, illustrating a systemic divide in socio-economic conditions, geographic conditions, and experiences of disaster.
The Tragedy of Hurricane Katrina
The flooding highlighted severe stratification:
The utmost casualties occurred in the Lower Ninth Ward, a majority Black region.
Kelman emphasized that the social segregation underwent spatial expression through environmental, economic, and racial divides.
Causes of Katrina
Predominantly, the Levees Only Approach contributed to the disaster by severing the natural interplay between the river and the wetland ecosystem.
The city’s extended expansion into drained swamplands, particularly after 1900, created neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward on unstable grounds.
Government inaction:
Authorities concentrated on superficial rebuilding efforts rather than tackling foundational issues.
Racial segregation placed economically and racially disadvantaged Black populations in the most vulnerable flood zones, with wealthier whites residing on higher ground.
Environmental Impacts of Hurricane Katrina
The coastal wetlands of Louisiana, which previously acted as natural buffers against storm surges, were vanishing due to prolonged levee construction, draining, and oil industry activities.
Katrina's impact exacerbated wetland erosion, harming plant life and depositing salinated, contaminated debris throughout the area's ecosystem.
The widespread flooding caused significant ecological disruption, ultimately destroying habitats and causing detrimental effects on biological communities.
Demographic Data Post-Katrina
Campanella used census data and flood maps to analyze demographic impacts of flooding:
Of the metro population from Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes, about 40% lived in inundated areas.
Flood zone demographics:
Blacks: 174,513 (65% of flood victims)
Whites: 121,262 (31%)
Asians and Hispanics: 2–3%
Nearly two-thirds of Black homes flooded compared to one-fourth of white homes impacted.
City of New Orleans Data
About 61% of New Orleans’ residents lived in flooded areas post-Katrina:
Blacks: 68% of the Black population experienced flooding.
Whites: 43% of white homes flooded.
Hispanics: 53%, Asians: 72%.
About 76% of flood victims were Black, with 67% being the total Black population; the eventual death toll mirrored pre-storm demographics.
Recovery Disparities
Recovery efforts were highly unequal:
Wealthier white areas regained stability due to access to insurance, private capital, and political leverage.
Meanwhile, predominantly Black and low-income neighborhoods like the Lower Ninth Ward faced prolonged devastation, with many homes remaining uninhabitable.
Infrastructure and Rebuilding Efforts
After Hurricane Katrina, substantial federal and private resources were allocated to rebuild infrastructure such as levees, schools, roads, and houses.
Notably, public infrastructure improvement focused on broader systems rather than specific neighborhood needs such as drainage and public housing repair.
The reconstruction efforts tended to prioritize tourist and commercial hotspots (e.g., the French Quarter, downtown) over Black, low-income areas like the Lower Ninth Ward.
Market-Based vs Community Approaches
Market Approach:
Officials advocated a market-driven strategy, asserting that private investments would revitalize the city.
This method often resulted in the privatization of public housing and an increase in property values, which priced out working-class Black residents.
Community Approach:
Grassroots movements called for community-led rebuilding initiatives, where displaced individuals could influence their neighborhoods' restoration processes.
Unit 2: Environmental History
Reading 2: Donald Worster - Environmental History
Definition: Environmental history studies the past focusing on the interactions between humans and the natural world over three levels:
Nature Itself - The ecological foundation that needs to be understood.
Socioeconomic Systems - How humans exploit nature for survival and wealth through capitalism, agriculture, and industry.
Cultural or Ideological Level - How shared cultural perspectives influence human thought about nature.
Perspectives on Nature
Instrumentalist Perspective:
Looks at nature practically and economically, perceiving it as a tool for humans' material needs.
Example: Building dams for flood control and power generation sees rivers merely as instruments of human progress.
Intersubjective Perspective:
Focuses on collective cultural beliefs around nature, observing how shared representations influence societal behavior.
Example: The American ideology around wilderness reflects a dual perspective of danger and spiritual value.
Intra-subjective Perspective:
Investigates individual internal experiences within nature, emphasizing personal feelings and perceptions of the environment. It addresses how an individual’s consciousness interacts with nature.
Example: Henry David Thoreau's reflections on solitude in natural spaces depict nature as a reflection of self.
Reading 3: Campanella - Ethnic Geography of New Orleans
Historical Overview
During the Colonial Period, New Orleans began as a small isolated port, but expansion through agriculture and the Louisiana Purchase resulted in ethnic diversification.
Diverse groups:
French-speaking Catholics (Creoles), mixed-race populations, and enslaved Africans coexisted in close quarters with their enslavers, resulting in social stratification.
Uptown vs Downtown Divide:
Uptown being mostly Anglo-American settlers versus Downtown being primarily Creole.
Film Highlights
Key Themes:
Pre-Civil War Free Black Community:
Tremé’s status as a center for free people of color, in an otherwise enslaved dynamic.
Cultural Innovations:
Emphasis on Tremé’s significant impact on jazz and other cultural expressions.
Civil Rights Roots:
Tremé’s historical context for early civil rights activism feeds into contemporary struggles against inequality.
Post-Katrina Resilience:
The narrative shows Tremé amidst re-building, still highlighting equity disparities.
Identity and Social Incorporation
Reading 4: Omi and Winant (1994) - Racial Formation:
Race is a dynamic identifier constantly made and remade through several processes:
Social Structures, Cultural Meanings, Political Struggles:
Racial formation underscores how society constructs race and organizes identities and inequalities.
Racial Projects
Link representation and structures of race, such as:
“Color-blind” ideology: Pursuing a false narrative ignoring race while upholding inequalities.
Affirmative Action: Recognizes racial disparities, working to mitigate them.
Civil Rights Movement: A collective effort to counteract hegemonic narratives of race.
Concepts of Hegemony
Definition:
Hegemony signifies dominance achieved through consent rather than force — a critical lens on how worldviews become normalized within society.
Hegemonic vs. Counter-Hegemonic Projects:
Hegemonic: Law systems like Jim Crow solidified racial supremacy.
Counter-Hegemonic: The Civil Rights and Black Power movements fought against systemic normalcy, advocating for justice.
Media Framing during Katrina
Media coverage of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated racial biases in its portrayal of actions:
Black individuals labeled as “looters” while white individuals were characterized as “finding food.”
This disparity in framing affected public perception of blame and victimhood during the catastrophe.
Types of Racism
Ideological Racism:
Involves stereotypes and misconceptions that shape societal views on race.
This created justifications for delayed government responses during the disaster.
Structural Racism:
Emphasizes racial inequalities embedded in historical social structures:
Segregation practices placed Black communities in under-resourced locations.
Economic biases resulted in greater vulnerability during disasters.
Property Theories
Locke's Theory of Private Property:
Individuals possess inherent rights to their labor and what they produce with it.
First Rights: Individuals have a right to property as long as it does not infringe upon others’ rights.
Accumulation: Introduction of money permits extensive accumulation of wealth beyond immediate needs through societal consent.
Property as a Bundle of Rights
Breakdown of different property rights includes:
Use Rights, Control Rights, Transfer Rights, Income Rights:
These distinctions reflect disparities in societal power dynamics regarding property ownership, often privileging certain classes.
Federal Indian Policy Framework
Definition: Defines the U.S. government's evolving relationship with Indigenous nations based on sovereignty and legal standing.
Six Stages of Federal Indian Policy
Treaty-Making & Sovereignty:
1776-1820s, aimed at recognizing tribes as equal sovereign nations.
Removal:
1830s-1850s, sought relocation of tribes to make land available for settlers, leading to forced migrations such as the Trail of Tears.
Reservation & Assimilation:
1850s-1880s, aimed at confining tribes to reservations and enforcing cultural assimilation.
Allotment & Privatization:
1887-1934, aimed to individualize land ownership through the Dawes Act, which resulted in massive land loss.
Reorganization:
1934-1950s, the Indian Reorganization Act promoted tribal self-governance.
Termination & Relocation:
1950s-1970s, attempted to dissolve tribal entities, leading to severe socioeconomic impacts on Native peoples.
Self-Determination:
1970s-present, aims to restore tribal governance and self-sufficiency.