This weeks readings for me included Queering Katrina, State corporate crime, incomplete solution, and Refining memory. In Refining memory, Jessica Rapson explores the way plantation heritage sites on Louisiana's River Road "refine" the cultural memories of chattel slavery of Africans, through the industrial processing of commodities of oil and sugar. Author of An Incomplete Solution: Oil and Water in Louisiana, Craig Colen argues that the gradual buildup of the chemical corridor led to the creation of a sacrifice zone and the industry neglect to live up to safety and pollution-control regulations ultimately led to the "all to frequent headline grabbing events that drove public opinion and policy toward tighter regulation" (Colen 2012, 92). The article also discusses the placement of oil refining plants adjacent to rural communities often majority populated by African Americans. In the article about state corporate crime and coastal land loss the authors discuss the ignoring of corporate state crime resulting in coastal land loss and the neglect of state officials and social actors to raise awareness and hold those accountable for the land loss in Southern Louisiana. In the article on Queering Katrina, the author focuses on the impacts Hurricane Katrina had on the gay community and the backlash they faced from the Christian community saying that Katrina was divine retribution from God because of the active LGBTQ population in New Orleans.
This weeks readings did teach me some new vocabulary however we stayed on the topic of environmental degradation being done to the most vulnerable populations and the redefining of chattel slavery through plantation visiting sites that honor the plantation experience. My thoughts to that are to shoot up my middle finger if we are being honest. If anyone has ever seen Chelsea Handlers series on Netflix entitled, Chelsea Does, in an episode on race called "Chelsea Does Race" she goes to South Carolina, Alabama and I believe some other racist states to get peoples opinion. And what do you know, she encounters some racists. Not just the redneck ones either, the ones that thoroughly and truly believe that slavery was a choice and that people lived well and were "taken care of". That scene from her show is all that I could picture when watching that video in class about the plantations that people choose to honor and revere instead of understand the systemic and horrific impact the system of slavery had on the entire Black community. So I was pretty disgusted to say the least. But putting my disgust aside for a moment the other readings I felt were very spot on with our discussion of vulnerable populations, Cancer alley, and really put into perspective what the grass roots organizations in New Orleans are fighting for.
Key Words
Sacrifice zone: a term derived from the study of agricultural practices to describe where cultivators deliberately degraded one area to increase productivity in another area. Now the term is used by scholars to refer to areas degraded by modern industrial societies in the pursuit of economic and military gain.
refining: a term used to refer to the altering, or perspective changing of a total history
coastal land loss: Land loss derived from unnecessary human influence and economic activity such as sea level rise, levee construction, oil and gas extraction and other environmentally harmful activities.
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