Week 12

This week, I read Fayola Jacob’s article, Black feminism and radical planning: New directions for disaster planning research. From the very beginning, this article reiterates that the conversation regarding the disproportionate effect of disasters on poverty stricken communities of color had begun far before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina; yet in the aftermath of the hurricane, “newer, and arguably louder voices” joined in on the conversation. (Jacobs, 1)  Mainly, Jacob’s article aimed to discuss the ways in which social vulnerability is tethered to disaster research. Here, social vulnerability is defined as “ the characteristics of a person group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of a natural hazard.” (Jacobs, 2)

In this course, we have read a plethora of articles that have discussed the relationship between social vulnerability and disaster, yet Jacobs article expands on this discussion by describing the benefits of implementing Black feminism into radical planning theory; which overall has the ability to further US disaster planning . (Jacobs, 3)

 As described in the article, the implementation of Black feminism into radical planning theory enables the impacts of disasters to be perceived through an intersectional lens. As a Gender and Sexuality Studies major and Communications major, I have learned about  and discussed the dire need for the use of an intersectional lens when analyzing institutionalized injustices, social problems, and now - natural disasters. The use of an intersectional lens enables facts of an individual’s identity, such as, race, class, and gender to be carefully considered in any event; despite the fact that everyone from politicians to (white) feminist movement organizations prefer to problem solve through the isolation of these aspects of identity, instead of holistically examining the ways in which multiple sources of oppression can impact individuals.

In hindsight, the incorporation of Black feminism into the discussion of aid, recovery, and rehabilitation efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina could have exponentially benefitted an innumerable amount of New Orleanians. It is saddening to think about how things could be different today if Black feminist ideologies were incorporated earlier, but the demand for change now has the opportunity to aid, and even save, disaster stricken communities  in the future.