Katrina - Five Days of Abandonment
By: Lisa Torrence
It had been five days since Katrina violently stormed upon us. It had been five days before help. It had been five days without food and water. It had been five days in which the seeds of fury rooted within us. It had been five days too long we have
suffered.
But today I rose, for today I saw. In September, of the year 2005, racism and economic class disparity of our wonderful democracy is alive and well in the States of America, for I now spurn the word; United. Gaily, you boast the splendors of democracy and will it throughout the world, and yet you forget your own people; people of African Descent – Black People. So many of us proudly volunteered our lives to become
American soldiers, many of us died for this country and will continue to do so, so that others may live in a land of equality; similar to our own. And now, you simply refer
to us as “Refugees”. How foolish of us to have believed that we were truly American Citizens only to discover that we are the Illegitimate of an American Monocracy guised under a veil of democracy.
Have we not suffered enough for this country? Have we not labored and toiled long enough to build the infrastructure of this enviable society? Have we not built your family’s homes for nothing more than a meal and a cot? Have we not toiled in the hot fields with sore pricked fingers so that you may not only profit and eat plentifully, but obtain the best educations at the finest scholarly institutions? Have we not wiped your
snotty little noses and dirty behinds when your own mother’s refused, and yet could not do the same for our own birthed African-American-Children.
And today, what have we reaped from our ancestor’s sacrifice….. Our families ripped apart, facilitation of drugs and guns inundated into our economically and racially divided neighborhoods, violence among our people categorized as ‘black-on-black’ crime, a lack of unfeigned rehabilitation in our heavy-minority-populated prison systems, a shortness of hope, a lack of peace, and no real sense of equality. It had been five
days, America….. And each passing day marked another century of injustice for our people since we first brutally arrived here from the shores of Africa, at your will.
You, America, condemn my people in the media and portray us as wild, primitive, animals. All of your sophisticated research and most educated professionals from our unwilling and unbeknownst servitude as guinea pigs throughout history can tell you what will happen when you treat people inhumanely. And yet, you wonder why we are so angry… why we are so violent…
Trapped in a flooded city, we wallowed amongst the dead, questioning our own existence while others were herded into the Astrodome like cattle… herded as we were onto the “Amistad”. Our hearts continue to bleed for our honored-grandfathers, our
strong-loving-grandmothers, our missing-absentee-fathers, our poor-single-mothers, our rebellious-brothers, our defiant-sisters, our helpless-little-girls, our innocent-baby-boys,
and yes, even for ourselves….. left alone….. with no shelter, hungry, thirsty and poor….. left to die.
Let us not forget, we have carried America on our backs with sweat and tears for over four hundred years….. years of lynching, years of segregation, years of glass ceilings, years with no voice. How do you expect us to help ourselves when we have been burdened down so long and continue to be? How do you expect us to get up from under when you are not willing to fairly shoulder the weight of your Anglo-Saxon-Ancestor’s dirty deeds from off our shoulders? How do you expect us to trust and
peacefully cohabitate in a nation that has delivered nothing but false promises to us?
It is so easy for America to forget. Forget our fair share of forty acres and a mule. Forget all the crippling years that we were denied opportunities by now threatening to end ‘Affirmative Action’. Forget all the sacrifices we made to take care of
your families at the expense of our own by cutting our social programs for our elderly and our children. Forget the tragic history and deep rooted painful sentiments of our people by telling us to “Get Over It!”
“We will not ‘Get Over It’!” For once again, you have devastated your African American Citizens, Citizens of the World, Children of your God. The same God that has restored our sight, and enlightened the world with your hypocrisy.
Oh, America, we will never forget how you have treated us, for our ancestors spirits will never rest lest we forget. The blood of Africa shall remain forever stained upon the racist hand of this country….. on all five fingers….. from five damn
centuries….. embodied in five days of abandonment.