I just don't understand these sorts of laments. Here's Art Levine, weeping copiously over the changing face of New Orleans:
Following last Tuesday night's contentious debate between incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin and white challenger Mitch Landrieu, today's yesterday's Washington Post has had a disturbing story about the changing face of New Orleans: whiter, richer and with far fewer blacks. African-Americans' neighborhoods are still devastated and too often they can't afford to return. It's not only a personal tragedy for those who lost their loved ones and for those who now can't return home, but a cultural and economic tragedy for our nation as well.
Yes, what a tragedy, there'll be less foot-tapping black music for us white people to listen to! Let's be real clear here: New Orleans is a death trap. With the acceleration of global warming, hurricanes are intensifying. Katrina, remember, was only a category three when it hit the city, and even then it only delivered a glancing blow. Its successors won't be so kind. So maybe it's a good thing that the new New Orleans will be more affluent, more mobile, and less populated, because all those attributes will make Mother Nature's next assault less devastating.
Meanwhile, the black population hasn't disappeared, they're just not in a single convenient place that white people can visit. On the upside, their new homes are, more than likely, above sea level. That outsiders will lose a jazz hotbed and treasured drinking destination is a shame, but I'd much prefer a bit of shame to another tragedy.
