In class recently we have been reading and discussing the non-fiction book Zeitoun written by Dave Eggers. This is a story about a Syrian-American (named Zeitoun) and his families experience pre and post Hurricane Katrina. It describes the extremely corrupt efforts of FEMA during and after the hurricane. Eggers narrates Zeitoun’s story as Zeitoun becomes detained in a horrible prison without any official charges against him, right in the middle of this natural disaster.
I am not going to focus so much on the book as I am on something that came up in our discussion. We learned about a tourism activity called the “Hurricane Katrina Tour.” This idea struck me as deeply offensive and I couldn’t understand how this was not extremely insulting to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina who are still faced with the reality of the devastation of their city every day of their lives. I could only imagine that this tourism company made a great amount of money, and after doing some research of my own I discovered that yes, in fact the company “Grey Line” profits greatly from leading tours through the remaining disaster ridden neighborhoods that Hurricane Katrina destroyed. The same neighborhoods that people who have lost their homes and their families are still trying to rebuild.
As I navigated through the “Grey Line” website it still shocked me that these people supporting this company don’t regard how inconsiderate this tourist activity may be perceived by local citizens of New Orleans, even though that is not the intent of the tourists. I personally believe it is quite demeaning to drive through slums with extremely impoverished families still living there and gawk at them through protected windows in utter shock of the conditions that they are living in. One article written by journalist Stacey Plaisance from the Huffington Post titled New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward Residents Take On Hurricane Katrina Tour Operators supports this argument further. This article describes the resistance many local residences in New Orleans have towards these tourist companies invading the neighborhoods on the Lower 9th Ward. This is not to say that all residents feel this way, but I would argue that regardless it’s a sign of respect to acknowledge these people who have endured such immense struggle as human beings. This could be done by actually interacting with them in person if you are curious about learning about Hurricane Katrina, rather than forcing an invisible boundary that separates “us” from “them.”