Remember how when Katrina hit, the government and media cared more about wealthy white folks than low-income people of color? Suprise, suprise it happened again.
When the fires in San Diego hit, all the news coverage was about weeping white folks losing their 5,000 square foot mansions that shouldn't have been built in ecologically sensitive areas in the first place. No one --- not government, not the media, not the politicians --- paid a bit of attention to the plight of poor folks, particularly immigrants in the San Diego region.
So as we all turned our heads, look what happened --- told by the San Diego immigrant rights leader, Norma Chavez in a post "Fires Should Melt Boundaries, Not Build Them":
In the aftermath of the fires, local police and other evacuation center volunteers demanded identification papers from the victims of the fire. One family of evacuees was detained accused of stealing donated goods, the local San Diego Police Department suspected they were undocumented and called the Border Patrol to take them away. Six family members, including a two-year-old U.S. born child were apprehended and deported on Wed October 24th — in the height of this national disaster. This blatant racial profiling stands in stark contrast to the efforts to protect the homes of wealthy white residents from even a scratch of fire. Clearly, property is more important than people --- especially some people...
As a nation, we ought to be ashamed that this story keeps repeating itself. Norma ends her piece with a powerful call to action --- and a different way forward:
This is the same pattern that played out during Hurricane Katrina --- those who oppose immigrants and low-income communities of color using disaster as an excuse to abuse our communities. It’s ironic. Nature is something we all share in common. When it rains, we all get wet. When there’s fire, we all feel the heat. And through global warming, we’re even more aware of these connections --- how our actions in one part of the globe can make such storms and fires even worse. These environmental disasters that affect all of us equally should help us see our deeper equality, our shared humanity and our shared values. These are moments to stand together in the face of crisis, not turn on each other and perpetuate the vicious division, hate and discrimination that makes us vulnerable to crises in the first place.
The one thing we can all do to make a difference is spread this story around --- so that everyone knows this version of events more than the mansions smoking.
Sally Kohn is the Director of the Movement Vision Lab blog.