Katrina & Race: A Complex Problem

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Media discussion of race and class in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has done the country a great disservice by oversimplifying and distorting what is fundamentally a very complex problem, according to a sociologist who recently published a major study of the residential segregation of jobless black, Asian and Hispanic men in urban communities.

In his research, Robert Wagmiller, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology at the University at Buffalo, focuses on the effects of poverty and public policy on family behavior and the development of children.

"I find it hard to believe," he says, "that the actions of local, state, or federal governments -- and any inadequacies in their response-- were motivated by racial or class animus."

Wagmiller also warns against assuming that black people stranded in New Orleans after the evacuation were simply too poor to get out.

"If poverty was the main issue, why were there so few poor whites, Asians and Hispanics stranded at the Superdome or Convention Center?" he asks, noting significant poverty rates for these groups in New Orleans as of 2000: 12.94 percent for whites, 53.8 percent for blacks, 28.4 percent for Hispanics and 43.2 percent for Asians.

"In order to understand what happened and how race influenced events in New Orleans, we need to understand what has happened to poor black communities over the last half century," Wagmiller says.

"My research, and the research of many others, has documented a deep and growing gulf between poor black communities and the rest of the population, rich and poor, that has created intense social isolation for black people.

"Most of these men and women don't work and have at best, a tenuous relationship with formal labor markets," he says.

"Traditional patterns of family formulation have eroded. Crime and violence is rampant. The schools are a disaster. Welfare dependency is high."

"This social isolation has many profound effects," says Wagmiller.

"It limits the access of poor black families to information. In normal times, it limits access to information about jobs and other neighborhoods. In atypical times such as a hurricane it probably limits access to information about the proper procedure for getting out," he says.

"Surrounded by such desperation, many socially isolated residents come to distrust city officials, police, and the other representatives of the larger community with whom they have contact," says Wagmiller.

"That, in turn, leads to the development of patterns of behavior from single parenthood and teenage pregnancy to crime and the devaluation of academic achievement, that helps reproduce poverty across generations," he says.

"I hope that this event, as horrible as it obviously is, will lead us to begin to address the issue of this social isolation of poor blacks," he says, "which, I might add is every bit as bad in Buffalo or Rochester as it was in New Orleans.

"We need to begin to address to this social isolation by integrating and improving urban schools, integrating neighborhoods, breaking the cycle of adult joblessness, restoring social order to these neighborhoods," Wagmiller says.

"If we finally begin to openly and honestly talk about and address the nexus of race and class that creates this largely self-perpetuating cycle of poverty, maybe something will be gained from these horrible, horrible events."

Robert Wagmiller, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology
(716) 645-2417 x467
rw26@buffalo.edu
http://sociology.buffalo.edu/faculty/wagmiller.shtml