Church World Service: Race & Poverty were Factors in Slow Katrina Response

As the debate rolls on in the U.S. as to whether the slow response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster was a result of government racism and class prejudice, the Church World Service has supported the view that race and poverty were both factors that cannot be ignored.
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Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough said on the Sunday night’s broadcast of the MSNBC show “Countdown” with Keith Olbermann there is “No doubt race is an important factor in the Gulf Coast” but that “class is also a critical factor”.

Rev McCullough, himself an African American, said: “As we looked at Katrina, we were concerned about people of colour”. He said, however, that the focus of the debate should now include the broader issues of poverty and class.

According to Rev McCullough, New Orleanian survivors were “people victimised by the authorities” who had failed to “use the resources at their disposal”.

He said the development of the government process gave the “opportunity to see whether the government acts as a safety net”. McCullough said this should have been the case but that it did not happen quickly enough in the case of Katrina.

The head of CWS welcomed the opportunity that Katrina has offered. He said it “reopened to discussion the issues of race and poverty in a positive way. This should help us as Americans to look at the responsibility of one for the other” and “our expectations of government”, he said.
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“It’s absolutely necessary that we as a nation pay attention to the issues of class, of poverty, in how we now turn to the long-term recovery of the Gulf Coast region and Katrina’s survivors.

“The way we assist Katrina’s most vulnerable survivors in rebuilding their lives over the long haul will be a litmus test – and can be a model – of how we must proceed as a nation in closing the gaping divide in this country. The world is watching us,” said McCullough.

The CWS raised its fundraising goal to $9.5million last week in order to intensify its recovery efforts across the hurricane-afflicted zone.