urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:hupcollective hupcollective hupcollective 2007-09-14T18:33:21Z urn:lj:livejournal.com:atom1:hupcollective:17920 2007-09-14T18:33:21Z 2007-09-14T18:33:21Z Hearts On Fire:<br />The Struggle for Justice in New Orleans<br />Reflections on anti-racist organizing, solidarity and collective liberation<br /><br />by Ingrid Chapman<br /><br />“The people of New Orleans will not go quietly into the night,<br />becoming the homeless of countless other cities while our own homes<br />are razed to make way for mansions, condos, and casinos. We will join<br />together to defend our claim and we will rebuild our home in the image<br />of our own dreams!"<br />(People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition)<br /><br />Introduction<br /><br />I hope that this article speaks to people who have gone to the Gulf Coast<br />to work in solidarity and those organizing in solidarity around the<br />country. I hope that it clarifies for my allies and friends from and<br />living in New Orleans why I was there and why this struggle and all of you<br />have so deeply inspired me.<br /><br />This reflection was written over the past year upon my return from New<br />Orleans in the Fall of 2006. This article briefly contextualizes New<br />Orleans before and after Katrina. It gives my reasons for going to New<br />Orleans, the organizations I worked with and some of their strategies for<br />organizing the year following Katrina. It addresses some of the struggles<br />residents and social justice organizations were and are up against. In<br />particular I focus on how racism hinders the work of social justice<br />organizers, activists and volunteers in the relief and reconstruction<br />effort and how that racism creates barriers for movement building. I look<br />more deeply at the racism internal to one of the organizations I worked<br />with and our strategies and attempts at challenging it. I then get into<br />more detail about the particular work I was involved with over the course<br />of two 3-month periods in New Orleans in the spring and summer of 2006. <br />In particular, I highlight anti-racist organizing with other white people<br />and the Black led struggle for justice in the Lower Ninth Ward. I then<br />share some of the key lessons I drew from this experience and why I am<br />deeply committed to the struggle against racism and for collective<br />liberation.<br /><br />To Read More:<br /><a target='_blank' href='http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=13721' rel='nofollow'>http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=30&ItemID=13721</a>