Living With Dignity: Louisiana Black Women Demand Resources

By Deon Haywood and Marcella Howell

4/19/22

Ms. Magazine

We’re barely hanging on when a hurricane or tornado, or some other storm knocks us off our feet. For Black women in the South, including Louisiana, recovering from natural disasters is complicated by the unnatural and unfair systems of oppression we face.

We are living at the intersections of racism, sexism, classism and saddled with the burden of fighting discrimination to stay alive. Getting up can be impossible—and too many Black women and families are still struggling to come back from Katrina, let alone all the storms since. So many Black communities in Louisiana have been wiped out by these storms, not only losing their homes, but also their networks of support. If you are displaced, you lose the very community that has held you up—the people you count on during hard times.

Louisiana Black women are in crisis. We are living in a time when women are in lines—30 or 40 deep—to get a plate of chicken to feed their children. We are living in a place where safe housing is unavailable. As we struggle to survive, we face mounting persecution from the same government that is supposed to protect us.

We live in fear of police violence. We’re forced to send our children to schools that are more likely to criminalize them than educate them. When we turn to doctors for healing, we get an often lethal dose of medical racism. The same politicians who oppose social supports, like food stamps, public housing and Medicaid, pass laws to restrict our rights.

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