More than words....

After coming home to Los Angeles from Gulfport (I'm just about to leave for Minneapolis), I've founds words inadequate when talking about our spring break experience. Luckily I was able to capture some of the moments to illustrate what we saw and experienced. Check out: http://personal.stthomas.edu/msshariff/.

Deep South and the missing forty acres...

I'm back. Somewhere. I don't really consider Minneapolis quite home, but I am glad to be free of the sight (blight?) of piles of rubble, pieces of fabric, and an overwhelming feeling of being in a third world country, though I'm still in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. This trip reiterated a lot of realities for me.

• The divide between the South and the North is still wide.
• The descendants of slaves and descendants of slave owners are still self segregating.
• Everyone's idea of "not that bad" is different. Especially when they come from a background of historical poverty.
• Ebonics is a separate and distinct dialect. It is at least over 80 years old. Certain professionals (Social workers, attorneys, etc.) who work with black Americans (slave descendants) should make some kind of attempt to understand ebonics.
• Illiteracy is alive and thriving in 2006.

I heard misconception after misconception from both my fellow classmates, and echoing in my own head about how different the Midwest was from the South. I don't care to repeat them here because I don't want to perpetuate these myths.

Overall, I feel a change is needed in how the United States Government views the black poor, and how Americans view ourselves. Are we united, or should the fear of how the poor will use government funds shape our view of how to disseminate money designated for their needs?

Rapper Kanye West once said on live television, during a Katrina Telethon, that President Bush didn't care about black people. After this trip, I felt that the government has some incomprehensible way of dispersing funds. Many people I interviewed at both the FEMA workshop and in the neighborhoods didn't understand how some got thousands of dollars with no damage, and others got nothing but a FEMA trailer (which has to be returned in June).

However, I felt disturbed over the lack of black volunteers. Where were the black law students? Where were the black attorneys. So I would like to know, do black people care about black people?

There were times I knew more of a black presence was needed, not just during the FEMA workshop, but during the Historical project. When you enter into a community and ask them to divulge historical, private information, you may encounter resistance if you are not trusted. How much trust would you have if you lived in poverty and your region was destroyed and awaiting promised assistance by a distant government with a bad history of lying to your people. You may encounter less resistance if you are black.

Being black, I often felt like everyone should rise up and demand their forty
acres and a mule, then maybe they would get more than a small, two-bedroom
aluminum trailer, with an option to buy (?)in a
hurricane prone area.

Since I am in training to be an attorney, I knew I couldn't let my anger and sense of injustice dictate how I advised these people on their FEMA issues. After a while, it felt rote to say, "I'll file this information, and we will see if you can receive some assistance with your FEMA appeal. Good Luck, ya'll."

Overall, people were extremely happy to see us, except for one woman who said that I was the first black volunteer she had seen and she was upset that I wasn't even from the south. I didn't correct her. I let her vent.

Venting was the norm. People just wanted to be heard, felt, understood. Maybe we could get the message out, maybe we could encourage others to come help. Maybe we could just sympathize-since the government couldn't. Maybe we could. I tried.

Now, being in my pseudo home, I feel like I didn't help as much as I could, and I feel worried that more black volunteers aren't being contacted for this enormous task.

Someone told us that the clean-up will probably be a decade or more, and the hurricane season starts again in June- the same month (supposedly) that the FEMA trailers will no longer be "free". God Bless the irony of the government.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Coastal Highway 90 & I-110

The destruction along the gulf coast between Gulfport and Biloxi is an incredible sight. The trees are bent in half, homes look like they were crushed by a giant fist, frames of signs stand like ghosts beside crumbled buildings...it is unbelievable. Almost all of the businesses on the coast--and many of the downtown businesse--are still closed. It looks like a war zone. There are huge piles of debris on the beach, and a polite sign: "Please excuse our mess as we clean up from storm damage."

The craziest thing I saw was the interstate 110 bridge in Biloxi. It was destroyed by a "storm surge," basically, water so powerful it just crumbled.

These pictures don't do it justice, but here ya go:









Some of the destruction along highway 90 between Gulfport and Biloxi.

Justice Court, Community History Project, and FEMA Appeals

Sorry we haven't been updating as frequently as I'd hoped. They are keeping us b-u-s-y down here!

Tuesday morning, we separated to sit in on different justice courts in the area to watch eviction proceedings. Vers and I ended up in rural Poplarville, a 1-1/2 hour drive from Gulfport. There were some fun cases on the civil docket, and just two landlord-tenant cases. One woman had six kids and was working 60 hours a week to get by, but she got evicted for not being able to pay the rent. Other cases involved Katrina-related things, too, like a contract case involving a roofing contractor who collected payment and didn't finish the job. It is heartbreaking to hear the same stories over and over again--people losing their jobs, not being able to make their bills, homes going into foreclosure, cars all messed up from the storm, etc. It's emotionally exhausting.

Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday I worked on a historical project, talking to local people and learning about two black neighborhoods in Gulfport: Turkey Creek and Magnolia Grove. It was fascinating to talk to the residents--we'll write a bit more about that later.

This morning, we worked at a clinic to help people prepare and file FEMA appeals. This was my favorite part of the trip so far, because it was so practical. We worked one-on-one with people to help them sort out their issues, get their documents in order, and contact FEMA to figure out the status of their claims and file appeals. So many people showed up to the clinic we had to turn some of them away despite the fact that our whole team worked nonstop for 3-1/2 hours. The work was so rewarding, but again, emotionally exhausting. There are so many hoops for these people to jump through to get every little bit of money from FEMA, I'm amazed at their ability to keep it together. I made several calls to FEMA on behalf of people this morning, and actually found them to be really patient, nice, and even helpful. Generally, though, there is a very low opinion of FEMA ("Failure to Effectively Manage Anything") down here.

Ya'll and them

Okay, so far I've had to contend with a 24 hour ride, bad gas station coffee, and seat trumping. However, even after a bad start, the trip has redeemed itself. I have felt an overwhelming sense of triump, and perserverance for my people and the deep south in general.
I had forgotten about my roots in the short 8 months that I've been in snowy Minneapolis. I had forgotten how rich our heritage was, despite the poverty that prevails in many an isolated burrow. I had forgotten how heavy the accents were, and how spicy the food was. I feel sad for forgetting things that are part of the very fibers of my being. In essence, I realize I forgot what being southern really meant.
My memory has come back with a vengence, and my fervor for wanting to help restore this part of the country is fully intact. I owe it to them, and I owe it to myself.
I wanted to respond in kind to the Judge in Justice Court when he said, "Thank Ya'll" to the litigants in every case. In EVERY case, he thanked them.
That is so southern...so me.
Thank ya'll for reminding me.

Job Assignments

We reported to our headquarters, the Mississippi Center for Justice, at 9:00 this morning. Three students from Ohio State are working with us as well. Two staff attorneys from MCJ met with us and described the three main projects that we’ll be working on. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon training. We left at 2 p.m. to spend the evening in New Orleans, and will hit the ground running tomorrow.

OUR WORK IN GULFPORT

The three main projects we are working on include: (1) Observing eviction proceedings; (2) Affordable Housing Inventory; and (3) Community Historical Project.

Eviction Proceedings

Teams of students are being sent to justice centers in Gulfport and other rural areas (Ocean Springs, Poplarville, and Moss Point), where we will monitor eviction proceedings. There is currently a great disparity in treatment among the different courts—e.g., Lockouts—one judge might order someone to vacate their property by 5 p.m. that same day, another judge might grant the renter until the end of the month to move out. We are documenting these cases to ascertain the main issues, disparity of treatment, and identify compelling cases that might be used for legislative advocacy or media reports.

Many of the tenants in these proceedings, we’re told, actually have affirmative Katrina-related defenses that they are not using, either because they are not aware of them, or the judge isn’t asking the questions to probe into the issues. We learned from the staff attorney organizing the project that those tenants who are represented by attorneys are either fully successful or partially successful 100% of the time. For a number of reasons, these tenants have not sought or obtained legal assistance.

The goal of our efforts is to document this body of case law that is emerging relative to the hurricane, to assist with landlord-tenant law reform, to hopefully educate the judges and help them reduce the disparity in the cases, and to help identify the reasons that people haven’t obtained legal assistance (which, hopefully, will provide guidance in how to inform people about the availability of free legal services). Ultimately, our efforts should push landlord-tenant law forward through the courts and support legislative advocacy.Teams of students will be attending the eviction proceedings in the mornings, and then will work on one of the other projects in the afternoon.

Affordable Housing Inventory

There was a shortage of affordable rental property in this region prior to Katrina, and the situation is now at a crisis level. Basically, we will be doing a survey of the rental situation to create a master list of rental units. Although HUD has been looking at the loss of single-family homes, there seems to be a lack of attention paid to the rental market. According to the staff attorneys at MCJ, the loss of rental housing will exceed the number of single-family homes. A survey of the area was taken in the year prior to Katrina, and we are using that list as a springboard to identify post-Katrina housing. The goal is to look at each place twice, because inhabitable units that were surveyed immediately after Katrina may have become uninhabitable due to mold issues or gradual decay.

We’ll be taking a look at things like price gauging, which is becoming a problem. Emergency responders and other groups who have traveled to the area have strained the temporary housing situation, distorting the market and causing an inflation in rates. The goal is to identify issues landlords and the tenants are facing. This information will be compiled and synthesized to advocate for the rebuilding of affordable rental units.

Historical Community Project

This last project is the one that I am most excited about. It involves interacting with community members to obtain information about their communities. There is a rich and immeasurable amount of history in these communities, and many of them have been greatly devastated and in need of intense revitalization efforts. Our job is to interact with the community members to learn the history of the area. We’ll be documenting important locations, people, social and cultural events, et cetera. One main thread in our communications will involve documenting the civil rights movement and the history of segregation in the area.

The main purpose of this project is to help the communities write grant proposals to obtain community revitalization funds to help preserve their heritage. This is actually an incredible opportunity to revitalize their communities during rebuilding efforts. Our work should help them capture those funds, rebuild, and maintain their community.

Safe Arrival

We arrived safe and sound! Will update more later, with pictures!

Experts Predict Parallel Parking Shenanigans in New Orleans This Week

Summ and I picked up the 15-passenger van tonight. You should see the size of the thing. When we got the keys, we threw some giant eyes at each other, gulped in unison, and clambered aboard as graciously as possible. We quickly discovered that it wasn't so bad after all, and not even scary to drive. It's kind of like sitting on your living room couch while driving your house.

Those of you who know me well are aware that I enjoy few things more than a challenging parallel park. So you can imagine my delight at the prospect of driving that van into New Orleans and parallel parking in the French Quarter. It will be like the parallel parking Olympics. Perhaps I'll drop everyone off and just drive around looking for tricky parking spots? This is going to be the best trip ever.

We're meeting at the school at 7:45 a.m. and should be on the road by 8. It's a 20-23 hour drive straight through, and we expect to arrive in Gulfport Sunday morning.

Students Fail Miserably at Attempt to Escape Crummy Weather

As blankets of snow enshroud Minneapolis, I've cast a hopeful eye toward the weather conditions in sunny Gulfport, Mississippi....

The good news is that it's supposed to be around 70 degrees all week.

The bad news? This is our forecast from weather.com:

Sunday: Thunderstorms
Monday: Thunderstorms
Tuesday: Partly Cloudy
Wednesday: Partly Cloudy
Thursday: Few Showers
Friday: Showers