CHAPTER 4
Towards a Climate of Change
Intersectionality
It is now clear how deeply the waters really run, in terms of the structural and racial violence in the Louisiana. One act of state violence appears to comfortably lead to another, and these health disparity and the prevalence of NCD’s have identifiable placements in traumatic water infrastructures, both in a physical and a sociopolitical sense.
We must continue to acknowledge the residual impact of colonial violence that remains manifested in the removal or displacement of indigenous populations, as well as the brutalities involved in the slave industry and plantation legacy that required the instigation of a civil war in the country to necessitate its abolition in law. These prior happenings have exacerbated the already accumulated levels of poverty and extensive health disparities that subscribe to sustaining systems of racial and class bias. Alongside all of this requires a process of self-reflection on one’s own positionality. and while activism is important, understanding where one fits into a complex cultural history (or how they do not), is crucial to accurately presenting a history that is attempting to reclaim their personal power back.
Liquid Economies and the Capillaries of Biopower
On many levels, water has become marred by a form of toxic governance which has enormous impact on determinants of health for affected communities, the majority of which are indigenous or African American. Whether looking at the physical infrastructure of housing projects, water and sewerage or levee systems, or the socio-political legal infrastructures that are meant to safeguard human rights and basic human needs, we can see that the state interest is not prioritised to serve or protect the residents of Louisiana.
There is clearly also an argument to critically query the rhetoric used to explain and understand sickness, health and biological dispositions. Terms of ‘natural’ illness, or ‘natural disaster’ do not hold the power or authenticity they once did, now we are able to see the extent of man-made carcinogenic matter that is being expelled into human bodies; of the infrastructures that were not built to protect certain demographics, in the name of industry. There is also the notion of biologitimacy and instilled in that, the austere infrastructural racism that projects value on bodies based upon racial characteristics or histories. However, there has been an absorption of colonial values which has contaminated a ‘natural’ moral code and created disturbed systems of worth.
The historical abandonment and persistent abuse has resulted in grassroots, community-led initiatives that serve to nurture community resilience in response to traumatic events and although this has been helpful in tempering the storms caused by state neglect and has united the community and culture of the Greater New Orleans residents, these mechanisms have also encouraged a system of dependency on the community resilience in area, aerating the capillaries of neoliberal governance. The systems in place that favour corporate interest at the expense of human life is simply nothing short of appalling and destructive to both human and environmental life. Creating an environment of safety is key to bolstering trauma recovery is also an argument for a genuine investment in community, to empower and thrive. The Environmental Justice Act should be supported through congress and accountable in law to protect the communities most at risk from this structural violence. Additionally, a process of reform should be levied in regards the outdated tax exemption scheme so money can go back into the people who build the land and the communities, people who need better infrastructure, safety, education and support in recovering and who need relief from the health burdens they are shouldering.
Fundamentally, we can see that the social determinants of health in Louisiana remain highly compromised and those who are most affected by the environmental injustices are largely the ones that face barriers to accessing healthcare. We have seen that communities are often to blame for situations of hardship, and the residual belief of “natural” selection so embedded in our understandings of human physiology, informs structural racism that determines health equity, deducing much of it as something fated rather than accounting for the structural violence that underpins the widespread illness and mortality of many individuals and demographics in which populations are considered ‘marginalised’. This is a rhetoric exploited by the same powers that prop up the neoliberal pillars of disaster capitalism and scratch the backs of the chemical industry magnates.