Kish Zenia, author of “My Fema People” discusses the post effects of hurricane Katrina and how hip hop brought government attention to the residents of New Orleans. Kish’s relationship between her and the readers is somewhat positive and negative. Her title brings a emotional connection and she insinuates that she too is a resident of New Orleans and that she is directly affected by the events as well. “My fema people“ goes into detail about the history of hip hop and how it relates to post disaster’
Kish’s gives her perspective of how the government did little to provide sufficient aid to the residents after the impacts of hurricane Katrina. Many residents were left without food and water and were stranded for days after katrina made its rounds. The government as well as Fema were not the ones who provided much needed help to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It was Hip-Hop that allowed the people to somewhat understand how others were feeling and even let out their own voice about the situation,and it allowed people to heal and to finally be heard.
Residents faced many challenges but were able to be given a voice, and a possibly a face because of many Hip hop artist bringing worldwide attention to the aftermaths of Katrina. Music was able to narrate the physical and mental effects of katrina and bring media attention to it.
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The music also serves as a sense of a community it was sort of like a way for people to recover. Hip hop artist joined together to help the city get back on their feet to ensure that the history of the city would survive. Bounce music also addressed the sadness, anger and confusion of the residents. Local rappers began narrating their direct experiences of loss, anger, and confusion and started offering musical histories of the devastating effects of the hurricane on African American communities. Mainstream Hip Hop artist brought politics into their music by expressing the trauma and physical impacts.
Kish moves into the emotional effects of Katrina by going into more detail about the casualties, racism and personal stories of residents. Her main focus was how African americans were mistreated during this time. The role of racism was pretty evident. African american communities were severely damaged and because of the aftermath and lack of assistance african americans experienced higher unemployment and distress more than the white victims.
African americans were often portrayed in a negative light they were showcased as being thieves and dangerous to those around them. African american residents were being victimized during a tramazing time. It was the government’s fault that residents felt abandoned and mistreated and obviously this wasn’t the first time that this comminity felt like no one was there to help.
