(ThySistas.com) I am from New Orleans. I was born and raised here as were my parents, and elders going back over five generations. We grew up with music and food that was like religion to us, and the city moved to its own culture sound and drum. It was not always favored by others, but it was our home. Hurricanes have threatened and damaged us for as long as I can remember. My elders lived through Betsy, and we survived Katrina. Resilience and survival are part of the fabric of New Orleans. We take care of our family and each other because it is breed into us at a young age, that we are all we have. I was always more optimistic in terms of the state, and though there were disagreements I tried to see unit. I used to think of New Orleans as a vital part of Louisiana growing up, but over time that began to change. I found it ironic that Katrina felt like genocide in my soul. I wondered why anyone would want to push the heartbeat of the city out. Black people are not the only people in New Orleans, but we are some the largest contributors and keepers of its culture. The culture people come to see simply does not exist without us. Yet so many of us were forced out of our homes and the city we love. We watched out homes being taken away and sold to the highest bidder. We watched it happen and felt the majority of our state was complicit in its silence. They took jabs at us as did the rest of the nation. Despite it all…we are still here.
After Katrina, as we struggled to come home, we watched a real time gentrification begin to happen in the city at a rapid rate, and our leadership was complicit. People of varying races moved to New Orleans and looked down on the Black native. They wanted to change a culture that had been here long before them. They wanted noise ordinances to silence the music that never stopped. They wanted to block streets that you could not, while being salty when a Second Line happened in their neighborhood. They didn’t realize the New Orleans you visit is not seasonal…that is life for us.
We watched the price of homes, rentals, insurance, everything skyrocketed while short-term leases were allowed to thrive in residential areas where families should have been able to live. Police began to see some and ignored others. Some native street vendors would be shut down, or they would have to jump through hoops to work, while other ethnicities were allowed to thrive, breaking rules they set for us. Yet in all of this were still expected to maintain the culture that keeps people coming to New Orleans all year long. This is exhausting, but more importantly it is heartbreaking.
How the homeless have been dealt with, and the issue of addicts that are not Black citizens further establishes the disenfranchised we experience in out own home. Our children don’t get the schools they deserve because our schools housed a good part of our culture, and it is being systemically destroyed. The culture we hold dear and have passed down for generations does not mean the same to the transplants. Some might disagree, but the truth is in how the natives of this city are treated. This is not Houston or Atlanta or another city in the US…the culture here is different and New Orleans can not survive without it.
We woke up one morning and realized our governor had invited the National Guard to New Orleans. In addition, our outgoing mayor is in turmoil, and we look at incoming leadership that still won’t center the deep needs for this city so that we all can thrive. New Orleans is, again, in a fight to survive and continue the culture we all know and love. What we create in our city happens to make money, but it is for soul first. The music that flows here is sourced from the depths of our being and it deserves to continue. We need to be able to have our soul respected in our place of origin. If you move to New Orleans please respect the culture and natives that are already here, if you can’t do so just visit or leave us in peace. Many of us will have to fight for our city the old fashion way…through the culture in the streets.
Staff Writer; Chelle’ St James
May also connect with this sister via Twitter; ChelleStJames.