The Cultural Hurricane

6th April, 2008

The hurricane is over but we are in a cultural fire storm that is tugging at the heart strings of the die hard Southerner viewing a significant infusion of Northern relief workers, federal workers, and volunteers who have brought cultural differences with them – a different style of politics, application of ethics, and a way of doing business that appears far more risque’ in that it demands business be far more open and transparent and less fluffed with candied romanticism. It is certainly true that the south has not been especially hospitable to the new interlopers. The southern trend is to build up dramatic tensions rather than make the case for a particular program that has universal benefits for all socio economic classes

The New South

The New South refers to the breaking down of the isolation and the modification of the distinctive southern culture. Beyond the forced removal of the Confederate flags from the Statehouses – more everyday symbols of Southern culture are being questioned on a local level at village town halls since Katrina than any other time since the Civil War. It is the influx of the Northern culture into the provincial areas and villages that is homogenizing the southern culture and it is causing resentment in region of the country where they refer to themselves as “Southerners”. The term “Deep South" refers not to geographic location but the area of greatest intensity of Southern culture and the placement is by mutual consent and acceptance.

To generalize is to be rash indeed but, as an interloper from the Midwest with a foreign insight into the cultural differences from outside the box- the observations are beyond that of the north versus the south but as a participant in an opera where there is basic timidity and fear of change.

Observing this change first hand – I see some irony when militarism, chivalry, and religion is gaining prominence as there is a revival of all in the aftermath of Katrina – one due to 911 and the other two due to a massive natural disaster. The combination of the two in a naturally rebellious region of the country is creating a yoke beneath the surface where intellecually it is still the era of mint julep and crinolines and the not so talked about picturesque poverty. There are superficial revolts against the village and interlopers resulting in ceaseless political skirmishes at the village town halls that are gaining ground and escalating into turf wars with the influx of a different set of business rules, ethics, and reporting practices and procedures.

It remains a highly charged debate as historical memory confronts both fact and fiction. Some of the worst elements of the "old" South are rising again - suspicions fueled by a nationwide weakening of affirmative action and an ongoing re-segregation of public schools based on the failure in inclusive economic renewal - especially in the South where the population is scattered in small segregated villages infused with  racial colonialism. Rural isolation resulted in the development of distinctly local allegiances. Black southern life can not be ignored anymore than the black squares on a checker board. Nor can the border changes due to an influx of Vietnamese, Mexicans, Hondurans, and others that make up a large foreign born growing percentage of the population bringing to the  forefront  a new prejudice applied with old values and pertinence. On an economic front there is unrest in the ranks of southern workers and farmers as they fight to compete for inclusive economic renewal. But still the true Southerner views the south as a single unity rather than a divided entity.

The Dissenting Opinion vs the Bully

Dissenters from the mainstream enables the individual to question traditional ways of operating and to recognize new possibilities. The southerners talk about conditions before rather than address the conditions today in an evolving new culture that is a blend of the values resulting from the influx of new workers, immigrants, volunteers, Federal workers, and the wide reach of the internet that overwhelms the reach of the sometimes parochial local newspapers.

Which is better for the health of long term recovery: to tell the residents what they want to hear about the recovery and reinforce their prejudices about themselves, or to dissent from rosy marketing and reveal uncomfortable truths –recovery is a rocky road marred by feudal minded politics? Dissenters and critics are viewed as traitors. Ultimately though, critical analysis is essential to defining a streamlined process.

Detractors scorn the dissenters’ perspective dismissing their opinion, disabling the ability network by cutting off the access to email lists, news releases, and certification for operation. At which point do detractors become a bully? Bullying can look like extreme confidence and can have the appearance of leadership traits. There is a significant difference between being a bully and a true leader. While the bully may speak softly – they can wreak havoc in the recovery process causing apathy, inertia, malcontent, internal destruction in addition to the loss of a positive workforce or positive progress towards recovery as is the case of some of the long term recovery committees that evolved out of cronyism rather than a democratic process. While in the beginning that was necessary given the fractionalized local voting base due to evacuations – today it is not a valid argument other than the recovery effort mirrors the rules of the 501 c (3) non profit statutes in Mississippi and the resulting Board of Directors – not open, transparent, democratic or equitable.

Bullying remains a familiar part of the higher echelon of the long term recovery process, despite the caring nature of the Case Managers work. It is not exclusive to the recovery process though as the bullying extends to the village halls with arbitrary and capricious application of an ordinance, bolstered by a very few forceful locals working off the premise of socio economic cleansing and removing the volunteers from the recovery equation. This can force a disaster relief organization to leave or re-locate at great expense – or not as the media sometimes intervene and elicit public practicality. Only 20% of the homes have been built in the aftermath of Katrina and the volunteer are an essential part of the fiscal equation as the funding is not extensive enough to always include a contractor – another major point of dissention. In either case - it is a huge resource drain this constant bickering over cultural differences.

 People who bully are not intrinsically bad people – but people that must be helped to change. There is pervasive melancholy in making any change to the management of the recovery process. All participants are wary of punitive retribution if they speak out and become the dissenter.

Mechanics of change

It is migration to the Gulf Coast states since Hurricane Katrina that underscores the demographic changes that began in the 1990s where the foreign born population about doubled. The Gulf Coasts present reliance on immigrant labor from Mexico and other Latin American nations may mean even faster growth in the foreign-born populations in these communities than such growth pre-Katrina. It has also spurred a new prejudice that is a malignance and spawning a shooting war of words. Some have worked hard to become color blind to segregate and identify Americans within ethnic boundaries. Others have not.

The role of ego threat in the south is clear insofar as duels were nearly always initiated in response to derogatory comments by another, about oneself, or one's family. It is an insult to the sensibilities that sets off the firestorm. That fact was pointed out to me by a high ranking attorney from the Mississippi Department of Justice. To him I doff my hat as it was his observations that pointed out that it is the clash of cultures that is making this recovery so ballistic. It is impossible to legislate all contingencies – it is probable to improve the deteroration in the lack of personal communication and improve the lessening sense of nurturing to smooth the waters of this cultural hurricane.

The immediate aftermath focused on the inadequacies of the relief efforts and the more than one million persons displaced by the storm  including legal and illegal immigrants - concern has now shifted to reconstruction in the Gulf Coast - all of these areas: construction, cultural, and the evolving new diversified south. Not just a blend of color but homogenizing the southern cultural hurricane peacefully.