Anchor Norman Robinson blogs and broadcasts LIVE from Houston September 18 - 22.
Why don't they like us?
I'm afraid to drive around Houston with a
New Orleans license plate attached to my car!
Why are we being
tarnished for the sins of a few bad eggs?
Why are they so mean to us?
These are just a few of the pain-filled rhetorical questions that a lot
of evacuees from New Orleans are asking themselves and others who care
to listen to their stories of rejection and humiliation.
University of
New Olreans criminologist Dr. Peter Scharf pointed out that his
research on the migration of the criminal element from New Orleans to
post-Katrina Houston only involves 2 percent of the African American male
population. But judging by the reaction from a lot of Houstonians,
you'd think that the majority of the people displaced from New Orleans are shiftless, lazy, ignorant, and at worst, just plain
thugs.
It is clear to me that most of those who are down and out on
their luck are victims of circumstances beyond their control; forced
from their homes by the worst natural and, yes, man-made disaster in
the history of the United States. Most of them would like to be home,
but there is no home for them to go to. For now, Houston is all they
have.
This week 6 on Your Side LIVE will attempt to find out what the
future holds for the displaced who are down on their luck, and how the city leaders in Houston and New Orleans plan to address this continuing
crisis of human tragedy.
We invite you to watch our week of ground-breaking reports from the region, and invite your comments on the situation there. Are evacuees being treated fairly? Should they come back to New Orleans? Or is Houston really a better place for them to call home?
