When I turned on the TV a day after Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf Coast, I was particularly focused on the community residents who were left to fend for themselves in the sweltering heat outside the superdome.

Armored guards were barricading entrances and sidewalks. The guards were not offering food or water. Mothers were walking up to them and begging for assistance. Then the TV would go to a break and when they came back 80 percent of the time they focused on a handful of mostly African Americans breaking into stores.

My first reaction was to call all the Networks (Fox, MSNBC, CNN) and any other channel that was focusing on negative imagery and ignoring feeding and taken care of the families that had now walked from the super dome to the Convention Center in New Orleans.

As I called the networks I asked graciously who was the segment producer. The segment producer is responsible for deciding what images go on the air. None of the networks responded with names. They knew if I received a name of a producer, I could then go to the newspapers or other alternative Media outlets and blast this individual.

At this point I became really frustrated. So frustrated, that when I began to see them covering up some of the people who had died with blankets my anger then turned into emotional rage and I could not stop crying seeing genocide of my people happening in front of me on national TV and nobody seemed to care.

As I shook off the emotion and kept telling myself, okay what next. I then called my local officials and received some positive responses and then decided to call as many of the Black Congressional Leaders of the Black Caucus in Washington D.C.

As I called each of their congressional aides, I could not believe the treatment I was receiving. Some would not give their names and others acted like there wasn't anything they could do. And get this; the president of the Black Caucus, Melvin Watt wasn't even around, maybe out of the country?

Did he know that they were setting the stage to kill the majority of the people outside the convention center, and that is why they didn't take their names when the residents entered the super dome the evening before hurricane Katrina hit?

  Did Congressman Melvin Watt know that Black people were dying on the streets and the news media was having a field day because we (Black folks) did not have any national TV station that could report the news from an African-American perspective?

The only congressional aide that treated me with respect was Congressman Jesses Jackson Jr.'s aide. He let me know that he would inform me when a statement from the Black Caucus would happen and he did in fact call me back and let me know about the press conference last week. In all fairness, I did not call all of the members of the Black Caucus, it was time consuming and frustrating listening to some of these bourgeois Negroes act like I was talking crazy.

I was so frustrated that I decided to take matters in my own hand and called the White House, FEMA and other Agencies and asked each one of them "What the Hell Are they doing about the People left dying in front of the Convention Center!"

None of them had an adequate response so I called a good friend and colleague of mine who is the General Mgr. of a Public Access Cable station and requested for him to let me produce and host an hour long special about the After-math of Hurricane Katrina. He agreed, and locally we had an outstanding TV show about this tragedy. The program was a live call-in TV show and many people of all nationalities called and were just as angry as we were about the events happening in New Orleans.

Now get this, aside from the success of the show another colleague of mine who is a former FEMA employee shared with me that they are sending the victims of the Hurricane Katrina all over the US. And in some cases as far off as Alaska. Also some parts of the mid-west they place them in a temporary jail.

Now I'm sure if you are reading this article you are probably saying what can we do? Well I'll tell you, the suggestion my colleague who is a former employee of FEMA suggested is CONTACT your local Red Cross and ask them for an up-date of where they are sending the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

If they refuse to provide this information let them know that you will go public. According to some reports filed against the Red Cross during 911, they were accused of stealing a 1 billion dollars of aide sent in from the US and abroad. Now if they stole from some of the rich and privileged, then what in the world do you think they would do with the money sent to the victims from New Orleans? Plus the Red Cross does not want anymore bad publicity.

I believe what we are seeing is only the beginning of genocide of Black people. And we must act now and fast. Contact your local TV stations and request accurate and fair reporting. Contact your local, state and national officials and ask them what they are doing to help and where are they taking victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Be ACTIVE, VOCAL and let's communicate with each other about investing in a national channel. Visit my website www.tfpaa.net for further information about starting an authentic national channel or email me at dshariff@tfpaa.net.

If we are to survive we must organize as one NOW!

Deborah L. Shariff
Activist/Filmmaker

© September 2005 By Afromerica