I recently came across an article titled "Man Bites Hurricane" by Michael Graham. Some of you may have seen it as well — it’s being linked on various blogs. I was surprised that Cajuns were linking the article as it perpetuated quite a few myths. Here is my response, in an open letter format.

Mr. Graham,

I’m Cajun and your article, “Man Bites Hurricane“, really hit a nerve.

Your formula was too obvious. You exaggerate our impoverishment, then you compliment our strength but not without using it against the people of New Orleans. From there, you go through a laundry list of Louisiana politicians’ wrong-doings while suspiciously leaving out a conservative who’s an easy target. Then, as a preemptive defense against those who may see your ill-will against people from New Orleans as racism, you falsely state that Cajuns are part African and Caribbean. Finally, you come back again with insincere compliments.

I’m from Kaplan which is a place right near Intracoastal City, “The Islands” and Abbeville and I can tell you that, like most towns in America, ‘shacks’ around Acadiana are the exception, not the rule. And sure, we’ve got our camps but people don’t live in them, they visit them during hunting season. Have you even been to Cajun Country or do you just use its people to push your viewpoints?

Louisiana politician Mike Foster, if you recall, was the governor of Louisiana for 8 years before Blanco came into office 8 months prior to Katrina hitting Louisiana. A quick Googling shows that he was the first Louisiana governor to admit and pay a fine for violating the state’s ethics code. He also came out in support of the Anti-Jewish, Anti-Black, Anti-Everyone former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, much to the dismay of the Republican Party. Granted your quote about Louisiana politicians came from the Washington Post but this is real firepower if you want to show how corrupt Louisiana politicians can be, regardless of party affiliation.

And of course the Anti-Catholic, Anti-Black Aryan-Nations won’t meet up in Abbeville as you so awkwardly mentioned. Cajuns are Catholic and Abbeville is nearly 40% black. Your attempt to sugarcoat your disdain for the black ninth ward residents by stating that Cajuns are part African and Caribbean is misleading to your readers. Please, for the love of all things holy, research before penning an article that you know will spread around the Internet like a sickle-celled genetic mutation. Dark skinned Cajuns are dark because of Spanish and Native American Influences. Any mixing with African and Caribbean people that occurred was not significant enough to affect the skin-color of modern-day Cajuns. People with significant amounts of African and Caribbean blood are, by definition, Creole. Creoles, by the way, are the primary inhabitants of New Orleans. Did you do any research before writing an article clearly meant to divide people or did you just ignore that well-known fact because doing so made your article more sensational?

And yes, many people in Acadiana do have concerns about global warming, especially after two category 5 hurricanes formed in the Gulf in less than one month. There were also many, many disapproving comments of the government’s response, especially in regards to FEMA’s participation in their relief efforts. One Kaplan official was so angry with FEMA; she ended up asking me to ‘excuse her French.’ The same thing happened when an old Cajun man told the story of how, after Katrina, up to 1000 Cajuns and 500 of their boats were turned away from New Orleans by FEMA officials. There were also complaints about the state government being “a mess.”

Now let’s talk numbers. Last I read, about four-hundred people were rescued in Vermilion Parish. More than 50 times that amount was at the New Orleans Convention Center alone. It was also reported that about 200,000 people in and around New Orleans didn’t have a car or access to one. That is the entire population of Calcasieu Parish. Additionally, eighty percent of a highly-populated metropolis was completely under water yet you suggest that locals alone can handle such a huge disaster. Now really, that’s enough. Sure, we Cajuns are amazing but we certainly couldn’t have handled the problems caused by the dramatic differences in population, preparedness and geography. Even the speed to which each hurricane grew in size was drastically different. Three days before Katrina hit, she was still a category one. Three days before Rita hit, she was a category five and the world had the Gulf Coast under a microscope. Insinuating that Katrina victims had equal footing is absurd.

Your statement that Cajuns are better than people left helpless by Hurricane Katrina is offensive. We don’t need you to compare us to those less fortunate to make us look good. In doing so, however, you made it clear that you used Cajuns as pawns to soften your suggestion that people in New Orleans are invalids who can’t function without a government handout. An article focusing on Louisiana culture is not a place for advocating the superiority of one group of people over another, and such advocacy has no place in the Jewish World Review.

I spent quite a few hours talking with ninth ward residents while volunteering at the Cajundome after the first hurricane struck. Children told me stories of how their house filled with water so quickly; they ended up swimming to school and waiting on the rooftop for 2 days before being rescued. They were exhausted and thirsty and the water was filled with corpses. And yet here you are suggesting that they are lesser people for not swimming for miles and miles to reach dry land. If you want to attack politicians, few will stand in your way. But you are also pointing fingers at the black residents with not one but two mentions of the ninth ward. Perhaps you should consider volunteering and working with the evacuees instead of investing that time painting them as people who are so lazy, they would override their own survival instincts just to get another handout from the government.

Your article may have had valid points, but it’s impossible to see past the errors, exaggerations and bias. The only thing that could have topped it is if you would’ve mentioned our ‘traditional’ blackened cooking technique, which of course, is not traditional.

If your article was a graded essay, it would get an F for gross inaccuracies. Fortunately, you still have a chance to correct your publication. I sincerely hope you take the opportunity to do so.

Chrissy LeMaire
- A proud Cajun with a pretty French name

The post is also mirrored here at CitrusPub.net.