#25 COVIDCalls 4.17.2020 - COVID & Environmental Justice in Louisiana II

How does COVID-19 overlap and intertwine with the deeper histories of Louisiana, and how can we understand these connections? What effect will COVID-19 have on long-term efforts for racial and environmental justice in Louisiana?

Karen Gadbois, the co-founder of The Lens, Dr. Andy Horowitz, an assistant professor of History at Tulane University, and Dr. Beverly Wright, an environmental justice scholar/advocate and executive director at the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ), all discuss how COVID-19 connects to long-term histories in Louisiana like racism, economic inequality, pollution, and even patterns of sociability. All talk about the resonances they see in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Hurricane Katrina, as well as the ways in which these two disasters have compounded in Louisiana. All emphasize the need to grapple with these entangled history at the same time, despite the difficulty. Drawing on their experience with Katrina, Dr. Wright and Gadbois also discuss how activists, organizers, and journalists can sustain themselves economically, physically, and emotionally in the months and years ahead. 

For further reading:

Race, Place and the Environment after Hurricane Katrina

The Wrong Complexion for Protection

Katrina: A History 1915-2015

“Louisiana facing highly inflated prices for medical masks”