Le nettoyage ethnique à La Nouvelle Orléans? C’est officiel…

Malgré les cris effarouchés de certains commentateurs devant l’emploi de cette expression maudite dans le cas américain, il semble bien qu’on y soit : le “nettoyage ethnique” n’aura bientôt plus besoin de ses guillemets à New Orleans, ex-La Nouvelle Orléans.

La chose a été officialisée par un officiel du cabinet, le secrétaire du logement et du développement urbain Alphonso R. Jackson, dont il est utile de préciser qu’il est Noir lui-même. En fait, Jackson a expliqué qu’il s’agissait là d’une tendance assez courante dans un cas semblable, ce qui implique que le nettoyage ethnique a, dans le pays de l’individualisme, un côté assez naturel du moment que les éléments de départ sont favorisés.

Selon le Washington Times du 30 septembre 2005: « Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development, during a visit with hurricane victims in Houston, said New Orleans would not reach its pre-Katrina population of “500,000 people for a long time,” and “it's not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again.”

(...)

» Mr. Jackson, whose remarks were reported by the Houston Chronicle, said New Orleans might reach a population of 375,000 people sometime late next year with a black population of about 40 percent at the highest, down from 67 percent before Hurricane Katrina sent a storm surge that overwhelmed New Orleans levees and flooded 80 percent of the city.

» The population of New Orleans before Katrina was a little less than 500,000, surrounded by large, predominantly white suburbs. The largely black Ninth Ward and the predominantly white middle-class Lakeview section near Lake Pontchartrain were overwhelmed by floodwaters.

» Mr. Jackson, a former developer and longtime government housing official, said the history of urban reconstruction projects shows that most blacks will not return and others who want to might not have the means or opportunity. His agency will play a critical role in the city's redevelopment through various grant programs, including those for damaged or destroyed properties. »

Mis en ligne le 2 octobre 2005 à 12H55