Spike Lee Katrina Bias
by Jeff Crouere

I spent two solid nights viewing the four hour Spike Lee documentary “When the Levees Broke” on HBO. Lee, who is known for his controversial films and his passion for New York Knicks basketball, certainly poured his heart and soul into this project. For an outsider, Lee was able to at least partially grasp the uniqueness of New Orleans. However, his documentary was ultimately a very flawed piece of work.

Spike Lee focused primarily on the Lower Ninth Ward and the African-American victims of Katrina. So, viewers were left with the clear indication that the New Orleans area is almost solely comprised of African-Americans and the victims of Katrina were almost all African-American. However, the metropolitan area of New Orleans was 63% white prior to Katrina and 47% of the storm fatalities were not African-Americans, and of that group the vast majority was white.

Katrina was an equal opportunity destroyer and the flood waters did not discriminate. Incredibly, Lee found no time to investigate the damage in Old Metairie or Lakeview, two primarily white areas that were decimated. Was that just an oversight or an example of racial discrimination? Lee also completely bypassed the devastated Mississippi Gulf Coast, another primarily white region, which bore the brunt of the high winds and the storm surge of Katrina.

Lee highlighted a number of hurricane victims, including some who were interviewed a number of times, and often used foul language to express their disgust about what happened to them during the storm. One star of the documentary, Phyllis Montana LeBlanc, displayed anger at almost everyone. Although she undoubtedly experienced tragedy, she did not seem to appreciate the incredible charity that was shown toward the victims by so many people, groups, charities, churches and entire cities. Billions of dollars of aid has been given by private charities and foundations and billions more have been dispensed by the federal government. Although it is not enough, the donations show the true generous spirit of the citizens of the United States of America, the greatest country on earth. Unfortunately there was no appreciation for that generosity shown in the documentary. Instead a variety of complaints were examined, including some interviewees who were angry that they were dispersed to cities throughout the United States after Katrina. Yet, would it have been better for them to stay in a flooded city with no services? The vast majority of victims were welcomed in their new cities with open arms, food, water and shelter, typical of good old fashioned American generosity. 

Lee interviewed a number of politicians, academicians, and pastors who lived outside of New Orleans, and showed very little understanding of real New Orleans. Viewers were left with the distinct impression that there are horrible race relations in New Orleans, when in fact the city enjoys more integration and better race relations that most American cities. Besides the Mardi Gras Indians and passing references to the city’s food and culture, the many wonderful attributes of New Orleans were missed by Lee, who obviously was pursuing an agenda in his documentary.

One item on Lee’s agenda was to focus on the preposterous charge that the levees were blown up after Katrina. Lee interviewed several Lower Ninth Ward residents who claimed they heard explosions and expressed their opinion that “they blew up the levees.” Yet, Lee did not examine some important questions such as who, how, why, when, with what? Are viewers to believe that during the height of a monster hurricane government officials went out to the levees with sticks of dynamite to blow them up? Give me a break. It did not happen and there is not one scintilla of evidence that any levees were purposely destroyed. The loud explosions heard by area residents can easily be explained by the huge super tanker of a barge that busted through the flood walls on its way to its final resting place in an adjacent neighborhood. 

Lee claims that he wants his documentary to be the definitive examination of Katrina. However, it cannot reach such a status, because Lee missed so much of the local flavor of New Orleans and the true impact of the storm.  Katrina was a disaster and left misery in its wake, but it also exposed the best in human beings. True heroes emerged who exhibited qualities such as courage, genuine caring for their fellow man, and love for their city, state and region.

Many New Orleans residents stayed behind to help those in need. Firefighters, police, doctors, nurses, and average citizens who piloted boats all risked their lives to help others. While Lee focused on Hollywood publicity hound Sean Penn who visited New Orleans while cameras were on hand, he practically missed the story of so many local citizens who heroically saved scores of people trapped in their homes. While Lee berated FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for four hours, he failed to give proper credit to the agency which performed best in this crisis and rescued thousands of people, the U.S. Coast Guard.

While Lee focused on the tragedy and the poor federal response, he neglected to mention all of the billions that have been allocated by Congress, and for months idling in the State Government treasury. Lee pointed plenty of fingers at the Army Corps of Engineers, but he totally neglected the responsibility of the Orleans Parish Levee Board for maintenance of the levees. While Lee blasted President Bush throughout the documentary, he exonerated the man who exemplified poor leadership, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Is it because Nagin is an African-American or is it because he is a Democrat? Lee overlooked almost all Republican office holders in his documentary. He could have interviewed LA State Senator Walter Boasso (R-Arabi), who used his own boat to rescue stranded people in his beloved St. Bernard Parish in the hours after Katrina or U.S. Congressman Bobby Jindal (R-Kenner) who has been a tireless advocate for increased oil and gas royalties for Louisiana. Instead, Lee focused on Democratic elected officials and angry activists.

Will this documentary help the recovery of the Gulf Coast? I hope it does, but I have my doubts. The anger shown in the documentary and the one-sided nature of Lee’s reporting display a skewed picture of Hurricane Katrina. His documentary is an incomplete work, brilliant in places, flawed in many others. Incredibly, Lee still doesn’t understand New Orleans or the real effect of Hurricane Katrina. I’m still waiting for a documentary that will provide the true picture of what really happened on August 29, 2005.

Jeff Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, “Ringside Politics,” which airs at 8:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and Noon till 2 p.m. weekdays on several Louisiana radio stations. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.