Page 10 The Skanner September 13, 2017
News
Hurricane Irma Exposes Racial Tensions on Smashed St. Martin
Witnesses say White tourists were evacuated first, leaving Black and mixed-race residents behind
By Thomas Adamson and
Danica M. Coto, Associated Press
MARIGOT, St. Martin— In the chaotic
days after Hurricane Irma smashed St.
Martin, the storm also exposed sim-
mering racial tensions on the island’s
French territory, with some Black and
mixed-race residents complaining that
White tourists were given priority
during the evacuation.
It was the type of anger that has long
plagued France’s far-flung former col-
onies — especially its Caribbean terri-
tories, where most of the population
identifies as black and is poorer than
the white minority.
Johana Soudiagom was disturbed to
find herself among a tiny handful of
non-Whites evacuated by boat to near-
by Guadeloupe after Irma devastated
the island.
“It’s selective. Excuse me, but we saw
only mainlanders,” she told Guade-
loupe 1ere television, visibly shaken.
“That’s a way of saying, ‘I’m sorry, only
Whites. There are only Whites on the
boat.’”
It’s common practice for tourists to
be evacuated first from disaster zones
for practical reasons, as they are stay-
ing in hotels and not in their homes
and tend to have fewer resources such
as food and vehicles. The French prime
minister insisted Monday that the only
people being prioritized were the most
vulnerable.
Government spokesman Christophe
Castaner said he understood island-
ers’ frustration with the government
response but blamed part of the con-
troversy on their “emotional shock, an
impact that’s extremely hard psycho-
logically.”
Soudiagom and other witnesses told
Guadeloupe 1ere that the boat they
took Friday carried tourists, includ-
ing Americans, to safety but left many
St. Martin residents behind, including
needy mothers and children.
On Monday, France’s Representative
Council of Black Associations asked
the government for a parliamentary
inquiry, citing concerns that those who
were evacuated were not “necessarily
the most in distress.”
“In my eyes, Irma is for the French
Antilles what Hurricane Katrina was
for Louisiana in the U.S. — an exposer
of racial and social inequalities,” the
group’s spokesman, Louis-Georges Tin,
told The Associated Press.
The terror of facing down a Category
5 hurricane has combined with a long-
held sense of isolation among local
residents of St. Martin, some 6,700 ki-
lometers (4,200 miles) from the French
mainland and popular with European
tourists.
“The natural catastrophe occurred in
a place that’s very vulnerable socially,
where there is a population of many
different skin colors and a history of
slavery,” said Michel Giraud, a French
“
In my eyes, Irma
is for the French
Antilles what Hur-
ricane Katrina was
for Louisiana in the
U.S. — an exposer
of racial and social
inequalities
researcher who writes on race. “Of
course there will be a perception of
racism.”
The island of St. Martin — divided in
the 17th century into the French terri-
tory of Saint-Martin and the Dutch ter-
ritory of Sint Maarten — measures just
This photo provided by the Dutch Defense Ministry on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017 shows people walking into a
military plane on St. Maarten, after the passage of Hurricane Irma. Irma cut a path of devastation across
the northern Caribbean, including this island that is split between French and Dutch control. (Gerben Van
Es/Dutch Defense Ministry via AP)
87 square kilometers (34 square miles).
Its 80,000 residents are a vibrant ethnic
mix descended mainly from Africa, Eu-
rope and Asia. The two sides of the is-
land share a creole language that draws
heavily on English vocabulary.
The French part of St. Martin is sim-
ilar to other French holdings in the
Caribbean in that its white minority is
generally wealthier than its black ma-
jority. Because France bans the collec-
tion of data on race, there are no statis-
tics to show how much wealthier.
It began as a colony whose economy
was fueled by African slaves. But af-
ter slavery was abolished in 1848, Tin
said, “there were no reparations for the
slaves, only for the slave owners,” so
the former slaves won freedom but re-
mained destitute. “The economy is now
based on tourism but it is still poor. The
wages are significantly lower than the
mainland France.”
The government is not the only one
being accused of racial bias in the wake
of the storm. Giraud said French televi-
sion reports on the devastation focused
disproportionately on white people.
“When I saw the pictures, I was
shocked,” Giraud said. “In the coverage
I saw, the victims were mostly white
tourists, or white French mainlanders.
But the poorest are always the first vic-
tims.”
Irma hit St. Martin on Wednesday,
killing at least nine people on the
French part of the island and damaging
a majority of its buildings.
The following day, looters were seen
hauling food, water and televisions
from shops, and videos featuring pre-
dominantly black people raiding shops
circulated online. Some took to social
media to blame the thieving on non-
whites and characterized the white
evacuees as innocents escaping the
chaos.
Tin said the island’s poorer residents
were doing what they had to after an in-
effective government response.
“What some call theft, others call sur-
vival,” he said. “When the state doesn’t
do its job, it’s normal that the poorest
do what’s necessary to survive.”
“In Florida, there were more than 1
million evacuated, and France says that
with four days’ notice they couldn’t
evacuate a much smaller number,” Tin
said. “The question must be asked: Does
it have to do with racism?”
The government argues that it is
more difficult to transport tens of thou-
sands of people off small islands in
stormy weather than it is to tell people
to drive to safety.
French President Emmanuel Macron
planned to fly to St. Martin on Tuesday
to inspect the damage and relief opera-
tions and to reassure the local popula-
tion.