A teenager coming of age is a popular theme in Hollywood. In films a defining event transforms the main character from a child to an adult. Hurricane Katrina appears to have signaled Hip Hops passage from infancy to maturity. Over the years, our elders have castigated us for failing to take reasoned, decisive measures to facilitate political change. Despite the voter registration drives, Hip Hop conferences and the Election Day slogans, we never really seemed intent an actually changing things. When something heinous went down, like the fatal shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo by New York City police, members of the Hip Hop community produced benefit concerts or CDs, but as a constituency, we rarely advocated for new laws and public policies. Certainly we have diligent hardworking activists among us, but their messages were often overshadowed by the glitz and drama of rap music celebrities. As a result, the Hip Hop generation partied, shook our tail feathers and sought ice rather than social justice. Hurricane Katrina and its brutal aftermath have forced the Hip Hop generation to grow up. The lost and neglected souls on our television screens were our grandparents, parents, siblings and friends. Those dead bodies were our kin. Those of us with no actual ties to the evacuees quickly realized that a natural disaster or terrorist attack could have us walking in those Black folks shoes.

For those us who have been glued to our television sets, Hurricane Katrina, unsparingly exposed the fate of Americas have-nots. Everyday we saw pictures of desperate and overwhelmingly Black Americans: women, children, men, the elderly and the infirmed, who were literally left adrift by our government. It is often said that the measure of the society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. In this instance, America left those citizens too poor, ill or old to evacuate the drowning city to die on its streets. Dead bodies lay strewn on city streets amid the debris, announcing that even in death there was no respect for these lives. Thousands of dazed and displaced citizens were placed in the New Orleans Superdome, which had no electricity and inadequate sanitation facilities. For days these already shell-shocked American citizens and their children were left in that dark building with little food, little water and little information from our government officials about was going to happen to them. It is in this putrid environment the same gangs that contributed to New Orleans high murder rate were allowed to prey on American citizens with impunity.

The watershed moment for Hip Hop was when rap artist/producer Kanye West decided to depart from NBCs script for its Katrina telethon and address on national television how inhumanely American citizens were being treated. Most damning was his statement about the biased media coverage that depicted Black evacuees, most who were getting food, water, shoes, diapers and sanitary products as looters and White evacuees who did the same as finding food. West did not set out to be a role model, but like the rest of us he was hurt and angry that in 2005 it was still okay to denigrate and neglect poor citizens and Black citizens. Instead of worrying about how speaking out could jeopardize his career West, already a wealthy man, chose his principles over getting more Benjamins. Many in our society who had lost hope needed to see a young Black person of Wests stature step up and publicly speak out against injustice. Frankly I doubt that Wests career will suffer because of his comments and his actions may embolden others to become agents of change in their own communities.

Unlike the Civil Rights generation, before Katrina the Hip Hop generation had not collectively experienced the pain and blatant disregard that often spurs citizens to action. Our generational history does not contain any colored signs, attack dogs or hoses, but Katrina brought an equally potent brand of racism to our doors. Partisans, bigots and the uninformed are beginning to blame the hurricane victims for their situations with comments that suggest had they not been poor, lazy and dysfunctional this calamity would not have happened. The most problematic notion being advanced is that the government is now giving out freebies to trifling Black folks. Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal Opportunity and a former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission was quoted in the Washington Post as saying, in New Orleans, "you are dealing with the permanently poor people who don't have jobs, are not used to getting up and organizing themselves and getting things done and for whom sitting and waiting is a way of life." She continues on by saying, "This is a natural disaster that is exacerbated by the problems of the underclass. The chief cause of poverty today among blacks is no longer racism. It is the breakdown of the traditional family."

Black actor Terrence Howard echoed Chavez on the David Letterman show by essentially saying that Katrina victims were accustomed to waiting for help rather than helping themselves. He however failed to detail what they should have done to be pro-active in this monumental crisis. Former first lady Barbara Bush insinuated that Hurricane Katrina might have been beneficial to its underprivileged victims since they will now be able to start over somewhere new. This woman of privilege cavalierly ignored the major obstacles looming ahead for evacuees who have no homes, no jobs and no identification papers. Comments like those made by Chavez, Bush and Howard coupled with racialized news coverage are blaring reminders to the Hip Hop generation that negative stereotypes about Blacks remain prevalent in our country and that Negroes still live among us. While race may not have played a hand in how the crisis was initially handled, it will no doubt inform public dialogues about how the government should assist the evacuees over the long-term.

Hurricane Katrina points to failures of leadership and not to Black sloth. Many of those left behind were among the working poor, who lacked the cars, cash or credit cards to immediately evacuate the city when the storm came. Also left to fend for themselves were the sick and the elderly. The fact of the matter is that despite decades of hurricane warnings there was no formalized plan to get these American citizens out town. In 1969 had Hurricane Camille not changed course New Orleans could have been destroyed then. The levees breaking was another foreseeable event yet in 2004 President Bush proposed cutting funding to Southeast Louisiana Flood Control (SELA), which was charged with shoring up and maintaining the levees. Those funds reportedly were shifted to Iraq. Additionally one-third of Louisianas National Guardsmen are in Iraq, so there were less troops available to help the state when disaster struck. While all of the news services were on the scene reporting the unfolding tragedy, Bush was fundraising instead of leading a timely response. The lack of relief planning may have been exacerbated by the fact that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) head Michael Brown had no qualifications for his job other than being a Bush intimate. Brown, prior to becoming Deputy of FEMA had been fired from his job as head of a horse association. In 2002 when Joe Allaugh left as FEMA director, Bush appointed by Bush to the top spot fill and the Senate readily confirmed him. Whites always crow that they oppose affirmative action because it allows unqualified applicants to be pushed forward, but they are usually silent about cronyism, which routinely promotes unqualified, rich Whites to high-level posts.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the lingering question for the Hip Hop generation is whether there is justice or just us? Now, for many of us in our thirties and early forties, we have seen first hand how precarious our situation in this country really is. Moreover we have seen how hidden racism shapes public perception, which has import on public policy. So, the emergence of real and substantive Hip Hop generation politics will likely start with efforts associated with Katrina and build from there. New Orleans native Master P launched Team Rescue to be of service to evacuees. Sean P-Diddy Combs and Jay-Z have reportedly donated $1 million dollars each to the Red Cross, as well as clothing from their respective companies. Around the country, events like activist Kevin Powells recent benefit in New York City exemplify young Black men and women doing the difficult work that needs to be done to help our extended family. Becoming an adult is not an instant occurrence, so there will be no overnight transformations. The music will no doubt continue, but it will not be the only thing on our minds. We will now also be thinking about what courses of action, in relation to our communities and our government, we need to take to protect our lives, our families, our jobs and our property.