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#BlackLivesMatter co-founder Alicia Garza told a packed audience at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center that despite the city?s largely positive message of recovery during the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures, there exists a ?tale of two cities.?

Garza helped coin the hashtag and phrase, which has gained worldwide, in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial for the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. She delivered the keynote speech for ?Katrina 10 Year Memorial: Equity, Justice and Black Leadership for New Orleans? on Aug. 27.

Garza, special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance, said Katrina and the levee failures were another chapter in the country?s ?storm of structural racism and violence.? The government?s failure to protect black lives as infrastructure crumbled and levees collapsed, as well as its failure ?to bring people home,? are among the ?most defining moments of my generation,? she said.

The federal government?s slow response and then-President George W. Bush?s flyover of the destruction were ?callous, cold-hearted and racist,? showing how black lives were discarded ?by the same country that enslaved us, lynched us, raped us,? she said.

?I watched and the entire world watched,? said Garza, who was working on anti-gentrification efforts in San Francisco in 2005.?

jdc270

Remember Federal government ordering everyone to leave before Katrina hit! Yes all lives matter, but the Black Race has to be more civilized & do things that better their self! Starting Riots & always looking for a free handout is so unprofessional!

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