Hurricane Florence and Its Burdens
September 16, 2018 12:16 PM   Subscribe

The reckoning, however, will not be the same for everyone in its path. Location is an obvious differentiator—but not the only one. Factors like socioeconomic status, age, whether a person has a disability, whether or not they own a car, and what languages they speak will also determine how easy or difficult it is to survive and recover from disasters like Florence.

Property Ties in the Low Country. Thousands of acres throughout the flooded Carolinas are heir’s property, a form of land ownership that leaves residents vulnerable to speculators. That’s the story of the Gullah/Geechee nation, an estimated 200,000 people living on the barrier islands of the Carolina, Georgia, and Florida coast. They carry on a distinct culture rooted in West Africa, where many of their ancestors were enslaved by British traders in the colonial era.
posted by MovableBookLady (2 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
There's an episode of Uncivil that covers the land ownership situation mentioned in the second article, which I highly recommend: The Deed.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:25 AM on September 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


Yikes. Seconding The Deed. Think that was the Uncivil episode that made me the angriest. Short version: when you're from a marginal group, it's pretty common that proof of ownership is not ironclad, that land-tenure arrangements are non-traditional or not recognized, and that well-funded people from the majority will (maliciously or not) use their better grounding in law and wealth to take advantage of the unwary.
posted by cult_url_bias at 9:49 PM on September 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


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