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Corruption and Controversies of Ray Nagin

Response Essay

34-6 is the excerpt from Exodus, which is named as Voice. The excerpt describes that God is very kind and merciful, who loves his creatures. The excerpt also describes that the god is very loyal towards humanity and always rewards them for their good deeds. On the other hand, if human beings would commit sins and not regret them, then God would not hesitate to punish them, which can prolong to their future generations as well. The excerpt relates to the scenario of Ray Nagin in the way that he mentioned in one of his speech that God is punishing America and the African Americans as well because he is not happy with them.

Ray Nagin, who was the mayor of New Orleans at the time of the hurricane Katrina, made a speech on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. He talked about the changes brought to the city by the devastation of the natural disaster. A great majority of the local population consisted of the African Americans, who had to leave their homes and find refuge in other areas, due to the destruction of the areas. The mayor made the comments in his speech that the area belongs to the African Americans and he is sure about the fact that after the settlement and rehabilitation of the area, it would become a chocolate city. The term chocolate city referred to the African American population, and by calling the city a chocolate city, he meant to say that the majority of the city would consist of African American population. He also mentioned that god is not happy with America and the African American population because they have forgotten their true identity. Therefore God is punishing by natural disasters. Due to his reference to the term, the speech was nicknamed as chocolate city speech. The speech was criticized by the critics, who thought that Nagin had no right to mention God in such a way, as well as undermine the sentiments of the white population (Asch, and Musgrove).

In popular culture, the term chocolate city originated during the period of the 1970s. The term was first used by the DJ's of Washington and then used by a band named Parliament, in their music album. After that, it was used by the famous political parties in their speeches as well. The term referred to the greater population of the African Americans in some particular area. The African American population was called chocolate due to their skin color, and the term of chocolate city denoted their majority (Hackenesch).

Greg Meffert was the chief technology officer of the government of Ray Nagin, who was also quite close to him. Greg Meffert and Ray Nagin were the accomplices in the corruption scandal, before, during and after the occurrence of hurricane Katrina. They were utilizing the tax money to set up their own company, which was ion the name of Meffert’s friend. They were not able to run a company while being a part of the government and planned to establish it and take control after leaving their offices (Frailing, and Harper, 115).

Both, Nagin and Meffert, were involved in the corruption, bribery, money laundering and wire fraud cases, which were exposed by FBI and they were arrested and punished for their crimes. They also went on vocation by using the money of the contractor, which played an important role in exposing their true identities (Voigt, and Thornton, 1305). When they were arrested and confronted, Ray Nagin tried to put the blame on Meffert, which he was discussed in his book. The current status of Nagin and Meffert is ex-convicts, who were involved in the corruption cases and faced the consequences of their crimes by serving time in prison.

Works Cited

Asch, Chris Myers, and George Derek Musgrove. Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation's Capital. UNC Press Books, 2017.

Frailing, Kelly, and Dee Wood Harper. "Fraud in Disaster." Toward a Criminology of Disaster. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2017. 109-139.

Hackenesch, Silke. Chocolate and Blackness: A Cultural History. Vol. 38. Campus Verlag, 2017.

Voigt, Lydia, and William E. Thornton. "Disaster-related human rights violations and corruption: A 10-year review of post–Hurricane Katrina New Orleans." American Behavioral Scientist 59.10 (2015): 1292-1313.