Karen J. Leong

Katrina and Migration: Evacuation and Return by African Americans and Vietnamese Americans in an Eastern New Orleans Suburb

Hurricane Katrina constitutes the most costly natural as well as technology-induced disaster, in terms of both human suffering and financial loss in the history of the United States. Even years later, it continues to profoundly impact the livelihoods and the mental and physical health of those who have experienced evacuation and return and those who have begun lives anew elsewhere. Our study focuses on these geographical processes associated with the Katrina disaster experiences of African Americans and Vietnamese Americans comprising an overwhelming majority (93.4 percent) of residents in a racially mixed pre-Katrina eastern New Orleans neighborhood. We examine the spatial morphology of routes, volumes, and frequencies of evacuees; their return rates and experiences; and rationales and motivations to return or stay. The conceptual framework is based on the disaster migration, place attachment, and social network literature. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicates that the evacuation and return experiences of each minority group substantially differed, especially among African American women, and this was strongly influenced by existing social networks.

Resilient History and the Rebuilding of a Community: The Vietnamese American Community in New Orleans East

As the floodwaters have receded from New Orleans and rebuilding has begun, new sto-ries of race relations have emerged and new histories are being written. One is the his-tory of a predominantly Catholic Vietnamese American community located in eastern New Orleans. Before Hurricane Katrina, Vietnamese Americans constituted less than 1.5 percent of the city’s population. Since Katrina, the small Vietnamese American com-munity in eastern New Orleans has received significant press coverage due to its mem-bers’ high rate of return and the rapid rebuilding of their community. This essay will explore how shared refugee experiences, the leadership role of the Catholic Church, and the historically specific circumstances of Vietnamese immigrant settlement in eastern New Orleans contributed to this community’s mobilization and empowerment. Some might attribute the community’s ability to recover so quickly to a strong work ethic and an innate identity—both features of the myth of Asian Americans as “model minorities.” That myth is a 1950s and 1960s construction that has since been deployed to justify racist assumptions about African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians. It also obscures historical processes. This essay argues that the eastern New Orleans Vietnamese American community’s response to Katrina is clearly rooted in its particular history and collective memory. As the experience of the Vietnamese American community in Village de L’Est demonstrates, history and memory are more than analytical artifacts—they are political resources.

Economic Vulnerability, Discrimination, and Hurricane Katrina: Health Among Black Katrina Survivors in Eastern New Orleans

BACKGROUND : Few works have viewed disaster relief in the context of socioeconomic disparity and racial inequality before Katrina. OBJECTIVE : By using the vulnerable-populations conceptual framework, our study aimed to investigate the relationship among economic vulnerability, perceived discrimination, and health outcomes among 69 Black Katrina survivors in Eastern New Orleans. STUDY DESIGN : A mixed-method approach, including survey and focus groups, was applied to collect data. RESULTS : Our findings suggested that a higher level of perceived racial discrimination during Katrina and financial strain post-Katrina were associated with more posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms; support provided by network members served to enhance mental and physical health. Compared with Black males, female survivors reported more PTSD symptoms and worse mental health. CONCLUSIONS : It is imperative for nursing scholars and public policies to directly address the intricacies of race, class, and gender inequality to deliver interventions tailored to meet the unique needs of vulnerable populations. J Am Psychiatr Nurses Assoc, 2007; 13(5), 257-266. DOI: 10.1177/1078390307307260

Surviving Katrina and its aftermath: Evacuation and community mobilization by Vietnamese Americans and African Americans

The flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina on 29 August 2005 uncovered critical issues in local, state, and national strategies for emergency preparedness and disaster relief. The Katrina disaster reveals the persistent racial inequality and economic disparities in American society. This paper examines the pre-Katrina socio-spatial configuration of the African-American and Vietnamese-American communities in an eastern New Orleans suburb. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data and compare the two groups, our study reveals media are the first and foremost information sources for both groups. Many Katrina victims evacuated more than once, some not with their families during their first and subsequent relocations. However, the communities mobilized to provide intra- and inter-group self-help among families and relatives, friends and neighbors, while receiving assistance from community organizations, religious institutions, and the government. Compared to African Americans, there were higher percentages of Vietnamese Americans learning about Katrinas impending landfall from government sources, evacuating before Katrinas landfall, and being more satisfied with assistance provided by the government. Those who are lacking in English skills reported more difficulties compared to their co-ethnics. These findings lead to several policy recommendations.

Anna May Wong and the British Film Industry

Chinese American actress Anna May Wong has received much scholarly attention and cult status as one of the first Asian American actresses to achieve success. A minor celebrity in the United States from late 1920s onward, Wong was not able to persuade Hollywood studios to cast her featured roles until she left to pursue film roles abroad. Her ascension to star status in England and its subsequent igniting of her career in the States became an integral part of Wong’s narrative of celebrity during the 1930s and continues even today. This article analyzes how Anna May Wong constructed her public identity as a British film actress, and seeks to identify the political, economic, and social factors that Wong negotiated during the 1930s.1 According to popular narratives about her life, Anna May Wong’s success only developed after she became a phenomenon in England and other European destinations. As an American of Chinese descent, born to Sam Sing and Lee Gon Toy Wong in 1905, Wong faced the constraints of her gender, race, and class. The Wongs—each who claimed to have been born in California—owned and operated a laundry on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles. The second of seven children, Wong sought to break away from the expectations the Chinese immigrant community held for young women, and to achieve a career in film.2 Beginning in 1919, while still attending high school, Wong began working as an extra in several silent films set in Chinatown. In 1922, she enjoyed visibility as the featured player in the first Technicolor saturated film, Chester M. Franklin’s Toll of the Sea in 1922. Although she received positive notice for her role as the Mongol Slave in Raoul Walsh’s version of The Thief of Baghdad (1924), Wong was limited to minor or supporting roles in a variety of American films. Unable to get a contract in Hollywood, Wong seized the opportunity to star in Richard Eichberg’s silent film Song (1928),even though this meant sailing for Germany. Song indeed proved an important opportunity for Wong. After starring in a second Eichberg film, Pavement Butterfly (1929), Wong was cast in feature roles for three British productions. Wong enjoyed great popularity in Europe during this time, and also starred in a Viennese operetta and a London stage play. In 1930, Wong returned to the United States and signed a three-picture contract with Paramount Studios. Paramount cast her in two mediocre thriller pictures; these did little to enhance her career. Due to the lack of opportunities, Wong again set off for Europe where she appeared on the European theatre circuit. While in England from 1933 to 1934, Wong appeared in J. Elder Wills’s Tiger Bay , Walter Forde’s Chu Chin