Managing the parameters of visibility: The revelations of Katrina

Hurricane Katrina exposed the immobility of the Black poor, revealing the dual logics of concealment and containment on which public space throughout US cities is increasingly built. However, the force of the hurricane eroded the distinction between the private 'ghetto' and the public arena. The response of government and the media was guided by an interpretive framework in which poor urban Blacks are marked by their 'criminality'. It was through this, alongside the dominant colour-blind racial ideology, that the 'revelations' of Katrina, its knowledge or 'truths', were produced and managed. Finally, the rebuilding of New Orleans will be considered, demonstrating how the Black urban poor are excluded from the imaginary of the remodelled contemporary American city. © 2010 Urban Studies Journal Limited.