NEW ORLEANS — In the special report WGNO Forward: Race in Our City, WGNO’s Tamica Lee and LBJ explore race in our city, asking the experts where we are, how we got here, and what we can realistically do to make it better.
Recent protests against police brutality, sparked by the killing of George Floyd, have come to represent a stand against racism in all aspects of society. In the New Orleans area, protests have remained mostly peaceful.
“We’ve made a way for protesters to protest peacefully,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told WGNO news anchor LBJ during the special report. “We don’t see ourselves as different. We see ourselves as part of that united voice,” said Cantrell.
Mayor Cantrell shared with LBJ some of her interactions with racism as a public official.
“White privilege is real and sometimes not thoroughly understood by our white community how deep that is,” she said. “And, it is socially, economically, and racially in regards to privilege. And, let me tell you, with that, our white community doesn’t have their integrity immediately challenged.”
Tamica Lee spoke with New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan about the role of athletes and speaking out against racism.
“The NFL dropped a statement. And, it just wasn’t good enough,” said Jordan. “It was one of those broad, ‘Hey, we tried to include everybody.’ And, it wasn’t until guys like Anthony Barr and our own Marshon and Mike Thomas got on and demanded better that the league actually created a stance.”
Tamica and LBJ also spoke with Foundation for Louisiana’s Flozell Daniels, Jr., about the intersection of racism and environmental justice; Son of a Saint’s Bivian “Sonny” Lee III about his work in the community with children; and, Bishop Fernand Cheri of the Archdiocese of New Orleans about the church’s role in fighting racism.
You can see the entire special report WGNO Forward: Race in Our City on WGNO and WGNO.com.