Necropolitics in new orleans: plantation politics and the perpetuation of black geographies within the COVID-19 Era.

Centered on the Achille Mbembe postcolonial theoretical framework of necropolitics, this article will focus on how the coronavirus (COVID-19) has added an additional layer of trauma to already traumatized Black New Orleanians and assert how racism within itself is indeed a pandemic. In short, through challenging the concept of ‘Environmental Justice,’ the pandemic and sickness of racism at its root will affect African diasporic communities due to unresolved actions of racial-hierarchy, health-disparities, and power-dynamics which maintain Black New Orleanian communities within a marginalized state of continued trauma. Thus, this comparative research can be applied to global conversations of how the pandemics of racism, poverty, and the environment are occurrences that affect people of African descent. In short, these pandemics within the machine of the biopower take a direct toll on the African diasporic communities’ health and life-chances. The primary puzzle with environmental justice depends on perspective and lived experience. Within mainstream society, stakeholders involved in environmental issues focus primarily on climate change, pollution, toxins within water supply, and housing affecting predominantly White middle-class and affluent communities. However, policy changes implemented to eradicate those concerns are usually at the expense of racially-marginalized neighborhoods. This article will also discuss my qualitative research method approach and findings to support my argument that due to necropolitics, the coronavirus pandemic contributes to further trauma among already traumatized groups of people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]