Cyrille Neville, a New Orleans musician, has been one of the most outspoken and oft-quoted critics of the New Orleans music scene. He thinks that the city takes its musicians for granted and treats them accordingly. "I feel like not everyone's welcome back," he says. "And I'm part of that contingency,” he said in a recent Gambit Weekly article. Neville definitely has reason to be angry, as do thousands of residents, musicians or no. But neither his attitude, nor the exploitative attitude of venue owners and record labels that are keeping musicians like Neville away, is going to help New Orleans get back on its feet.

“I live in Gentilly, and since the second week of October my house has been gutted, and up until this last week I couldn't get information on what the plans were for that part of the city. It's business as usual. The elite private sector who really run the city has made its decision, and the politicians are gonna step in line with that. There's no straight answer -- just a lot of talk about 'future green spaces.' They're gonna do just like they did with Louis Armstrong's house: tear it down and build a new parish prison. But old Pierre Maspero's slave market is still down there," Neville told the Gambit.

He is 100% right. But I’m not sure that his strategy of jumping ship and moving to Austin is the best response. Though he may not have received the treatment a new Orleans music legend deserves, he achieved fame financial independence in this town, privileges many others don’t have. Allen Toussaint, another legendary local musician, agreed with Neville that New Orleans musicians don’t get the treatment they deserve. “I understand why people leave and play in other places -- we settle for a little less to live in New Orleans. But for me, I would accept millions less to get to live in New Orleans." Toussaint, by staying in the city, is helping other local musicians who want to stay.

I think that Neville’s view of his situation after the storm is a narrow one. It’s not only musicians that are getting taken for granted, but Black culture in general. Tourists come in to see second-lines and jazz music, so the tourist industry appropriates ideas and underpays musicians to perform the appropriated acts for visitors. Meanwhile, white locals love to go see Super Sunday, the spectacular Mardi Gras Indian event, but when it comes to voting for money to provide more educational funding, housing, health or other resources that would provide assistance members of the African American population, people start complaining about Blacks abusing the welfare system.

I work at a music venue where the owner has earned an international reputation and a lot of money from (mostly black) local musicians. But now he’s rooting for the projects to be torn down, because according to him, Blacks are abusing the system. It’s disgusting to see someone be happy about the disappearance of the homes of musicians he calls “friends.”

Some people, caught in the cycle of poverty that the welfare system creates, definitely lack the initiative to escape. But neither Neville nor this club owner will ever help to change or improve things as long as they blame other people for problems we are all a part of. Frankly, I’m talking about the rest of America too, but I’ll save that for the next blog.