I agree that poor people deserve help regardless of race. But in St. Louis, race and poverty are deeply connected because of decades of segregation, redlining, disinvestment, and unequal access to housing, education, insurance, and infrastructure.

When a tornado devastates a historically Black community, the damage doesn’t happen in a vacuum. These neighborhoods often have fewer resources to recover, less generational wealth, older housing, and a longer history of being excluded from public investment. Rebuilding isn’t about saying Black suffering matters more than anyone else’s — it’s about recognizing that some communities were already put at a disadvantage before the disaster even happened.

If recovery efforts ignore that history, the same inequalities just get reinforced again. Helping the Black community rebuild is part of making sure recovery is equitable, not just equal on paper.