refugee, IDP, evacuee

[Dennis R. Preston]

Essentialist indeed. Both W and the Lieutenant Gov. of LA said that
these persons were Americans, not refugees.

Now you done been told.

dInIs

>Apparently the tide of current opinion is that "we" (whoever that
>is)  need to *narrow* the definition. "Americans," some say, "are
>too good to be called refugees, unless perhaps they've been kicked
>out of the U.S.A. to seek refuge in another country."
>
>The objectors, who are now on their way to sweeping all before them,
>assert quite vocally that "refugee" means, meant, and always must
>mean one single thing--even if it has demonstrably not meant that
>"one single thing" in over two and a half centuries.  The
>essentialist fallacy with a vengeance.
>
>This is what happens to people who don't know a thing about how
>languages work, and we've see it again and again.
>
>But here comes the unconscious racist twist, which betrays an utter
>disregard for nonlinguistic history as well, the fantastic notion
>that the imaginary essential meaning of "refugee" must be "a
>*dark-skinned* person from one country seeking refuge in another,
>esp. the United States."
>
>And the added, even more racist fantasy that, by said imaginary
>essential definition, such persons are somehow inferior,
>contemptible, etc., by nature.
>
>Just how tangled this chain of casuistry is is shown by the fact
>that those who espouse it think they're *opposing* racism. They seem
>to be getting their inspired information on usage from one of the
>Muses, undoubtedly transmitting from a mental hospital on Mt. Ida.
>
>Their strident objections both demonstrate and encourage ignorance
>of how American policy has accepted foreign refugees since before
>the end of World War II.  That's why they keep coming.  It is deeply
>troubling to me as an educator to see political figures of various
>stripes willfully disregarding well known history and trying, from
>afflatus alone, to convince the public that journalists and most
>everybody else use the word "refugee" in a way appropriate only to
>the most bigoted idiots among us.
>
>The entire uproar will fade away, but at least one principle of
>Newspeak will have scored a memorable victory.
>
>JL
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu