From Gulf to Gulf

[Trent Batson]

Lou Dobbs was covering the racist aspect of this disaster last night,
but felt the need to qualify his comments by adding that the mayor and
most of his administration are black and will be called to account at
some point themselves -- which I found to be a gratuitous and blaming
qualification.  The reality is that every day the Super Dome squalor has
been on TV but the head of FEMA said his agency only heard about the
Super Dome situation on Thursday morning -- it's not who caused the
problem [which was hydrologically and ecologically inevitable] but why
the feds have been so slow to respond.  Think of the implications of
this delay of days while the WORLD watched America's squalor in
disbelief.  At the same time, 300 people stranded in the Ritz Carlton
managed to get TV time to explain their plight and buses showed up with
armed guards within hours to extricate them.

The conversation about Katrina has been "seasoned" by the report of a
sniper firing at a rescue helicopter, suggesting that the people left in
New Orleans are dangerous.  This provides cover for why the rescue
effort has been slow:  it's their fault.  

The news organizations insist on using "chaos," "out of control,"
"dangerous" and other alarmist words to describe New Orleans.  Yet, we
look at the crowd outside the Dome and we see them sitting, talking,
playing, asking for help.  The rhetoric doesn't match the images.  Other
parts of the city may fit those adjectives, but what we see all day are
the people milling around the Dome.

Capitalism, bless it, produces great wealth.  But many people don't
compete successfully.  We call them "poor people."  It's hard to live
life daily knowing that many people in our own country live a 3rd-world
life, so it is easier to blame them.  I think this undertone of America
is framing our rhetoric about New Orleans -- it's terrible, but it may
also be poor people's own fault, as many are trying to say or imply.
This is an unsettling realization.

Trent

_________________________________________ 
Trent Batson, Ph.D. 
Dir, Information and Instructional Technology Svcs 
University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881 trent at uri.edu 
401-874-7499 dir 
401-465-0439 cell 


-----Original Message-----
From: TheDiscourseStudiesList
[mailto:DISCOURS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG] On Behalf Of dkc at UMICH.EDU
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 11:53 AM
To: DISCOURS at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: From Gulf to Gulf

Can you provide a cite on that?
On Sep 3, 2005, at 11:16 AM, JULIA EVANS wrote:

> you might add that when the media was describing white people breaking

> into stores for food etc. they used
> the turn borrowing.....
>
> looting seems to be saved for minority populations, sadly
> -J
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Christian Nelson <cnelson at COMM.UMASS.EDU>
> Date: Saturday, September 3, 2005 10:14 am
> Subject: Re: From Gulf to Gulf
>
>> An analysis of the discourse related to this event could really
>> serve
>> to cast a light on race/class relations in this country. Like the
>> others who've posted on this thread, I've been struck by the
>> class/race
>> disparities in the government's (non)response to this disaster. (As
>> another example, I learned that all the hospitals were quickly
>> evacuated EXCEPT for the public ones, which serve the local poor,
>> and
>> which were only evacuated when their situation had gotten so dire
>> that
>> the administrators gave up begging the Louisiana Governor, etc. for
>> help and called a radio station to air their grievances.) Those
>> disparities are clearly reflected in the media's discourse about
>> the
>> people trapped in New Orleans--for instance, many of the reports of
>> "looting" I've heard turn out to be about people breaking into
>> cafeterias, etc. to find food. I find it hard to call this looting
>> when
>> engaged in by people who are running out of water and have gone
>> without
>> food for days, and when the food and drink involved will be
>> uselessly
>> spoiled LONG before anyone can retrieve it in order to sell it (a
>> process that would take weeks if not months by all accounts). I
>> hope
>> someone has the time and inclination to analyze this discourse in
>> order
>> to expose the depths of racism and classism in America. Having said
>> that, I think some historical perspective might focus light on
>> where
>> that racism and classism is deepest. In that regard, I think I'm
>> remembering correctly that Bush Sr.'s loss to Clinton was in some
>> part
>> attributable to the poor performance of his FEMA director in
>> response
>> to another but smaller disaster (in fact, I think it was another
>> hurricane--Hugo in '89, but I could be misremembering). Further, I
>> recall that Clinton was hailed for appointing James Lee Witt to
>> head
>> FEMA, as he was only the first FEMA director who had any
>> professional
>> disaster relief experience. (Witt proved his worth by reforming
>> FEMA,
>> and the Clinton administration went on to distinguish itself for
>> its
>> responsiveness to natural disasters.) On the other hand, it might
>> also
>> be useful to recall the words of Marilyn Quail (the wife of Bush
>> Sr.'s
>> Vice President), who had chosen disaster relief as her pet project.
>> If
>> memory serves, when asked about her experience with disasters she
>> said
>> she didn't have any because she hadn't been "invited" to one--as
>> though
>> these were cotillions.
>> --Christian Nelson
>>
>
>
>
Deborah Keller-Cohen
Professor, Linguistics and Women's Studies
Program in Women's Studies
2110 Lane Hall
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285