| As another hurricane season approaches, we ought to reflect a bit on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast regions in Louisiana and Mississippi in August and September of 2005. Katrina was an unprecedented natural disaster. But it was followed by an all too common social disaster. I'm not referring to the government's incompetence in responding to the storm or the post-hurricane exodus of primarily poor African Americans that separated parents from their children, brothers from sisters. I'm referring instead to the way that conservative news media and commentators stereotyped and ridiculed the mainly poor African Americans who remained behind in their homes for one reason or another and those who struggled for survival at the Superdome or Convention Center. And I'm referring to how those same media and commentators served up the stereotypes to help justify policy recommendations that further victimized people already devastated by the hurricane. Conservative journalists and commentators seemed perplexed by what they viewed as the irrational behavior of ignoring evacuation orders. They seemed outraged by reports (later proven to be grossly exaggerated) of irrational behavior of Black gangs at the Superdome and Convention Center murdering and raping at will. Conservative news coverage was a thorough replay, in other words, of how Whites have viewed non-Whites for millennia: as a threat to "our" society, to "our" world, to "our" way of life, to "our" way of thinking, to modern rationality itself. Of course, there is a long history connecting race and rationality. Perceptions of racial difference were central to the organization of human societies from the 16th century onward. The creation and perpetuation of racial difference was vital for development of slavery, mercantilism, and colonialism. The idea of White superiority represented the core justification for enslavement, exclusion, and other policies and practices of social control employed by White Europeans against non-White Africans, Asians, and Arabs. Historically, in popular culture and news media, non-Whites were depicted as dangerous to social well-being because of irrational behavior such as violence, sexual aggression, or illogical decision-making. These images of supposedly irrational behaviors of non-Whites provided the fodder for Whites to craft justifications for conquest, exploitation, and extermination. Contemporary racial liberalism continues to justify and legitimate policies of racially based discrimination, segregation, and neglect based on Enlightenment notions of rationality and irrationality. Conservative news coverage and commentary about how African Americans supposedly behaved during and after Katrina provided a steady stream of words and imagery that depicted Blacks as irrational and undeserving of aid and relief. I made a point of reading as much of the conservative news commentary (published in a wide variety of news outlets) as I could get my hands on (no, I'm not a glutton for punishment) and I discovered a number of consistently appearing ideas, which I call the conservative media's "narrative of Black irrationality." The narrative began by portraying Black residents of New Orleans as distinct from the rest of the society. A writer in the New York Daily News (9/2/05) said that it was a "very different breed" that was engaging in "hardcore, armed, violence" and "making it impossible to save the city." Second, the conservative media depicted African Americans as out-of-control criminals. A FOX reporter responding to a question from the anchor said, "As you so rightly point out, there are so many murders taking place. There are rapes, other violent crimes taking place in New Orleans" (FOX News, 9/2/05). Although these were unconfirmed reports, they were treated as facts. Third, the commentators claimed that African Americans made bad decisions. David Brooks of the New York Times (9/8/05) ridiculed New Orleans residents for the very idea of living in the city. Brooks: "Most of the ambitious and organized people abandoned inner-city areas of New Orleans long ago." He implied that leaving New Orleans "long ago" would have been the logical thing to do and those who chose to remain behind are victims of their own irrational decision-making and behavior. Fourth, writers then depicted African Americans in the city as crippled by a number of social pathologies. Steve Sailer (a writer for The American Conservative, a magazine edited by Pat Buchanan) wrote: "What you won't hear, except from me, is that "Let the good times roll" is an especially risky message for African Americans. The plain fact is that they tend to possess poorer native judgment than members of better-educated groups. Thus, they need stricter moral guidance from society." Fifth, conservative commentary sometimes acknowledged that those stuck in the floodwaters of New Orleans were victims of neglect and incompetence in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane. But the upshot was that these victims were unworthy of our sympathy. As Bill O'Reilly put it in a syndicated column in the Sun-Sentinel (9/10/05): "And trust me, help will not be quick in coming" if the poor don't ";wise up." And on his TV show, he put a clearly racial spin on the topic: "The White taxpayers are saying 'How much more do we have to give here?' Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) picked up the theme and said,"you have people who don't heed those warnings and then put people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out." (WTAE-TV, 9/10/05) Finally, policy makers used this narrative of irrationality as justification for the "tougher penalties" Santorum had recommended. But the penalties did not come in the form of draconian measures to explicitly punish the residents who remained behind. They came instead in the form of cuts to a broad range of social programs for the poor across America. In order to find money in the federal budget for Katrina relief for the Gulf Coast region, conservative Congressional voices called for a cut in programs that benefit the most vulnerable sectors of the population -- the elderly, the poor, and minorities. For example, while the President talked a lot about addressing poverty in the wake of Katrina, promising that the $60 billion earmarked for rebuilding a "higher and better" New Orleans would include poverty alleviation, his administration has done little to address the problem. Rather than raising revenue, Bush insisted on $70 billion in tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy. Rather than raise minimum wage from $5.15/hour, the Bush administration supported a $35 billion cut in funding for Medicaid, food stamps and housing for the poor. And, supported by the White House, Speaker Dennis Hastert has quietly tried to implement a 2 percent across-the-board spending cut, including cuts to programs that traditionally aid the poor, to offset funding for Katrina relief. The conservative media sphere, with FOX News at its core, is a social disaster. The conservative journalists and commentators are frequently biased, condescending, and just plain mean-spirited. By providing a constant and reliable supply of news portraying those remaining behind in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina as victims of their own irrational behavior and as unworthy of sympathy and support, conservative media helped legitimize the policy formulations in the Bush White House that neglected -- except in rhetoric -- the very people most in need of aid after the storm. |
| Natural disasters and social disasters by Hemant Shah |
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