Hurricane Katrina as Litmus Test

I'm sure I'm saying things that have been said elsewhere in much more profound ways, but two things in particular have stood out to me in the midst of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy over the past week. The first is the impact of how events and people are described, and what that reveals about how media shapes public perception. Just take a look here to get a sense of what I'm talking about. The way that "loot" is used with reference to the actions of a black person and "find" is used with reference to a white person says a lot about implicit biases. This is a basically obvious point, but when you think about the cumulative effect of such verbage, much of which is not as readily caught, it explains a lot about why many people of European/Anglo descent think that their racism is just "how things are" rather than a perception they possess which has been shaped by larger systems.

The other thing that's driving me crazy right now is how much of the government response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster is motiviated by political narcisissm. Whatever concern there has been for those killed or displaced has been superceded by an ethos of "oh no, this will sully the administration's credibility and we won't get what we want as readily during our second term!" While I'm not exactly crazy about the Bush administration, I do have to say in fairness that I think this mentality would be happenning no matter what party was in office, but it does prove to be a litmus test of how much our national leadership is characterized by narcissism and self-interest as opposed to a more genuine type of concern.

In general, I see the same murmerings beginning that happened with 9/11; analysts, politicians, etc. took a genuinely horrific and tragic event that scarred the national consciousness and used the emotional power of it to politicize things. I'm simultaneously dreading seeing this happen again, and yet also want to see real justice or accountability come if rescue and recovery efforts for the Gulf were inadequate. And, I do think that issues of race and class always play into things more than we often like to admit, and those who feel that this is happening should be taken seriously. People who experience oppression in this country most often will be able to see things that the powerful cannot or will not see.