"Refugee": an update

I mentioned earlier that members of the Congressional Black Caucus took issue with the use of the label "refugee" to describe the displaced residents of New Orleans. The WaPo goes a step further and carries this article on the subject. It turns out that the victims are offended by the label (and rightfully so).

What is most striking for me is not the conviction with which the victims speak; rather, it is the fact that the victims differentiate themselves from who they think of when they hear the word "refugee." From the article, one man says,

"The image I have in my mind is people in a Third World country, the babies in Africa that have all the flies and are starving to death," he says, while sitting outside Baton Rouge's convention center, where 5,000 displaced residents are being housed. "That's not me. I'm a law-abiding citizen who's working every day and paying taxes."

He's absolutely right: that's exactly what Americans think of when they hear the word "refugee." The man is absolutely right when he says that he's not the same.

Or, is he?

His description of what he thinks of is a dead-on accurate description of a "refugee"; it's also a dead-on accurate description of the conditions in and around New Orleans. What is most disturbing is not that Americans are being called "refugees"; what's most disturbing is that the label fits. We want to believe that we could never find ourselves in the same situation as "people in a Third World country, the babies...that have all the flies and are starving to death." But, that's how bad it is.

To paraphrase my earlier discussion of this topic: the sooner we realize this reality, the sooner we can get serious about not just fixing the current crisis but making sure that it never happens again.
- posted by C @ 5:17:00 PM