1000 Katrina refugeessurvivors are coming to my neighborhood*. Word on the street is they'll start arriving tomorrow about a dozen blocks from here. I overheard two white businessmen today joking about shooting them if they start looting and speculating that crack sales would go up and discussing ways to rip off the Red Cross and skim off the top from donated food vouchers. George Bush isn't the only one who doesn't care about black people.
*Update: Title changed after Oprah told me to stop calling them refugees. Today, someone in the restaurant joked about going over to the shelter and doing a drive by shooting to "make 'em feel more at home."
2 Comments:
Here's what I think. Jesse Jackson was also saying, "Don't call these people refugees, they're AMERICANS." If you look up the definition of "refugee," you'll see that it fits the situation perfectly and has no reference to whether a person is indigenous or indigent: REFUGE: shelter or protection from danger, difficulty, etc. REFUGEE: a person who flees from home or country to seek refuge elsewhere, as in a time of political or religious persecution. I think refugee is just fine under the circumstances--is this NOT political persecution when we are less solicitous about the safety of the poor than the financially independent? Please, Oprah and Jesse, let us use appropriate words.
I think in the black community "refugee" is a bit of a derogatory term. Sort of like "Fob" or "fresh off the boat" in Asian communities. I feel like they've been crapped on enough recently. If they don't want to be called refugees it's pretty much the least we can do.
Post a Comment
<< Home