Use of Word 'Refugee' Stirs Race Debate

[Eugene]

Use of Word 'Refugee' Stirs Race Debate


Wednesday September 7, 2005 3:46 AM

AP Photo TXDC106

By JOCELYN NOVECK

Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - What do you call people who have been driven from
their homes with only the clothes on their backs, unsure if they will
ever be able to return, and forced to build a new life in a strange
place?

News organizations are struggling for the right word.

Many, including The Associated Press, have used "refugee" to
describe those displaced by the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.

But the choice has stirred anger among some readers and other critics,
particularly in the black community. They have argued that "refugee"
somehow implies that the displaced storm victims, many of whom are
black, are second-class citizens - or not even Americans.

<snip>

The criticism has led several news organizations to ban the word in
their Katrina coverage. Among them are The Washington Post, The Miami
Herald and The Boston Globe.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5260888,00.html

[candy]

1. God,this is ridiculous---It means "seeking refuge"===

no more,no less.

How in the hell can such a big deal be made out of such a simple word?

[Patsy Stone]

4. Exactly what I was going to post.

If you are seeking refuge, you are a refugee.

[porphyrian]

8. It's not about the textbook definition...

...it's about the public perception of people who are referred to as "refugees." The average casual viewer will associate the images shown, largely Black American people, with other media images of refugees - foreign peoples escaping distant wars. It serves to make them external and distant, perhaps even as a burden imposing themselves on us rather than as fellow American survivors of a trajedy made unforgivably worse by incompetence, hubris, and intentional neglect. While this outcome is subtle, and obviously not equally effective upon all viewers, rest assured that it is intentional and calculated, helping the spindoctors of this President in blaming the victims for his and this entire administration's failure in the face of a real threat.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Bullshit.

A refugee is simply a person who is in need of refuge.

Corporate media discomfort is actually censorship imposed by this administration which is unwilling to admit that such a situation could exist in modern America that would create American refugees.

There ARE refugees in America, and it is the administration's fault.

[Mythsaje]

3. Call them survivors...n/t

[stillcool]

5. Does the term 'refugee' have any legal interpretation...

...as in not a citizen of a particular state. Or, not a citizen at all. How would you feel if not only everything you own, your way of life, your entire environment was ripped from you and you were then determined to be a 'refugee'. Call it what you want...I'll call it criminal. The term is evacuee's....Is that too hard to say?

[Quixote1818]

7. I prefer evacuee's also. nt

[Quixote1818]

6. It's strange but I felt uncomfortable with the world the first time I

heard it during this disaster and I don't know why. I guess I have always thought of Refugee standing for people who were without a country. It almost seems offensive to think Americans could be looking for a home but based on the definition it's probably correct. I prefer to use the word evacuees.