Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/10/2005 | Unconventional Wisdom | 'Refugees' or not, they suffer and need refuge
Philadelphia Inquirer | 09/10/2005 | Unconventional Wisdom | 'Refugees' or not, they suffer and need refuge: "Getting beyond the debate over a word.
By Alfred Lubrano
Inquirer Columnist
Americans cannot be refugees.
So say African American leaders, as well as survivors of Hurricane Katrina, many of whom are black.
A flood victim told the Washington Post that the word brings to mind 'Third World' images of 'babies in Africa that have all the flies and are starving to death.' He added, 'That's not me. I'm... paying taxes.'
President Bush and the Congressional Black Caucus agree. Going a hyperbolic step or two further, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said that labeling Americans as refugees is actually 'racist.'
Some news organizations, including The Inquirer, shun the word, preferring displaced people, evacuees or homeless people.
Those who had wandered wet and bereft along Interstate 10 with McDonald's and Home Depot nearby couldn't possibly have been like the lost refugees we saw in news footage on forsaken Kosovo roads, many believe.
Linguists such as Julie Sedivy of Brown University say it's not unusual for a neutral word to be freighted with emotional connotations that get layered on.
Idiot used to be a clinical term describing someone with low IQ. The word eventually made people uncomfortable, and was substituted with mentally retarded. That grew troubling, so now we say developmentally delayed.
'The meaning of a word is a living, changing thing, and a word can become a repository for people's negative associations," Sedivy says."
By Alfred Lubrano
Inquirer Columnist
Americans cannot be refugees.
So say African American leaders, as well as survivors of Hurricane Katrina, many of whom are black.
A flood victim told the Washington Post that the word brings to mind 'Third World' images of 'babies in Africa that have all the flies and are starving to death.' He added, 'That's not me. I'm... paying taxes.'
President Bush and the Congressional Black Caucus agree. Going a hyperbolic step or two further, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said that labeling Americans as refugees is actually 'racist.'
Some news organizations, including The Inquirer, shun the word, preferring displaced people, evacuees or homeless people.
Those who had wandered wet and bereft along Interstate 10 with McDonald's and Home Depot nearby couldn't possibly have been like the lost refugees we saw in news footage on forsaken Kosovo roads, many believe.
Linguists such as Julie Sedivy of Brown University say it's not unusual for a neutral word to be freighted with emotional connotations that get layered on.
Idiot used to be a clinical term describing someone with low IQ. The word eventually made people uncomfortable, and was substituted with mentally retarded. That grew troubling, so now we say developmentally delayed.
'The meaning of a word is a living, changing thing, and a word can become a repository for people's negative associations," Sedivy says."
posted by Blackgold at 4:19 PM
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