Credit commenter RightWinged with this catch. Remember during Katrina when America learned, much to its astonishment, that the word “refugee” was racist?
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” implies that the displaced storm victims, many of whom have been black, are second-class citizens — or not even Americans.
“It is racist to call American citizens refugees,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, visiting the Houston Astrodome on Monday. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have expressed similar sentiments.
Bush, in a political jam, joined in on this idiocy to lower the heat on himself. Two years later, the lesson appears not to have been learned. Anyone heard from the good reverend during all this about the many, many, many descriptions of Californians as refugees? Or does he not give the slightest crap now that we have a disaster without any easy racial narrative to be exploited and demagogued unto death for political advantage?
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