Refugees - at least in the contemporary sense - are people usually
considered ones forced to take refuge outside their country of origin -
forced out for tribal, ethnic, religious, poverty or other reasons.
As a domestic, or internal term - that is to be a "refugee" in your own
country - it becomes much more ambiguous, possibly taken as a term of
inferiority in relationship to other citizens. The folks on the Gulf Coast
are:
(1) Citizens of the USA and
(2) victims of a natural disaster (with additional human factors).
(3) Evacuees from the consequences of this disaster.
(4) As citizens - unlike foreign refugees - they are entitled to all
benefits, support, etc.
I well suspect that African-Americans - as evidenced in TV interviews of
many leaders - speak from a position of being deeply aware of the ambiguous
history (slavery, voting, et al) in terms of being considered fully fledged
citizens under the law. The term "refugee" re-invokes that ambiguity, and a
very unkind history - particularly one that has just been repeated in the
absence of an evacuation plan for the poorest - i.e. Black - people in New
Orleans (or most recent, Mother Bush's outrageous remarks in Texas re the
evacuees housed in the Houston Astrodome)
I hope this explanation helps. If you want to further research black
response, Google it up, and let me know if you find anything that
contradicts what I have said here. Again - even if one is oblivious to
African-American resentment over the use of the term - ignorance, I suggest,
is not an excuse for trivializing a real concern.
Stephen V
> Stephen,
>
>> "Trivia"?? Ken, I guess you have not been listening to the anger of
>> African-Americans expressed in multiple places over the use of the
>> term,"refugee." It's perceived/heard, as it should be, as a real
>> insult -
>
> Man, it's been a few years since I lived in the U.S. I'm trying to get my head
> around this one, and it might just be too thick for the task. But how is the
> term "refugee" a real insult? (And no, I haven't been listening to this
> particular debate in the press, which hasn't reached us out here in the far
> north).
>
> And to take it a step further -- how is taking the term "refugee" as an
> insult, _not_ an insult to all of the refugees of this world?
>
> --Knut
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