The dominant media has spent a great deal of time commenting on both the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the five-year anniversary of 9/11. Unfortunately, they have neither gone beyond conventional spin nor made much of an attempt to connect the two events, which together reveal much about the political uses of the less fortunate. The tragedy of 9/11… return to article
-
subscribe to print magazine
-
email this article to a friend
-
Reader Comments (5)Page 1 of 1 pagesThoughts from a barefoot woman:
Again, this is an interesting dichotomy...we laud the warrior support of a presumed underclass in other countries, where our tax dollars fund the killings, murders, assassinations and unnecessary deathes of people we have little contact with (outside of our own political and economic incursions) , while despising our own forced “underclass”.
How come we can never pull overselves up by our own boot straps?
Could it be that not all of us have boots?
And why is that?
Posted by minerva_jones on Sep 18, 2006 at 12:13 PM Could perhaps one of the reasons some don’t have boots be because the incentive they might naturally have to go out and get them has been removed, and because any effort to reclaim their natural yearning is ridiculed and disparaged by their very peers? Ask Bill Cosby if you’re not sure.
Posted by Natalie on Sep 18, 2006 at 6:19 PM How dare we call ouselves a super power and treat the least among us in such an awful way. Since when is life is cheap, get a job, and corporations have human rights the standards by which we define ourselves?
Jesus wept.
Posted by PoBoy on Sep 19, 2006 at 12:43 PM The Politics of Disposability is an appropriate title for the attack on poor people and the powerless.
Binary frameworks that are used to distinguish the privileged from the dispossessed, the powerful from the powerless, when used in the service of domination, always manage to reverse the terms.
Poor people, for example, who are abandoned by societies institutions are later described as abandoning themselves. In other words, those who have the least resources are expected to take most of the blame.
It is also apt to connect this to the larger political realm. The people who are destroyed by the thousands by massive military assaults are the ones who are deemed the terrorists rather the victims. Although terrorism has been recognized as a form of asymmetrical warefare - a reaction to a more vicious and pernicioius form of violence - is deemed the most terrifying of them all.
Posted by Epistrophy on Sep 21, 2006 at 4:19 PM Bill Cosby?
Come on, Natalie...get out of that Jello tree, lol
Posted by minerva_jones on Sep 21, 2006 at 11:17 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
register a new account »Posting Security
Also by Henry Giroux
- Katrina and the Politics of Disposability
News reporting on the aftermath of Katrina blames the victims rather than helps them.
Popular Discussions
- The 9/11 Faith Movement
Many Americans believe 9/11 was a conspiracy by the U.S. government
1968 posts since Jul 11 06 - What’s the 411 on 9/11?
891 posts since Dec 21 05 - Democrats: It’s the War
659 posts since Nov 1 05 - Was the Presidential Election Stolen?
459 posts since Jun 19 06 - A Fundamental History Lesson
The rise of National Socialism proved politics and religion don't mix
426 posts since Oct 10 05
© 2006 In These Times | Reprint Policy | Privacy Policy | Powered by Expression Engine | RSS Feeds
