Racial Framing and Superstorm Sandy: A Black Mother Begs for Help While Her Children Drown |
Racial Framing and Superstorm Sandy: A Black Mother Begs for Help While Her Children Drown
We Are Respectable Negroes
2012-11-04
Superstorm Sandy has made the divisions of class in the New York City area very clear. The “haves” are able to muster the resources to somehow survive. The “have nots” are left to their own devices.
Superstorm Sandy has also reminded us of how race remains one of the main dividing lines in our society. While naked displays of racism are now outside of the norms of “polite society,” racial micro-aggressions, the day-to-day moments of white racial hostility and animus towards people of color, continue onward.
Racial micro-aggressions can impact the lives of black and brown folks in ways that are “just” inconvenient–the store detective that follows you around while shopping; being asked for ID when using a credit card; when your friends or colleagues “complement” you by saying you are one of “the special” or “good” ones.
Alternatively, these racial micro-aggressions can also be deadly in their outcomes.
Superstorm Sandy has yet to provide an iconic example of white racist media framing such as when during Hurricane Katrina, black people were described as “looters,” and whites, also trying to survive, were captioned in news photos as “looking for food.”
A lack of an iconic moment does not mean that race no longer impacts life outcomes, the safety and health of people of color, or how white society chooses to view (or not) African-Americans as full members of the polity and broader community…
Some other thoughts and questions about racial framing and SuperStorm Sandy:
1. Has racial framing become more or less prominent in the media’s coverage of Superstorm Sandy? I have noticed a good number of photos where people of color are shown in line waiting for gasoline and food. I have not seen many similar images of white people. In discussions of looting, the only stories I have seen have featured black men. Have any of you seen stories about social disorder following Superstorm Sandy in white communities?
2. The white victims of SuperStorm Sandy in Staten Island, and the Jersey Shore in particular, have been framed by the media as “hearty” stalwarts and survivors. In comparison to Hurricane Katrina, why is their decision to stay put after an evacuation order, not being interrogated as that of “irresponsible” people?…
…7. Glenda Moore’s two children were fathered by a white man. In many ways, the multiracial movement is prefaced on gaining white privilege for those people who are of a “mixed race” background in order to create a buffer race and colored class.
The white parentage through their father of those two beautiful black children did not extend any privilege, or sense of white kinship to them, through their mother. The boundaries of white community were not broad enough to save those two children.
The “one drop” rule is real in American society. For example, while some white folks are confused (and even offended) by Barack Obama’s claim to a black identity, this tragic event is more proof that in this society African Americans of a “mixed race” background are still stigmatized by their blackness. In total, White privilege, and their “white” lineage, did not save Glenda Moore’s two children. It left them to drown and die.
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Chauncey DeVega, New York, We Are Respectable Negroes