Legitimizing Neglect: Race and Rationality in Conservative News Commentary About Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

This article examines the ways conservative news media, conservative commentators, and conservative leaders talked about the predominantly Black and poor residents of New Orleans who remained in the city as Hurricane Katrina struck. One month of conservative commentary was assembled from (a) the highest circulation daily newspapers that endorsed Bush in 2004; (b) leading conservative magazines; and (c) leading conservative commentators. A close reading of the materials revealed that the words of conservative commentators, even while sometimes condemning Federal government incompetence for failing to assist those stranded in New Orleans, highlighted the cultural boundaries and racial criteria for belonging to and exclusion from the rational, civilized community represented primarily by Whites. Conservative commentary crafted a narrative of irrationality within which Blacks violated norms of sound decision-making and accepted behavior. Thematic elements of this narrative—a “different breed,” socio-cultural flaws, and unworthy victims—were then mobilized using specific strategies of representation.

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