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ボストンの大学で黒人学を教えている友人からのメールです。彼は南部生まれのアフリカ系アメリカンです。
「昨年の災害もひどいものだったが、今回の災害も以前から去年よりもひどいものになるといわれていたので、政府の対応に誤りがなければ、ここまではひどくならなかったのではないか。
この４年間で富裕層と貧困層のギャップはますます増大しており、ここまで貧困層の人々が社会から否定された例を、今までの自分の人生で知らない」
と書かれています。このようなことはベイエリアのこの分野の人たちも話題にしていることです。
アフリカ系アメリカ人の現況については、いずれ私も時間がある時に投稿したいと思っています。
Of course we are all concerned and upset about the Hurricane and its implications about race and class in the US. You raise an interesting point about natural versus human (political) disaster. This is an issue we have been discussing here in African American Studies since the hurricane happened.
Of course, nature created the storm, but one cannot imagine a human tragedy of this magnitude being allowed to occur in an upper class white area of the country. The storm was not a surprise. Because of global warming tropical storms have become more severe.
Last year's storms were severe and the meteorologists had predicted even worse storms for this season. Katrina was tracked by the National Weather Service. Everyone knew that it had the potential to cause huge damage. The authorities in New Orleans asked people to evacuate. That meant they understood how dangerous the storm was. So, no one can say that the damage was a surprise.
What was a surprise for many white Americans was to learn that the huge majority of the people who were killed and lost their homes were black. But it was no secret that those people were poor and many had absolutely no way to flee from the storm.
The real tragedy is that this human tragedy was almost totally avoidable. If the government had sent in troops right away before the storm hit they could have evacuated those people, or at least a large amount of them. We cannot understand how the government is able to send troops quickly to the other side of the world but cannot get them down South to save women and children right here in the US.
Instead of acting they did nothing to prevent the tragedy and even waited for days before beginning a relief effort after the storm. So, although the storm was a natural force it's consequences were largely the result of human neglect. Just as people are dying unnecessarily in war so they died unnecessarily in New Orleans.
In my opinion it clearly shows the continuing large importance of race and class in the United States and it shows that the country is becoming increasingly inequitable. The gap between rich and poor is growing and poverty has grown over the last four years. I have never known a time in this country when poor people were neglected so badly and when wealth was as praised and made into a god as it is now.
題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。