What do we call people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina?

Editor's Notebook

Saturday, September 10, 2005

"The people we're talking about are not refugees. ... They are Americans," President George W. Bush said recently.

Ironically, he finds himself on the same side of the issue as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who also objects to using "refugees" to describe victims of Hurricane Katrina but for a different reason.

"It is racist to call American citizens refugees," Jackson says. The Congressional Black Caucus and the National Association of Black Journalists agree. The NABJ suggests the media use evacuees, victims or survivors instead of refugee.

Chicago Tribune Public Editor Don Wycliff, a member of the NABJ, disagrees.

"At best, 'evacuee' gets to half of the meaning of refugee," Wycliff wrote Thursday, "and carries the additional burden of sounding passive. 'Survivor' and 'victim' speak to other issues entirely and are in no way synonyms for 'refugee'."

Melissa Harris-Lacewell says the word is offensive because it implies that U.S. citizens made homeless by the storm are not recognized by their home country. Harris-Lacewell is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago's Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.

Although, the racism claim is difficult to understand, President Bush and Harris-Lacewell may be onto something. I checked two dictionaries here for the definition of refugee. Oxford's definition: "A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution or natural disaster."

Webster's said a refugee is "One who flees, usually to another country for refuge, especially from invasion, oppression or persecution."

By those definitions it would appear refugees seek refuge in another country, not their homeland. The Register-Mail has not banned the use of the word, but has chosen to use evacuees in most cases.

The Washington Post, The Miami Herald and The Boston Globe have banned the word refugee as a reference to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Associated Press and The New York Times still use the word "where appropriate."

Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said: "Several hundred thousand people have been uprooted from their homes and communities and forced to seek refuge in more than 30 different states across America. Until such time as they are able to take up new lives in their new communities or return to their former homes, they will be refugees."

Finally, Scott Libin, a faculty member at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Fla., writes: "Until now, no dictionary I can find excludes Americans from the definition of 'refugee,' and none indicates that use of the word for American citizens reflects racism."

In light of the fact that evacuees are headed to Galesburg, maybe soon we'll have the chance to use their first names.

Amanda Williams will resign her position as education reporter at The Register-Mail to take a reporter job in Marietta, Ga. Amanda, a graduate of Galesburg High School and Northern Illinois University, started at the newspaper as an intern in May 15, 2000. She worked over Christmas break that year and again in the summer of 2002 before being hired full time Aug. 18, 2003. Soon after, she was given the education beat and helped develop the education section, including her education column, which now runs each Saturday. Her final day will be Sept. 16.

How do you grade disaster coverage?
How have newspapers and other media done with respect to reporting on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath? Did the coverage provide the news you needed before, during and after the hurricane?

Huge stories such as Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaks in New Orleans test the media. Tell me (e-mail or mail) how well you think the media did, and I'll print excerpts in next week's Editor's Notebook.

Error report card
Due to a lack of space, I will run this week's error report card next week.

Tom Martin is editor of The Register-Mail. Contact him at tmartin@register-mail.com or 343-7181, Ext. 250.