From police on the street, to the mayor of New Orleans and FEMA
administrators, government officials monumentally failed to protect
the most vulnerable residents of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
during the Katrina disaster. This violation of the social contract
undermined the foundational narratives and myths of the American
nation and spawned a profound, often contentious public debate over
the meaning of Katrina's devastation. A wide range of voices and
images attempted to clarify what happened, name those responsible,
identify the victims, and decide what should be done. This debate
took place in forums ranging from mass media and the political
arena to the arts and popular culture, as various narratives
emerged and competed to tell the story of Katrina. Is This America?
explores how Katrina has been constructed as a cultural trauma in
print media, the arts and popular culture, and television coverage.
Using stories told by the New York Times, New Orleans
Times-Picayune, Time, Newsweek, NBC, and CNN, as well as the works
of artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and graphic designers,
Ron Eyerman analyzes how these narratives publicly articulated
collective pain and loss. He demonstrates that, by exposing a
foundational racial cleavage in American society, these expressions
of cultural trauma turned individual experiences of suffering
during Katrina into a national debate about the failure of the
white majority in the United States to care about the black
minority.
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