Something bugging me : refugee

[libertypirate]

Is there a better word than refugee?

This highly de-emphasizes that they are people, Americans that we should be trying to relate.

ref•u•gee n.

One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.

I am offended that our fellow Americans would be framed with this word. I can't relate to a refugee but I can to an American.

If the news is starting to frame Americans during times of crisis we are in big trouble.

[clover]

1. survivor works for me, but it's probably been trademarked by cbs nt

[Avalux]

2. I've been calling them "displaced Americans"

That works better for me; I don't agree with using "refugee" either.

[2Design]

12. exactly - displaced americans n/t

[Bluebear]

3. Evacuee. nt

[kdmorris]

4. Here's a couple

Survivors of Katrina

Evacuee of New Orleans

People who are suffering due to Katrina

the list goes on.

Given your definition there, these people are not refugeess (except for maybe the political oppression, but that's probably a different thread).

[cynatnite]

5. I won't use 'refugee' here at DU

but to any freeper, RW nutjob or bush supporter that's what I'll call them. I'll do it with anyone who's been asleep the last five years to show the state this country is in.

This shouldn't be happening in this country and here it is...right in front of us.

I'll scream it from the rooftops if it'll wake more people up to how badly georgie and his minions have fucked up this country.

[xultar]

6. Evacuee! For gawd sake. Why is Tucker being a Fucker.

[sam sarrha]

7. these appear to be mostly poor and now homeless people, they are being

shipped out of town and will probably not go back..

they will just continue to be homeless, as there is no job training anywhere or voc rehab

there appear to be racial overtones.. just sending the poor colored people away for someone else to take care of.. like what Mexico is doing.. exporting their poor to raise the standard of living for the 'haves'. the Haves in Mexico have a standard of living second only to FRANCE..!!

[WiseButAngrySara]

8. Can we say Evacuees folks? They are American Citizens....n/t

[cynatnite]

9. Refugees were always people in other countries

Now we see the same thing here. Don't be afraid to use the word. It sends a powerful message the way I see it.

[idiosyncratic]

10. Evacuee was the name used during the devastating fires in San Diego

I don't know why that word isn't used for NOLA.

Some people who were burned out of their homes in October 2003 are still "evacuees" from their old neighborhoods.

They were never refugees . . .

[matt819]

11. I think it's an appropriate word

It's concise and it describes just what our government has permitted to happen within our borders.

[DistressedAmerican]

13. You Can Be Both An American AND A Refugee.

Why can Americans not be refugees? Why the implication that they could be offend you?

They are both. American AND Refugees. One is the noun the other is the modifier.

Are Americans and refugees somehow mutually exclusive concepts in your mind?

Do you refer to Hatians that have fled their homes for their lives as refugees or just Hatians?

[uppityperson]

14. This is a time of war. War against the administration and their supporters

I see no reason to not refer to them as refugees as they are refugees of the war of Money and Power. The War on the Poor. The War of Who Gives a Shit About Them People. I see them as refugees and I am offended by this term also and that this country is in as bad of shape as it is. fuck the neocons.

[clover]

15. why i am bothered by the word:

it seems to be a greater leap from survivors to insurgents
and just a skip from refugees to insurgents

but now i'm off to watch sharpton challenge the bobbing bowtie boy about his insistence on the word refugee

yipee!

[clover]

17. tucker calls rev. sharpton rev. al=word choices do indeed matter nt

[Igel]

16. How does calling somebody a refugee dehumanize them any more

than calling them an evacuee?

They're people that flee something, seeking refuge, for whatever cause. I can't call inanimate objects refugees (except in a rather extended, metaphorical sense). I can evacuate inanimate objects, although it has a rather different meaning.

And many of the people fled NOLA on their own: I don't find calling them evacuees to be grammatical, an evacuee (for me at least) is somebody who has been evacuated, i.e., they've been the subject of a transitive verb.

We can call them what bureaucrats would: internally displaced persons, or IDPs for short. I'm not a bureaucrat. Sorry.

[libertypirate]

18. Duh

You evacuate from your home, your a refugee from a war zone!

That's why...

How do you relate to a person who is in the middle of a war?

[DistressedAmerican]

20. that Definition Is Rediculously Narrow! Hello?

What did we call folks in Indonesia that fled the sunami?

Refugees right?

[Igel]

21. You seek refuge from a catastrophe of any sort.

Refugee can only apply to people; it means they're seeking shelter, typically after fleeing. That applies.

An evacuee can be from a theatre, or anything else that needs to be evacuate. I can't call somebody who fled under their own power an evacuee, it denies them agenthood.

And you can evacuate a colon.

It strikes me that if you deduce the meaning of the word only from CNN, you'd come up with your meaning. But 'refugee' has been around for a while (since we got it from French). The alternative, "internally displaced person", reeks of bureaucratese.

And is typically abbreviated DP or IDP.

[libertypirate]

23. Alright then why are these Americans the first to be called a refugee ...

in an emergency on Television?

Because unlike other regions there isn't a common name for the local people? Then they are residents, locals, people, residents of the state of Louisiana, pick a word there are many better!!!!

This stupidity and retardation that doesn't see that the precise words used to define and describe the world directly effects all perception of it. Notably and most importantly the human connections that are required to measure views appropriately start with the words we use to define them not the pictures.

Presenting me an excuse why it's ok to define my fellow Americans in a way that allows disconnect doesn't help them and their plight be understood. We relate to shit by what we know of it, don't tell me calling fellow Americans looters and thugs is helping the 10'000's of them get to safety.

[clover]

19. grain of salt? from www.tbr.org

"... This afternoon, I was having lunch at the Cosmos Club out on Massachusetts Avenue. A good friend is a member of the posh club (that once was the elegant town home of Sumner Welles), and while at lunch, I was privy to a very vocal conversation at one of the big round center tables in the club dining room.

One man was giving an overview of the situation to a group of his friends. The speaker was an undersecretary of an important department, well -liked by Bush and often in the White House to consult. The others ranged from an academic economist whose writings can be seen in a right wing paper and a number of Washington-based businessmen, all of whom are active and heavy contributors to the Bush White House.

The loud one had obviously had a few drinks at the bar and this is probably why he was not more discreet. The gist of his comments was horrible to contemplate and it sounded like a top Nazi discussing Jews.

It is well known here that the Bush family and many of the top advisers at the White House are racists but instead of detesting Jews, in this case, they all detest blacks. Their rationale, aside from their view of racial superiority, is that blacks are all “welfare queens, unwed mothers and drug dealers.” It was the very firmly stated view of the host that it was better for everyone that New Orleans was under water for the time being.

In that way, we were told (and I was not the only person in the dining room who heard all this), this served to “chase out the niggers” and permit Bush-supporting businessmen from buying up the soon-to-be condemned sodden houses for five cents on the dollar from friendly insurance companies (which one of them was a CEO of) and put up an enlarged and very profitable combination of industrial park and office building section. The money for this would, naturally, come from government grants which a terrified Congress (Mid Term elections are coming) had just voted for and the contracts to demolish the wrecked low-income slums would go, as a no-bid contract, to another stellar Bush supporter..."

[Madrone]

22. Refugee is the PERFECT word for them!!

ref•u•gee n.

One who flees in search of refuge, as in times of war, political oppression, or religious persecution.


Political oppression?

Can't be more on the money than that!