Torch

Issue date: 9/27/06 Section: News

Media Credit: TORCH PHOTO/ FRANK TISELLANO Dr. Michael Eric Dyson of the University of Pennsylvania, who spoke Sept. 20 on "the colors of Hurricane Katrina."

On Wednesday, Sept. 20, acclaimed author and University of Pennsylvania professor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson spoke at St. John's University in a lecture entitled "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Colors of Disaster."

"When I think of Hurricane Katrina, I think of one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history," he said. "Everybody was at fault when it came to the government down there."

Dyson has written several books, including the New York Times best seller Is Bill Cosby Right? and The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X, as well as his newest book on race in Hurricane Katrina, for which the lecture was named.

Dyson compared the events and controversies of Hurricane Katrina to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Between 9/11 and August 29 of last year, there is a tale of two cities," he said. "There was a vast outpouring of empathy and sympathy [for both tragedies]… [but] there is a jarring contrast between the help offered in the wake of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina."

Dyson added that the federal government actually turned down offers from several other nations to donate to the Katrina rescue effort through both materials and man power.

"When the Bush administration said 'We don't want to point fingers,' that's because the fingers most likely would've been pointing at them," Dyson said to applause and laughter.

Dyson's view on the ineptitude of the rescue and clean-up efforts was backed by the speech of Bethany Housman, a graduate student of sociology, who preceded Dyson with a recount of her "Plunge" trip to New Orleans last March with the University's Campus Ministries and Catholic Charities.

"Our group was let down by the improvements made in six months," Housman said. "It looked like the levees had broken the night before… There are still homes in the middle of streets, still families with no place to live."

After Dyson finished speaking about the poor showing of the local and federal governments, he related it to the topics he is most well-known for, race and class.

"Who were all these poor people we saw on TV," Dyson asked. "And why didn't we know about them?"

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools