Refugees

I've been watching the hurricane coverage, of course.  What distresses me most -- what I am most sick and tired of hearing -- comes from members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Jessie Jackson and others, who say that the victims of Katrina should not be called "refugees" because that word has a "negative connotation".   Carol Mosley Braun in an interview with CNN today specifically linked the words "refugee" and "rioters". 

I guess I understand where the black leadership is coming from (some of the media coverage has been definitively racist).  But they seem hypocritically unconcerned that their words are bringing the word "refugee" into disrepute.  They don't care that the next time someone talks about the refugees in Palestine and sub-saharan Africa and flood-ravaged Bangladesh, the audience will bring a "negative connotation" to that word.

These are not stupid people.  They know that protecting one's own race by denigrating another is wrong.  But they don't care.  Today's expediency is all that counts.  And that is as despicable as any burning cross on anyone's lawn.