ANTH 206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Redlining, Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine
8 Jun 2018
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10/31/17
Natural Disasters-
• August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans
• Graham writes about the 9th word- how race, power, etc. affected the impacts of the storm.
• Mainly poor black communities seem to have been affected by the storm, not complete data,
highly contested and analysis was stopped.
o Wild variety of perceptions of Katrina and aftermath
o 40% of white people thought the government handled it well, 17% of black people think
that.
o 60% white people think New Orleans is fully recovered, 20ish% of black people think so.
• Early victims seem to have been more white- don't know if because more actually died or if more
were in hospitals where the numbers could have been counted
• Conventional narrative- storm came in, buildings destroyed, casualties, help finally arrives, clean
up and return to business as usual
• Graham says Katrina was not a freak event, part of a longer historical narrative. Eradication of
poorer neighborhoods was a somewhat inevitable outcome
• Intersection of space (dream), place (local site of dwelling), race (specially organized in city) and
natural disasters on top of all of this
o Impacts of natural disasters are uneven
• Some engineers say this was expected- city below sea level between a lake and a river, this is
obvious
o Correlation between race/class and topographical elevation
o Impacts of hurricane not evenly distributed
• Race as a construct- biologically there is one human race. Across society and culture, races have
been given different meanings and status, race as a marker of identity, factor in life quality
• Space and place
o "modern" space is abstract, universal, infinite, empty, Des Cartes (two axes of depth and
width, mathematical/geographical system)
o Place: particular, subjective, attachment
▪ More real world we live in- concrete, relationships with other people and objects,
creation of meaning, particular experiences
o In Western philosophy, space has no positive or negative value.
o Casey: experience of place comes first. Cannot understand space without a subjective
attachment to a place. Understanding of abstract notions comes from who you are
o Yi-Fu Tuan: space as freedom, where we want to see ourselves, place is where we are
actually grounded. Only makes sense in certain cultures.
o Space used by investors and developers- when space is full of old, valueless houses, need to
create room
• Racial Construction of New Orleans
o Plantations surround, inner city and servant quarters
▪ Had a specific racial organization, not based on total exclusion but micro-exclusion
(estates of plantation owners were populated by black people, physical proximity)
o Desegregation and white flight- civil rights movement made segregation worse. Whites
invested in privilege, moved out of urban centers, took jobs in suburbs, took American
dream.
▪ Blocked black americans from moving to suburbs, could not get jobs, banks would not
accept loans in suburbs
o BNOB/Disaster Capitalism
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Eradication of poorer neighborhoods was a somewhat inevitable outcome. Intersection of space (dream), place (local site of dwelling), race (specially organized in city) and natural disasters on top of all of this. Some engineers say this was expected- city below sea level between a lake and a river, this is obvious: correlation between race/class and topographical elevation. Impacts of hurricane not evenly distributed: race as a construct- biologically there is one human race. Across society and culture, races have been given different meanings and status, race as a marker of identity, factor in life quality. In western philosophy, space has no positive or negative value: casey: experience of place comes first. Cannot understand space without a subjective attachment to a place. Understanding of abstract notions comes from who you are: yi-fu tuan: space as freedom, where we want to see ourselves, place is where we are actually grounded. Shock therapy- iraq war, sri lanka tsunami, katrina.
