You can see the structural "isms" in the coverage of this disaster. Who is trapped in the super dome and who has their picture taken looting. Poverty is as natural as Katrina.. The poor will always be with us because we insist on it.
Del Brian Copp wrote:
In suggesting the contrast between the obvious causation of problems (homelessness) due to natural disasters vs the often cited individual failure causes for problems, I did not mean to neglect the other, and more difficult for the public to accept/understand models of causation, the so-called "structural" explanations. Disaster might be termed an immediate and obvious structural explanation to which the public shows sympathy and action, but the more subtle and complicated structural issues of class inequality, prejudice and discrimination (the isms), etc. do not receive popular public responses because, unless it is obvious (natural disaster), the public is much more comfortable with psychological (individualistic) explanation than sociological (structural). BEC"Live an active not a reactive life." Carl Rogers Brian E. Copp, Ph.D. Professor Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice University of Wisconsin-River Falls KFA 330 410 S. Third St. River Falls, WI 54022 (715) 425-3992 or 3260, FAX (715) 425-0657
