evolving hurricane lexicon: people are now all "folks"

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 12:31pm

Very small Saffire-ian observation: Much has been made of the pejorative spin on "refugee." But has anyone noticed the new, ubiquitous term employed to label the displaced people? "Folks." Of course it's not brand new. Bush used to use it as a centerpiece of his common man-speak. But in the past two weeks, every member of the media -- even Tom Brokaw -- invokes "folks" to euphemize "the disenfranchised," as in "...it took a while to get all these folks outta there." Or "everywhere you turn, there are folks who don't know whom to trust..." It's interesting how quickly its become synonymous with this population of catastrophe-defined Americans. Its evolution is worth noting.

Updated On: 9/9/05 at 12:31 PM

[orion59]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 8:13am

That's interesting. I started noticing the use of "folks" mainly because I becoming concerned with the use of "refugees".

Our capacity to feel compassion is pretty limited. It lasts only as long as we can tell others what we have done to help, as long as we can have that moment of pride when others look at us and think "you're such a wonderful and generous person."

The word refugee has a ceratin conotation to it. It evokes images of huddled masses of people leaving a devestated homeland and showing up at our door step looking for shelter. It also evokes images of people who eventually put a strain on our economy, who take jobs away from us and who seek financial assistance from our government.

Already we've seen some people blaming the victims for the situation they are in, focuing on the looting and other criminal acts that occured in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and behaving toward these people as though they are an embarassment to our country. On this site, someone reposted a news article that basically wrote off these victims as welfare parasites.

Early this week I watched news coverage of a group of black New Orleans citazins being plunked down in the middle of Utah. The all white, mostly Mormon community welcomed them with open arms. I couldn't help wondering what happens when reality sets in and it becomes clear that these are not short term visitors. What happens when the culture of this town starts to change? Will racial tension start to fester? Will there be hatred?

The use of the word "folks" may be a ploy to get people to associate the down home values of small town America with these hurricane victims. Maybe it remind them that these are not third world people coming to the US looking for a "hand out." These are Amercian citizens who have been displaced from a city that is vital to the economy of the nation. When the compassion wanes, tensions build and the novelty of helping out the "poor refugess" wears off, we still need to get New Orleans rebuilt and reviatized. We need to get it repopulated for the sake of our economy. We can't look at these displaced people as homeless refugees.

The associations we have with words can be pretty powerful. I can easily imagine that the use of "folks" is a deliberate choice to stimulate certain associations for middle America, those folks in Utah and Texas and other states where the poeple of New Orleans are being sent and may decide to stay for good.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 12:12pm

What an interesting extension of this discussion. I'd thought I might be splitting hairs, until (after starting this thread) I kept listening the last 36 hours. Our language tells us a great deal, and in this case, we have a new segregated (but starting to be shoe-horned, per Orion's info) population. Remember "the boat people?" Remember how we all learned to bristle at the direct address "you people..."? As in "You people are always complaining..."

This morning, Pat Buchannon was opposite a Democratic stragetic (name escapes me), two 60ish white men decrying the "easy" playing of the race card in a situation that's about "socio-economic issues, not skin color." As has been discussed widely elsewhere on this board, how irony-tinged is any debate -- especially between two white men -- that talks about poverty in strict, race-free terms. If only it were "easy" to REMOVE "the race card!"

And oh yes: both Buchannan and the Dem both generously admitted "...these FOLKS certainly need our help."

Updated On: 9/10/05 at 12:12 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 2:48pm

Is it my fuzzy memory or right after the attacks of 2001, did Bush not say something along the lines of "We gonna get the folks what done this!"? I remember Lea DeLaria doing a hilarious riff on this at the Comedy Festival in Montreal in Summer '02, and I think her point was the odd use of the word "folks," the other part of the sentence I quoted may just have been her punchline.

I've searched the net for a quote like that from W, but haven't located it. Anybody else remember him referring to Al Quaida members as "folks?"

[kjklo]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 3:22pm

The very first public statement Bush made after the attacks on 9-11 was around 9:15 AM, while leaving that elementary school in Sarasota. He said: "Today we had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center. We're going to hunt down and find the folks who committed this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand."

[sabrelady]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 3:35pm

AHHH yes the "Crackerbarrel"(emphasis on cracker) political philosophisers are reincarnated yet again!

Posted: 9/10/05 at 3:45pm

Gee, and I've been using the word "folks" long before it became a mot de temps.
Updated On: 9/10/05 at 03:45 PM

[sabrelady]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 3:52pm

Aher yew jest plain folks 'en Jose`? Well AH swan!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 9/10/05 at 7:28pm

By the way, I was looking through Diane Ravitch's extraodrinary book "The Language Police" (which indicts speech censorship in textbooks accomplished by both the far right and left; required reading for anyone interested in the ways dangerous extremism that can destroy our culture.)

Get this: In textbooks, when Mark Twain's work is "updated," the N word and its many replacements, historically true to the period, are substituted with another bland word.

You got it: "Folks."

[orion59]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 8:24am

That leaves me questioning my theory that "folks" is being used to bring about a positive association with people who may soon be reagrded as a burden. I'll bet that in Bush's case, at least, when he uses "folks" it's the same editing process that is applied to Mark Twain's writing.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 9:57am

oh please, like dubya's read any twain.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 9/11/05 at 11:58am

Like Dubya can read? ( remember how he was showing that picture book to the children on 9/11? I always figured the reason he stayed was cos he wanted to see how the book ended!!!)