Refugees

I was just watching a press conference by officials from New Orleans, and one thing that jumped out was that 2 of the officials stated that the people who left New Orleans were not “refugees” but citizens of New Orleans.

I have noticed the all of a sudden that to some people the word “refugees” has become viewed as “racist” by the likes of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and others. I am amazed that one would think that way when in other countries people who flee from any natural disaster or armed insurgency are called “refugees” and you don’t hear them condemning the use of that word.

Refugees::
Persons who, because of real or imagined danger, move of their own volition, spontaneously or in violation of stay-put policy, irrespective of whether they move within their own country (national refugees) or across international boundaries (international refugees).

No where in the above do I see any thing that could be classified as racist. Maybe the people who think that it is so need to look the word up in a dictionary.

September 7, 2005   Posted in: General

Comments are closed for this entry.