NYT: Scattered in a Storm's Wake and Caught in a Clash of Cultures

[Pirate Smile]

Scattered in a Storm's Wake and Caught in a Clash of Cultures
By ISABEL WILKERSON
Published: October 9, 2005

SALLISAW, Okla. - Word spread fast after the evacuees arrived. Everyone wanted to see one up close. Soon, the gravel driveways wending through the grounds of the old church mission were backed up with trucks and minivans filled with locals bearing bottled water or leftover clothes or just wanting to talk to the Louisiana people, tell them how sorry they were for what had happened to them.

-snip-
They were among the tens of thousands of people forced out of the Gulf Coast and into unaccustomed holding places where no one knew quite what to make of them. They had suddenly become nomads in their own country - pitied, gawked at and shuffled from place to place, stuck in the middle of a long journey that would take them through several states merely to get to this way station from which to plot the rest of their lives.

In time, they found themselves caught in a web of red tape and cultural miscues, clashing with locals over the tiniest of things, like how to cook grits or season meat, or over the life-and-death question of why they did not get out of harm's way in time.

Tensions rose, and by the end of the month, the Louisianans, grateful though they were, could not wait to get out. And the local people, well-meaning and overwhelmed, were just as relieved to see them go.

An Odyssey Begins ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/national/nationalspecial/09Refugee.html?hp&ex=1128830400&en=d3b8ffc90719bcc0&ei=5094&partner=homepage

It is an 8 page article

[MADem]

1. Well worth the read, too nt

[mom cat]

2. It is going to be a long long road back.

[bluedonkey]

3. Very well worth

the read.
I've bee worried about all the people scattered all over the place,especially the ones who went up North.It is a different way of life.
I lived in MN for a few years and I never felt more out of place.

[Skittles]

5. I felt at home in Minnesota

I saw people there who looked like me - real blonde women wearing no makeup - I really don't see that here in Texas

[ngGale]

4. Scattered with the wind....

from pillar to post. People will forget about their plight, we will have to keep bringing this subject up.

[KoKo]

6. Does this article strike anyone else as "odd."

Racist in tone...using quotes that make everyone seem illiterate and spreading rumors that we've heard about the poor uneducated. Also repeats the "rapes and murders" story that was debunked about the Superdome.

Somehow this long article seems to be embroidered with stereotypes of people and much subjective opinion.

I think they rehired Jason Blair...:eyes:

One might need to be Southern, to understand why I find this article offensive and exaggerated.. Maybe not.

[RedRocco]

7. I agree

the whole article seemed kinda/sorta racist and tries to give the impression that these people are ungrateful. well to tell you the truth I wouldn't be very grateful either if I was taken 100s of miles away from everything I new and more or less confined to a camp. (though the camp isn't surrounded by wire, it is isolated enough that for all practical purposes these people are confined) and no mention of any type of counseling, which a lot of these survivors clearly need. and for the people that accuse the survivors of being ungrateful, I would like to turn that around and accuse them of being ungracious.