Racializing Pity: The Haiti Earthquake and the Plight of “Others”

Abstract

In this essay I argue that the mediated responses to the Haiti earthquake reflect the racialization of pity and the privileging of a white view of the dark world as dysfunctional, childlike and dependent. This racialization has been cultivated and affirmed by mediated representations of disasters and their aftermath, particularly through the development of a narrative that places the fate of the dark world in the hands of a benevolent white one. I argue that the mediated discourse of pity exposes the subtle power relations existing between whites and blacks.

Keywords:

• Race
• Otherness
• media coverage of disaster
• Haiti
• pity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Murali Balaji

Murali Balaji is the mass communications program director at Lincoln University and the author of several books. He has also co-edited several volumes and numerous articles on cultural production, race and identity