All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

Year of Award

2015

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

College of Arts & Sciences

Department

History, Philosophy, and Religion

First Advisor

Heidi Ardizzone

Second Advisor

Emily Lutenski

Third Advisor

Kate Moran

Keywords

looting, racism, humanity, earthquake, hurricane, lootin, Haiti, Katrina, New Orleans, international

Abstract

The reasons for American distrust of government are multiple, and enumerating them is beyond the scope of this project. However, this distrust in the government supports the values of neoliberalism, especially the ideal of limited government. Rhetorically separating government and sentiment has serious effects on what kinds of change are possible in a world where there are no sanctuaries from the effects of the free market. Relegating government to the role of supporting the free market is loss for vulnerable people—especially black people—everywhere. Yet doing so makes Americans feel good about themselves. As Obama claimed in his Newsweek piece, indeed, “That is who we are. That is what we do.”

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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