Puerto Ricans and Worthiness: Hurricanes, Natural Disaster Responses and American Identity

• In Event: Environmental Inequalities

Abstract

Two weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico President Donald Trump paid the island a visit. Comparing Hurricane Katrina to Maria Trump downplayed the Commonwealth’s death toll and quickly deflected the conversation to the island’s budget woes. Ordinary citizens could not help but compare the federal government’s sluggish response to Maria, and Trump’s berating displays, to the rapid deployment of resources to Hurricane Harvey victims in the greater Houston area. While they carry the same passport, Puerto Ricans clearly had a different kind of U.S. citizenship. His response to these storms and their victims are part of a larger debate regarding the worthiness of particular subsets of citizens and the quintessence of American national identity – is it civic, ethno-racial, or a mix of the two. Objectifying national identities tends to focus on the classic us-them boundary. Less studied is how this process creates and then exacerbates intra-national group hierarchies and privileges. The study of natural disasters is not only an opportunity to examine rescuing victims and restoring infrastructure. It is also an occasion to scrutinize the public and veiled objectification of national belonging. The administration’s response to Hurricane Maria, a passive racialization of Puerto Ricans, is also part of a larger process of prioritizing government responses based on the relative quality of sub-sets of U.S. citizens.

Authors

• Amilcar Antonio Barreto, Northeastern University

• Amos Nasongo, Northeastern University