'‘Like Refugees in their Own Country’: Racial Formation in post-Katrina U.S.”

Abstract

The controversy that followed hurricane Katrina and its representation by the media revealed unresolved racial issues in contemporary United States. Present-day New Orleans has become an ideal site for the application of Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s ‘racial formation’ theory, which challenges essentialist visions of race pointing to its sociohistorical construction. The present article makes use of this theoretical perspective to examine two pieces of fiction set in post-Katrina U.S.: HBO’s TV series Treme , and Richard Ford’s short-story “Leaving for Kenosha”. Such an analysis unveils key connections between race and class, ideology, politics or the role of the media. Keywords : Racial formation, Katrina, race, African Americans, mass media.