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One of the
latest debates
taking place on
the streets and
in the country’s
most respected
newsrooms is
whether to call
victims of
recent the
hurricane
refugees. Some
say that the
word is
insulting. It
implies that the
evacuees, so
many of whom
were people of
color, are not
citizens. Author
Andrea Louie
contends that no
other word
encapsulates the
experience of
being forced to
leave home
against one’s
will; no word
whether evacuee
or survivor or
other euphemism
connotes the
grief. The
sorrow of
displacement and
loss knows no
nationhood. And
yet, considering
all the paths
which have led
to our
particular
doorstep,
perhaps we can
say that the
refugee
experience is a
uniquely
American one.
Louie will give
selected
readings from
her novel in
progress, Pang,
and an
anthology,
Topography of
War: Asian
American Essays,
for which she is
coeditor, which
examine the
refugee
experience from
an Asian
American
perspective.
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