What, Me Worry? Kitty Genovese Katrina Response
In 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was brutally stabbed while 38 New York City residents in nearby buildings watched and did nothing to save her. Social psychologists have used this horrible scenario as a metaphor for passive crowd behavior, i.e., the amazing situation where people will essentially ignore something awful happening to fellow human beings nearby.
New Orleans was the most racially impacted city in the united states in terms of the disparity of income, education, and privledge. We have been reassured that the absence of disaster relief has nothing to do with race or class. Also, pigs fly upside down. If this horror was happening in Beverly Hills, would the response be the same?
Disaster relief workers know. You can find thousands of statements about the lack of relief that's been offered. I was a disaster relief volunteer in the poorest region of Mississippi, written about in Newsweek: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9729481/site/newsweek/
. Katrina and Rita should not become America's next sociological version of Kitty Genovese.
Radujko-Moore | 
Common Blog
