Q&A
Criminologist Hillary Potter studies race, gender, class and crime, not natural disasters. But two weeks after Hurricane Katrina displaced hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians, the University of Colorado sociologist found herself in the River Center in Baton Rouge, La.,interviewing evacuees about their experiences. Potter sat with people as they smoked outside and complained about the heavily armed National Guardsmen patrolling the entrance. She took note of the different ways residents talked with her, an African-American woman, and to her graduate student, who is male and half Filipino, half white. “I’ve got data for at least four papers,” Potter said. Her trip was funded by the CU Natural Hazards Center’s quick response grant program.
Q: What did you intend to study?
A: “I became interested, when I started seeing all the media accounts of the looting, in how the residents were redefining, reframing so-called criminal activity. … They referred to it as survival.” Her interviewees denied taking any luxury items, and many developed a their own morality around obtaining necessities: Some would go only into stores with open doors, others only where police themselves were taking essential supplies.
Q: What did you learn that you didn’t expect?
A: Potter said she was surprised at the military feel to the evacuation shelter, something that deeply bothered the evacuees she interviewed. “Several people I interviewed said, ‘I feel like I’m in jail,”‘ Potter said. Security workers patrolled with handguns and rifles, and residents re-entering the shelter were required to pass through metal detectors. Many felt they were treated like criminals, Potter said.
Q: You said people in the River Center used two theories to describe the flooding.
A: “One theory was that the hurricane was an act of God to clean up all the corruption in government, the criminal activity of residents. … Others said that the levees has been bombed. They really believed they were bombed. When I asked by whom, they said, basically, by rich, white people, those in higher classes, the government, the man. They said, ‘Look at which parts of the city were flooded … how long it took the government to respond.”‘
– Katy Human, Denver Post staff writer
