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August 15, 2005
Disasters Do Not Necessarily Affect Minorities Disproportionately
Philadelphia, PA– While it has long been
assumed in the disaster research community that individuals with fewer resources
are more likely to suffer in a disaster—and it is true that non-whites, the
poor, and females often suffer more than their counterparts—the
race-class-and-gender trinity of variables does not capture the entire spectrum
in which disaster affects society. At the 2005 American Sociological Association
Annual Meeting, Lee Clarke, Rutgers University, discusses the reality that
calamity is with us as never before and yet we are poorly prepared.
“Too much disaster policy continues to take a command-and-control
stance. And there’s been insufficient preparation where disasters really
happen—at the local level: in offices, schools, trains, and the like,” says
Clarke. “We are at greater risk for worst-case disasters today than in the past,
even in wealthy societies. This is because of hubris, interdependence, and
population concentration. Clarke finds that people suffer and die in the same ways that they
live—in patterned, nonrandom ways. There are patterns in where people choose to
live, where they go to work, with whom they eat lunch, and with whom they spend
their leisure time. His research concludes that because of that patterning,
disasters in general and worst cases in particular can always be expected to
damage some people disproportionately. His research stresses that disaster is a
normal part of life. In regards to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center, it is common to see enumerations of the many countries that were
represented among the victims, which are used to show, incorrectly, says Clarke,
that there were no patterns. But bond traders were differentially exposed to
risk of death. The brokerage house of Cantor Fitzgerald lost about two-thirds of
its 1,000 employees that morning. Probably few of those employees were poor and
most were probably white, male, and financially well-off. He refers to this as
inequities of the moment. In disasters, “sometimes occupation matters, sometimes the kind of
organization that you work for. Sometimes gender or race or class matters.
Sometimes the inequality of the moment is geographically based,” says Clarke.
“Once we see disaster and catastrophe, like death, misery, happiness, and
boredom, as a normal part of life several things are thrown into perspective. We
see that destruction happens in disasters in ways that are not random: there are
patterns. These patterns tend to mirror the ways humans organize their
societies: along lines of wealth and poverty, division of labor, access to
health care, membership in organizations, to name a few.” To obtain a copy of Clarke’s paper, contact Johanna Olexy or Lee
Herring at the ASA Press Office at (202) 247-9871, pubinfo@asanet.org or for more information
on other ASA presentations, the meeting in general, or for assistance reaching
researchers. Journalists are invited to attend all Annual Meeting events. ASA
Press facilities (215-409-4738) will be located at the Philadelphia Marriott
Hotel during August 12-16. Clarke’s presentation is based on a chapter from his forthcoming
book, Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination
(Fall 2005). Lee Clarke can be reached at (732) 445-5741 or lee@leeclarke.com. He will be in
Philadelphia from August 12-16 at the Loews Philadelphia. At the meeting, he is
to be awarded the ASA Environment and Technology section’s Distinguished
Contribution Award. The searchable ASA Annual Meeting program and the PDF version of
the preliminary program are posted on the meeting website.
About the American Sociological Association
The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org),
founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to
serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science
and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.