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Putting Government In Its Place: Cultural Racism, Sentiment, And Neoliberalism In Contemporary United States Responses To Natural Disasters Abroad, Corinne Wohlford Mason

All Theses, Dissertations, and Capstone Projects

The reasons for American distrust of government are multiple, and enumerating them is beyond the scope of this project. However, this distrust in the government supports the values of neoliberalism, especially the ideal of limited government. Rhetorically separating government and sentiment has serious effects on what kinds of change are possible in a world where there are no sanctuaries from the effects of the free market. Relegating government to the role of supporting the free market is loss for vulnerable people—especially black people—everywhere. Yet doing so makes Americans feel good about themselves. As Obama claimed in his Newsweek piece, indeed, …