Article published In: Language, Culture and Society
Vol. 8:2 (2026) ► pp.208–237
The figurative economic cycle of racial hierarchy
Media representations of post-Katrina New Orleans
Published online: 5 October 2026
https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.26011.sch
https://doi.org/10.1075/lcs.26011.sch
Abstract
This article uses critical discourse analysis and theories of
systemic racism to analyze media coverage of New Orleans at the ten-year anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina. Most media representations of recovery efforts in New Orleans
exemplify the mechanics of the politics of American race, which Hortense Spillers calls a
“figurative economy.” We identify four major discursive themes used by the media in the
construction of this figurative economy: the orientalization of New Orleans; the erasure
of Blackness; the valorization of white newcomers; and the characterization of Black pain
as eternal. These discourses reproduce a social and temporal othering of people of color.
Media representations of New Orleans circulate discourses that cycle through the steps of
the figurative economy, discursively attempting to entrench whiteness at the top of the
racial hierarchy.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Systemic racism and the figurative economy of racial hierarchy
- 3.Data and methods
- 4.Analysis
- 4.1Orientalization
- 4.2Blackness siphoned and erased
- 4.3White newcomers credited with renaissance
- 4.4Black pain as spectacle
- 5.Conclusion
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