The figurative economic cycle of racial hierarchy

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.