Oct

26

So Where are the Black Players in Baseball?

Filed Under Original Essays and Analysis, Pop Culture, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

(Well folks I decided to pull this one out of the archive.? This is an old post from October of last year, but I thought I would recreate it on my new Rachel’s Tavern.)?

Last night I saw an AP article on Yahoo!, which noted that the Houston Astros baseball team has no Black players, which would make them the first team in over 50 years without an African American on the World Series roster. The decline in the percentage of African American Major League Baseball players has been happening for several years. In 1997 the Center for the Study of Sport in Society found that 17% of baseball players were Black while yesterdays AP article states that in 2005 only 9% of MLB players were Black. The article cites a few factors the decline in youth baseball in the inner city, the increasing number of players drafted from college, and the perception that baseball is not a sport for Black youth, but Im left asking a few questions. Is it really the number of Black players that is declining or is it the number of African Americans? Could the emphasis of diversity and international players be hurting the number of Black players? These questions get at the heart of Americas modern racial dilemma. Many researchers and everyday people argue that we are moving beyond Black and White, because of the changes in immigration. Today most immigrants come to the US from Latin American and Asia seeking economic opportunities, and except for their high pay immigrant baseball players are no different from other immigrants.

While the number of African American players has decreased there are more Latino and Asian players than ever. Im not sure the increase in Latino and Asian players has caused the decrease in the number of Black players, but there is a correlation. I recently read an analysis by sociologist Stephen Steinbergthat argued that immigration has routinely been used to undermine African American economic opportunities. Steinberg doesnt blame immigrants themselves for this. He argues that wealthy White business owners take advantage of immigrants desperation for jobs by paying them very low wages. Moreover, he says that business do not have the tight labor markets that would forced them to lower racist barriers and hire Black workers. Steinberg says that:

The danger is that like the old immigrants, the new immigrants, preoccupied with their own struggles, will duck the issue and avert their eyes from that black figure, still crouched on the ground. All through American history, one way in which immigrants avoided pariah status has been to disassociate themselves from African Americans and their plight. Tragically and ironically, it is one way that immigrants “become American.”

So his argument is that immigrant workers and businesses both benefit from the low status of African Americans. So how could this work in baseball. An article from the 2000 issue of Colorlines reveals how some baseball franchises used the boatload mentality to Hire Latin American players at cut rate prices.

Every team in Major League Baseball exploits Latino baseball players. Dick Balderson, vice-president of the Colorado Rockies, frankly calls this the “boatload mentality”–sign a “boatload” of Latinos for little money and if only a couple make it to the big leagues, teams still come out ahead. “Instead of signing four [American] guys at $25,000 each, you sign 20 [Dominican] guys for $5,000 each.” The justification for this “boatload mentality” used by baseball people is this: Tejada and other budding Latino players are fortunate that MLB affords them an opportunity to escape the third world poverty they grew up in. Baseball gives them a way out, a chance to get paid, eat regularly, sleep in clean beds, and, for the very best, a crack at fame and fortune.

Whether or not Black players are moving out of the major leagues because of this is unclear, but baseball is not the only major professional American sport to see a decline in the number of Black players. The same 1997 study from The Center for the Study of Sport in Society found that the number of Black players in the NBA was also decreasing, largely because more players were being recruiting from overseas (in this case Europe). Of the big three American professional sports leagues the National Football League seems to be the only one that is not seeing large increases in the number of international players. I dont want to sound like I am saying that we should not have international players; Im just noting that the correlation between the internationalization of American sports teams and the decrease in Black players. Other factors such as the decline in inner city baseball, the rise in the number of players drafted out of college, and the perception that baseball is not a sport for Black youth could all matter. However, rather than looking at this as the immigrants versus the Black American players. Another way to construct this is to look at how the owners profit tremendously from signing oveseas players. African Americans often end up at the bottom of the job marketor out of the job market.

In particular Steinberg argues that the emphasis on diversity and the debate about how to racially classify immigrants often leaves American Blacks interests behind. For example, workplaces can say they are diverse when they have many ethnic groups from many cultures. As long as the office picture/team picture looks diverse then companies can say they are providing opportunities. Baseball is a very interesting case because team photos still look diverse, and players still look diverse. In fact, Im not sure I agree with the assessment that the Astros have no Black players. I looked through the team roster and found these three players. I would argue that these players are Black, but they are not African American.

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If we were to use the current Census logic Latinos can be of any race. Thus, the team picture is still diverse in its appearance, and includes some people with African ancestry, but no Blacks born and raised in the US would be in the picture. This is particularly important when we live in the age of “racial appearances.” The Afro-Latinos in baseball do pose a categorization dilemma, but you wouldnt know this from the statistics cited previously. For example, we dont know how many of the Latino players are Black (not African American, but Black). However, perhaps these players are not categorizing themselves as Black, in spite of their appearance, because they dont see or acknowledge their connection to African Americans. The common histories of colonialism and slavery are masked behind historical ignorance on the part of many, and? the players are not the only ones who may be thinking this way; clearly the people collecting the statistics think this way and most of American does.

This is where our racial schizophrenia comes inthese players are just Black enough to make the team photo look good, but they are not Black enough to be Black (sounds crazy, but thats race in America). To the credit of the front office of Major League Baseball, they do view the declining number of African Americans as a problem. The irony is that in a racist society, sports has been viewed by many Black American youth (albeit somewhat incorrectly) as a way out of poverty and an area where discrimination is not as common. Now poor African Americans and poor Latin American players find themselves in direct competition while the Whites who own the teams can make more on the bottom line. I don’t really have the answers to the dilemmas that this brings up, but I think the relationships between capitalism, racism, and immigration has to be ackonwledged in sports since it is an industry. What do you think?

Oct

19

Symposium on Katrina

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Hurricane Katrina, Media Praises and Critiques, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I attended an symposium called The Color of Disaster at New York University this weekend, and I wanted to devote a little blog space to some of the ideas that were presented at the two sessions I attended. The first session called “Eyewitnessing the Storm: Stories of Catastrophe and Survival” included three panelists.

1. Tony Zumbado the camera man who captured many of the first scenes from the Civic Center was the first person to speak. He discussed some the problems that foreshadowed his trip to New Orleans. A veteran hurricane reporter, Zumbado was well versed in covering hurricanes, and he said that typically he would called FEMA and other government agencies before a storm to get updates on the storm see what their plans were for the staging area for the post disaster relief. Zumbado said this was the first time that he could not get a response from any of the “people in high places” who he called. He said the people MSNBC also attempted to call and could not reach FEMA either. So the bureaucratic problems started before the storm even hit. Even though they were not told were to set up the cameras they eventually found and place. Several days after the storm. Zumbado ventured into the city very early in the morning and came across a Black man named Tyrone Jones. Tyrone Jones was out looking for help for all of the people at the Civic center, and he asked Zumbado to come and film the problems at the Civic center. I talked about Zumbado’s coverage in a previous blog. The footage was so grpahic that MSNC would not air most of it. He said he saw several people die, including two babies. What is interesting about this is that it doesn’t square with the police reports that we heard about the number of bodies found at the Civic Center. I don’t see why he would have any reason to lie–he has the videos. So I wonder if the police fooled with the numbers.

2. The second person was Michaela Harris, a former NYU student and performer, who was living in NO before the storm. She talked about the difficulties gettting out with her 13 year old Volvo. She and her band members left the day before the storm and drove 16 hours to memphis before they found a place to stay (That trip normally takes just over 6 hours, according to Yahoo! maps). Harris said she was struck at how kind strangers in Memphis and later Atlanta were to her and her band members. She recalled several kind gestures: people helped them get gigs to make money; one man who gave all of the money in his wallet to them; and another women who happened to work at Volvo got her a deal on the substantial mechanical repairs that her car needed. She also made an interesting observation about how there were two parallel times in New Orleans when she was preparing to leave. She described the frantic pace of those leaving, and the very slow (time standing still) pace of those who were staying. The felt the divide was an erie forshadowing.

3. The last person was Brenda Marie Osbey, the Poet Laureate of Louisiana. Osbey felt that too many people unfamilair with New Orleans had seen the ony the death and destruction of the hurricane, so she decided to show the unique culture and history of the city. She talked aout the substantial African influence on the city’s history, especially since it was a major port of entry for slaves. She show a documentary of New Orleans focusing on the culture and festivities in Congo Square, one the oldest gathering places in the city. Many people came to the square to dance and drum; they even showed kids dancing on their lunch break. I think the nice thing about her presentation was that it didn’t focus on the stereotypical Mardi Gras, French Quarter, tourist view of New Orleans. She wanted to show the everyday life of the everyday people. I’ll talk about the other session tomorrow…..

Oct

16

Riot at Neo-Nazi March in Toledo

Filed Under Race and Racism, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

If you haven’t already heard about it there was a small riot testerday in Toledo, Ohio after Neo Nazis from an organization called the National Socialist Movement got a permit to march through a predominantly Black section of the city. The Neo-Nazis were claiming that Black gangs were harassing Whites in the area, so they wanted to march down the middle of the street. The police came out in full riot gear to guard the Nazis and numerous protesters also come out against the Nazis, but someone in the group protesting the Nazis threw rocks, and a melee soon erupted. Apparently, several people who were protesting the Nazis vandalized and burned several buildings. The mayor also said that several of the protesters were gang affiliated. One of the articles suggested that the crowd was angry because they felt the police were protecting the wrong people–the Nazis. I tend to agree with that sentiment, the police spend thousands upon thousands of dollars protecting these Nazis, while the people who live in the neighborhoods feel that the police ignore, harass, or abuse them. So I certainly can understand the frustration that so many resources can be used to protect people who want to enter the neighborhood and racially harass its residents.

Having grown up in Ohio, I find this particularly disturbing but not surprising. I lived in northwestern Ohio for a couples years (grew up in southern OH, which is much different), and the Ku Klux Klan was very active with marches in downtown Bowling Green where I lived (about 20 miles south of Toledo). Unfortunately, Northwestern Ohio is a very unfriendly place to be a person of color. Outside the city of Toledo, the Black population is very small, and the Latino population, which is growing, is larger but still not well accepted. In fact, I would probably rank it the most racist place I have lived. (I think my ranking from most racist to least racist would be 1. Bowling Green/Northwestern Ohio 2. Portsmouth, Ohio/southeastern Ohio 3. Detroit, MI 4. New York city–very close to Detroit, but a little better 5. Hartford, CT–by far the least racist)

Some people questioned the city’s williingness to allow Nazis to march through a residential neighborhood (Apparently they did not apply for a permit because they were walking on the side walk). I understand the arguments about free speech for unpopular opinions, but I wonder about the other side of this–that is don’t people have a right to be free of racist harassment in thier own neighborhood and homes. Think of this example, let’s say the Nazis walk on the street in front of my house and shout racist and anti-Semitic comments and threats. Do I have to be subjected to that? They can say it in their own homes and on their own websites, but when they enter other neighborhoods regardless of their racial makeup of those neighborhoods, this is beyond just speech. It is behavior, and it is a form of harassment. I’m also uncomfortable with my tax dollars being spent on these marches. These are very costly to the city, and I feel that if the city granted the permit but declined police protection these marches would never occur (Although the aricles I have read indicate that they did not need a permit since they wanted to walk on the sidewalk).

I wanted to know a little more about the group marching in Toledo–The National Socialist Movement, so I checked the Southern Poverty Law Center’s website. SPLC is the primary organization that tracks hate groups to see what info they had on the group. Apparently, there are several local chapters of this group throughout the US, with the primary base located in Minnesota. At least two leaders of the group are convicted criminals. One is a sex offender and the other was involved in a series cimes including a burglary . However, I didn’t find much info on the site about their specific views–I guess they have the typical Nazi ideology.

On another note, I personally don’t believe in counter protesting these hate groups. I like to focus my anti-racist energy in other directions. These people are the fringe, and I’m happy that organizations like SPLC monitor them to keep them at the fringe. I certainly would write letters opposing them, and would donate to organzations like SPLC, but I don’t even want to dignify their marches by showing up. I think this ultimately garners them more attention and helps them recruit. Moreover, the people who throw rocks and bottles and destroyed property in the neighborhood at these protests end up turning the attention away from the Nazis violence and hate, and the media focuses more on the protesters misdeeds.

I will contiue to follow the story.

Oct

11

Hurricane Katrina Song By Allen Watty

Filed Under Hurricane Katrina, Pop Culture, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Here’s the link. It is by Allen Watty.

Oct

9

Racism, Sexism, and Heroism

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Gender and Sexism, Hurricane Katrina, Media Praises and Critiques, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

This is the first in a two part series on how racism and sexism affected how Katrina victims were viewed.
Part 1–Heroes

In the days after 9/11 I was glued to my TV, watching what seemed to be the same cable news stories over and over and hoping that someone was going to tell me why this happened. The only refreshing new stories were the ones that followed heroesthe everyday folks who risked their lives to save others. Indeed there were many 9/11 heroes, but I quickly became frustrated at how few of those who were portrayed as heroes were White women or men and women of color. I just kept thinking; the rest of us are heroes too. Certainly, the firemen and police officers who died trying to save people in the World Trade Center were heroes, but the media and many average Americans seem to be much more content with white men as heroes. In fact, because of our race and gender stereotypes white men are constructed as brave, bold, dependable, powerful, righteous, and strongall of the makings of a hero. Certainly the rest of us have many of those traits too, but what keeps our heroism out of sight? The contrast in the construction heroes in the aftermath of World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina reveal how much racism and sexism shape our definition of heroism.

One of the biggest factors is the occupational segregation that makes jobs filled primarily by White men heroic occupations. The best example of this would be the New York City fire department. In a city where about 23% of the population is white and male, 92% of firefighters are white men. This is not a reflection of personal preferences, many women and minority fire fighters have faced harassment and discrimination. What makes this even worse is that the number of Black and Latino firefighters in New York has decreased since the 1960s yes it has decreased. The police department fairs somewhat better, but still does not reflect the ethnic make-up of the city.

After 9/11 the racial and gender make up of the fire department was very obvious to any outside observer who watch the numerous pictures of heroes. On that day, out of over 300 firefighters only 12 Latino firefighters, 12 Black firefighters and no women fire fighters died. What was even more telling was the controversy that emerged over a proposed statue to honor the firefighters who died. The statue was based on the now famous photo of three White firefighters who raised the US flag in still smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center. The controversyerupted, when artists designing the statue wanted to deviate from the photo by having a multiracial group of firefighters depicted in the statue.

The media and many of the Americans consuming media also contribute to this problem by anointing White men as heroes and ignoring others. One of the heroes from 9/11was a black woman flight attendant CeeCee Lyles , who called her husband and provided some of the information about what was going on flight 93, which later crashed in Pennsylvania. While her story was mentioned, it never inspired the same media coverage as those of the White men who died. Media outlets know that Whites make great victims and heroes, and they actively seek them out, when they anoint heroes in the wake of tragedy.

Now here we are at another American tragedy. Much of the city of New Orleans is destroyed, and the search for heroes is much different. Unlike 9/11, the media as had not had the convenient White male heroes for a few reasons. First and foremast the racial makeup of the city and the first responders was not as White as it was in New York. Rather than anointing the police as heroes, reporters noted that many police disappeared, and they admonished the Black police chief for this. A quick google search on Katrina heroes produces interesting results. The three groups most commonly mentioned–hospital workers; people rescuing animals, and the coast guard. The groups mentioned here were majority White, but they included numerous women. There are no political leaders, a la Rudy Giuliani, few mentions of police officers, and very few stories telling the stories of specific people. We have yet to see pictures of the dead or hear about how they made sacrifices so others could live. The working class Blacks of New Orleans make ok victims, but they dont make great heroes like White male stock brokers, politicians, firefighters, and police men.

Since the heroes in New Orleans are not the usual suspects, reporters have been left scrambling. Their mayor and the governor are not White men, and they are being held up to more scrutiny than Giuliani and Pataki (some of it rightfully so, but still much more). Everybody knows President Bush in his fly over analysis of the Superdome was not a hero. The police were unable to patrol the city given the mass destruction, and most of the middles class White men that fit the mold of our commonly held stereotypes were almost nowhere to be found, and because the usual suspects are not available the media and many Americans have been forced to look outside the mold for heroes. This has really created a dearth of heroes; Im not saying there are no heroes, but the New Orleans heroes have been nearly invisible compared to the 9/11 heroes

Two young African American males really exemplify New Orleans heroism. One is 6 year old Deamonte Love (pictured in the second photo above), who helped to take care of his younger siblings and neighbors when they were separated from their parents, a tall task for a small child. Another hero was Jabbar Gibson (pictured in the third photo above), who commandeered a bus and drove over 50 people to the Astrodome, even though he had never driven a bus before. Even though Gibson helped evacuate people when no one else was, people had a hard time seeing him as a true hero. The local media even speculated about what the legal ramifications would be since Gibson took the bus . The good news is that many people realize that Gibson is a hero, in spite of the limited media coverage. In fact, someone has started an online petition to award Gibson with a scholarship and the Presidential Medal of freedom.

I’m sure there are other New Orleans heroes, especially women heroes, but people outside of the city who access our information are not getting their stories. They are not on Dateline NBC, Primetime Live, or CNN, so much of their heroism goes unnoticed. I definitely think the White male firefighters in New York were brave as were the men (and women) on Coast Guard helicopters rescuing people off of their roofs, but I know that there are others who have not been recognized for their courage, bravery, and sacrifice. Heroes come in many forms, and our ability to see and create heroes is often related to how our society is organized. Racism and sexism are a big part of our society, but we all know that White men don’t have a monopoly on heroism. It is time that we do better at recognizing others who have sacrificed.

Oct

7

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and The Ugliest

Filed Under Bunch-O-Links, Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Hurricane Katrina, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

1. The Good– It looks like there is a reliable vaccine against 2 strains of the HPV virus (aka genital warts). They are advertising it a a cervical cancer vaccine because certain strains of HPV have been linked to cervical cancer. Here is the link

2. The Bad– Home prices are so out of control in California the 86% of the population cannot afford the average priced home. Here is the link.

3. The Ugly– Many Katrina victims remain unidentified, leaving their bodies unclaimed and nobody really seems to be bothered by this. They cite the scattered relatives, lack of good forensic evidence, and the race and class of the victims as reasons for the lack of identification.Here is the link.

4. The Ugliest– This snake that was pictured on Yahoo! It ate an alligator so big that it made the snake bust into two pieces. (Warning this picture is gross!!)

Oct

5

The Body Count Stops

Filed Under Hurricane Katrina, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I found this in a blog called Scout Prime. Apparently the body count has stopped even though several blocks of the Lower 9th Ward have not been searched. She makes several good points including this one

Tell me if this was a white neighborhood that those homes would go unsearched. We went to great pains to recover every little bit of human remains at Ground Zero but in Black America we won’t even bother to pick up bodies. This is an outrage. That practically no one is saying so is even more outrageous.

The point about 9/11 is well taken. A few days ago I was listening to the Leonard Lopate show on my local National Pubic Radio station, and Lopate interviewed Dr Robert Shaler. Schlaer ran the department responsible identifying the bodies and in most cases, body fragments. Just over half of the people killed in the World Trade Center were identified; many of them through DNA analysis of pieces of their bodies. They reeived grants from FEMA to update their equipment, and they even developed a robot so that sample of DNA would not get mixed. He said that New Orleans would be even harder because they would not be able to use some of the standard DNA tests, dental records, and other medical records because the records were destroyed many of the items they would test DNA from, such as toothbrushes were lost in the flood. They searched the World Trade Center for months, and now I’m wondering if some of the folks in new Orleans are going to come home to their relatives bodies in their homes.

Oct

3

Racism Round-Up

Filed Under Hurricane Katrina, Race and Racism, Racism Round-Up, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

1. Race and Rumor — Sociologist Gary Alan Fine and African American Studies professor Patricia Turner dissect how racism created outlandish rumors in the wake of Katrina. They wrote a book on this a few years back, called Whispers on the color: rumor and race in America.

2. Bill Bennett– blabbering about abortion, crime, and Black folks. Bomani is talking about it. I don’t want to give Bennett the time of day.

3. White girls behaving badly– Was this racism or a fight over a boy? Or perhaps both?

Oct

2

Disaster Sociologists on Katrina

Filed Under Hurricane Katrina, Sociology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an article on some of the preliminary analyses by sociologists who are in the process of studying the response to Hurricane Katrina. Sociological research takes a while to produce, so these researchers don’t have the complete picture, but they do have a few important insights. Here are a few of them. 1. Did people panic was there chaos? Did people panic?

“The panic myth is a consistent one,” said Russell R. Dynes, a professor emeritus of sociology at Delaware, who was among the founders, in 1963, of the Disaster Research Center at Ohio State University. (The center moved to Delaware in 1985.) “The idea of social breakdown — I’m even pretty damn skeptical of that,” he said. “One of the problems here is TV. If you take a film clip and you run it for five hours, you create a notion that something’s happening.” In 40 years of disaster research, Mr. Dynes said, he and his colleagues have found very few instances of true social breakdown.

However, other researchers think there could have been panic in this situation because so much of the city was destroyed.

“One possible explanation,” said John H. Sorensen, a sociologist who serves as a senior researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, “is that this is perhaps the first American disaster since the 1906 [San Francisco] earthquake where a whole urban area has been severely damaged.” The sheer scale of the destruction of physical infrastructure, he suggests, might have made it impossible for the usual sorts of spontaneous cooperative behavior to emerge. “It gives one pause,” Mr. Sorensen said. “The sum of social-science knowledge about disasters is really based on a number of smaller events. Whether or not that extant knowledge is really applicable to large-scale regional disasters is certainly something that I’ve been thinking about during the last few weeks.”

The jury is still out. I’m surprised they did not address the alleged crimes; that we are now finding were seriously overestimated. 2. They are all agree that there was a bureaucratic breakdown, but they are trying to ascertain why. The University of Delaware’s disaster research team has been conductin research on the FEMA response (I can’t wait to see the findings on this.), but they are still working on the analysis, so they have no clear findings. Other researchers have speculated about what could have been the problem, and they point to the decision to include FEMA in the Department of Homeland Security.

Beyond that insular culture, some critics say, the department is also hamstrung by a “command and control” mentality that is ill suited to the realities of disasters. “One of the things that’s very consistently found,” said Delaware’s Mr. Dynes, “is that in a disaster, decisions are made at lower levels than they are made normally because you’re confronted with a situation, and you can’t get 10 of your colleagues to have a staff meeting to decide what to do. You’ve got to make a decision. So any decision in any organization is going to be made at lower levels than in normal times. And so the idea that anyone at the top could command and control all this activity is idiotic.” Mr. Lindell, of Texas A&M, agreed, saying he feared that policy makers in Washington had taken the wrong lessons from Katrina. The employees of the Department of Homeland Security, he said, “are mostly drawn from the Department of Defense, the Department of Justice, and from police departments. They’re firmly committed to a command-and-control model.” (Just a few days ago, President Bush may have pushed the process one step further: He suggested that the Department of Defense take control of relief efforts after major natural disasters.) The habits of mind cultivated by military and law-enforcement personnel have their virtues, Mr. Lindell said, but they don’t always fit disaster situations. “They come from organizations where they’re dealing with an intelligent adversary. So they want to keep information secret — it’s only shared on a need-to-know basis. But emergency managers and medical personnel want information shared as widely as possible because they have to rely on persuasion to get people to cooperate. The problem with putting FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security is that it’s like an organ transplant. What we’ve seen over the past four years is basically organ rejection.”

So can the military model work in non military situations. 3. Evacuations do not work as easily as people think, and there is a whole series of studies on this. Psychologist Michael K. Lindell has conducted studies on “warning response theory,” which examines how people react in disasters. He noted that,

Another problem is that evacuation models have often suffered from false assumptions, he said. Traffic engineers often assume that people will depart at a steady rate, 24 hours a day. But when people actually flee hurricanes — just as when they leave for vacations — they are much more likely to leave in the morning or early evening, Mr. Lindell said.

4. Several researchers are also worried about how and where research money on diasters is being allocated. They argued that it is better to focus on actual disasters not simulations. Here is a quote,

Even as the field gains new respect, however, some scholars worry that too many post-September 11 resources are being poured into “scenario” research at the expense of studies of real-world disasters. “I think a lot of the work that’s being funded to do scenario-based research to elicit people’s intended behaviors in a host of possible terrorist scenarios is largely a waste of money,” Mr. Sorensen said. Far more valuable, he said, are studies of actual disaster behavior, like Mr. Kendra’s examination of the waterborne evacuations on September 11. Mr. Lindell said that a former student of his recently observed a major federal drill that imagined a chemical attack in Connecticut. “On the first day of the incident, the authorities told people to shelter in place” — that is, to stay in their homes, offices, or schools. “And by the third day of the incident, they still had not provided any new information. The assumption was that people would put themselves into suspended animation until they were told to reactivate themselves. And my student kept saying — he was only an observer, but he kept tapping people on the shoulder and saying, Don’t you think you ought to do something about this? If you’ve had any experience with people in disasters, you know that they’re not going to sit there and wait for three days. And he couldn’t get anyone’s attention.” Some government agencies pay close attention to scholarly studies of disaster, Mr. Sorensen said, but others do not. “Research doesn’t routinely get translated into practical guidance,” he said. “In fact, we know that a lot of the guidance that is produced by the federal government is often at odds with the social-science literature. That’s because it’s done by consulting firms that don’t have people who are academically trained. But it’s variable — there are some good folks out there who function as translators to the public sector, and then you have your hacks out to make money. And there’s no mechanism to regulate it.”