Malena Amusa

We are called on as consumers, not citizens, says Morrison

Here’s another clip I replayed to celebrate July 4. In it writer Toni Morrison and Cornel West talk about the government’s response to the public after 9/11. Morrison concludes that the Bush administration looked to Americans as consumers and not citizens, as Bush encouraged us to keep shopping and going about our everyday lives.

While the counter-arguments are clear, because it’s hard to deny Bush’s stirring up of our patriotism to later approve the war in Iraq, Morrison’s point is worth digesting and threading out. What then, is the relationship between citizenship and consumption?

Posted at 10:49 AM, Jul 05, 2007 in Permalink | View Comments