Catastrophe colonialism: Global disaster films and the white right to migrate

ABSTRACT

This article argues that post-9/11 global disaster films exemplify a social imaginary preparing white, Western subjects to envision settler (re)colonization of the Global South as the only option in the face of increasing ecological devastation. Using the films The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, I demonstrate how this catastrophe colonialism pairs the racialization of migration with the coloniality of disaster. Together, a perceived white right to migrate and colonial amnesia invert the material threat of crisis as experienced in the lived world to make (re)colonization appear as the natural response to global disaster.

KEYWORDS:

• Catastrophe colonialism
• whiteness
• masculinity
• disaster films
• crisis

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Joshua Gunn, Graham B. Slater, and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on previous versions of the manuscript, as well as the countless people who’ve watched disaster movies with her and/or acted as sounding boards for this essay idea over the past decade.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jenna N. Hanchey

Jenna N. Hanchey (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Critical/Cultural Studies at Arizona State University. Her work is premised on politics of decolonization and attends to the intersections of rhetoric, African studies, Black feminisms, and critical development studies. Her intersectional research links the decolonial politics of aid and development in Africa to issues of gender, race, sexuality, and class.