ABSTRACT
At the time of writing, the British government are waiting to drop an updated version of “Duck and Cover” or “Protect and Survive” through my door. Rather than nuclear war or terrorism, though, the current threat is infl uenza pandemic. “Swine fl u” is the latest alien and racialized fear that we need to prepare for. In Western Europe the “fear” of pandemic in the media and in preparedness materials is transposed onto the “other.” Th e biology of the virus is transfused with geography. Th e threat comes from Mexico-like the racialized hookworm scare of the 1930s (Wray, 2006)—as if the ground itself were laced with disease. It might pick up more fatal avian strains in South East Asia. Western media obsesses on what happens if people die in Europe and North America. What happens if White people start to die? Of course, nothing dates more quickly than apocalypse, and the infl uenza pandemic of 2009 might join the long list of threats that governments have prepared us for (SARS, radiological “dirty bombs”—as opposed to Western “clean ones,” suicide bombers with “clean skins”—British and American rather than “foreign” nationals, and “natural” disasters that overwhelmingly kill the poor and people of color). However, despite these disparate (but unifi ed by racial overtones) threats, preparedness in some form has been a consistent aspect of state policy.
